44. Mindfulness drinks tea

☰ Today I had a lesson in Mindfulness 正念: The practice of being aware of your body, mind and feelings in the present moment and/or thought to create a feeling of calm. ☱ It came like a gentle wave that almost went past me without me ever knowing it was there. The proverbial feather from Heaven that did not come from meditating, martial arts or any of the typical mediums people use. ☲ I was at my local community library. The library is divided up into studying, reading, learning and community activity areas. As I sauntered past the community section, I heard a mothers' group clapping and  singing baby-songs and nursery rhymes while the babies kept crying and wailing loudly. ☳ As soon as the group stopped clapping and singing, the babies stopped crying. There was peace and all was good in the world again. ☴ So what's the lesson?... For those who get it, you can move on. But for those just starting out or who do martial arts as just a physical thing and do not believe that there is a higher plane of existence, the lesson for me was this: ☵ At some point in our training, from time to time, we get stuck in trying to prove to others how truly awesome we are at our styles (If you don't believe me, just google your style and look at the images that usually come up). And in that "stuckness", we end up doing and doing and doing to prove we can do it. While usually involving a problem that we are trying to fix. ☶ Here, Mindfulness 正念(靜觀) is about stopping the doing and paying attention to what is actually going on. In the story above, the mothers were trying to help but were by their actions actually fuelling the negative situation with their babies. Causing stress to both mother and baby. ☷ I am aware that not everybody can meditate, do yoga or martial arts at work, so Tea Time equals Me Time is a viable alternative to helping facilitate Mindfulness 正念(靜觀): Ninja!. Liked what you heard & want to connect with me? Join me at… linkedin.com/in/peterhainzl/