Life is BitterSweet - Part 5

Hi.

Okay, this is going to be my last blog on the topic for a little while so I may fall into the trap of trying to do too much in one blog but here goes nothing.

We have discussed in this series of blogs that life is both bitter and  sweet and to thrive in life and faith it would be helpful to learn how to process both sides of life. How to learn to tackle the bitter, sad, heart breaking moments. How to learn to enjoy and savour the sweet, joyful, exciting, encouraging memoments.

So here goes one more idea on how to savour those sweet moments we all live through. It is the practice of mindful presence. Please don’t write me off as a new age spiritualist when I say that but rather consider it a form of training and meditation.

What do I mean by training? I mean the act of developing or improving a mental or physical faculty through instruction and practice. In short doing something over and over again in a way that leads you to improving in it.

What do I mean by meditation? I mean the act of engaging mental practices that lead someone to a greater awareness of themselves and their surroundings.

In the fast paced world we live in and the nature of our brains to ruminate on negative things, the training of our minds to meditate is a battle we face but one that has the potential to experience life in a beautiful and sweet way,

Have you ever been gathered around a table with the most incredible people with simple but delicious food and drink, having a great time connecting with one another? Have you ever then had the thought rush into your mind of  what time is it? Or what are we doing tomorrow? etc. It is like your brain senses you are settling into an incredible moment and it chooses to sabotage you with a random thought instead of savouring and enjoying the incredible moment you are in.

My brain often offers critiques about my engagement. I am either talking too much or too little. I am either sounding too full of myself or being too self deprecating. I am constantly bombarded with these sorts fo negative thoughts in times with people and so I have had to practice mindful presence or rather train myself in meditation.

I call it taking mental pictures/recordings of the scenario. I slow my breathing and try to take in what all 5 of my sense are experiencing and I try to imagine myself load this information onto a video in my mind that I will recall one day.

I will give you a recent example. Without giving too much detail but I was having a really special moment with both my sons. I was putting my toddler to bed and we were about to pray and so I lay his little brother next to him for a brief prayer and my son held his little brothers hand and began to pray and then adjusted so he could hold my hand too. Instead of savouring this my brain wanted to worry about indoctrination and if I would be able to put new born to sleep while wifey wasn’t home. I caught those distracted thoughts in time to slow my breathing, smell the vaseline in the room cause I had just changed my toddler, hear the words of a little human beginning his journey with the Divine, feel his small hands gripping tightly my hand, see nothing cause I had my eyes closed and finally taste the meds we had just taken on my tongue. All of that focus created a deeper memory and so when I recall it it feels even more vivd than other memories but more importantly I savoured it in the moment. It was beautiful.

I know I have said a lot but I pray that we can become a more present people. Truly savouring those sweet moments because when we do I believe it will lead us to thrive in life and faith.