If you are struggling with being at home, I would like to recommend something to you, if you haven’t tried it already.
It is called Mindfulness in Action.
It is something that I was taught whilst living in Buddhist monasteries and a way in which we can experience inner peace in every action we perform.
Now, you may have heard of mindfulness before. There are mindfulness meditations, yes, but it is also used in many Zen traditions such as the Japanese Tea making ceremony, where a simple thing such as making a cup of tea is turned into a whole ritual.
‘Why bother doing that?’ you may ask yourself.
Well, this is why.
We live in a world where most of the time we are filled with chores that we just want to get out of the way. So we tend to see feel bothered by many of the things we do rather than seeing them as opportunities to experience deep satisfaction and joy in our lives.
The aim of mindfulness is that no matter what action you are performing, do it to the best of your ability. Turn every single thing you do into a work of art.
For example, when you get out of bed in the morning, make your bed up so it looks as nice as you can possibly make it.
When you take a shower or brush your teeth, do it in a way that causes as little mess as possible and make sure everything in your bathroom looks spotless before you leave it.
When you are making your breakfast in the morning, set everything out as nicely as possible. Try and make the perfect cup of tea using just the right amount of water in your nicest teacup and make sure that when you eat, you do not drop or spill anything on the table.
When you are serving food, do it as though you were working at a five-star restaurant, making sure that it well presented and cooked as well as perfectly as possible.
When you wash up, place the dishes in a way that looks neat and the water drains away in the best possible fashion.
Every single thing you do in your life, do as well as you possibly can.
When you start to practice this kind of mindfulness, you start to enjoy and perfect every action you do.
You feel a sense of pride in yourself and this is something that internally, our psyche craves and attains a great deal of inner joy and peace from.
You will soon notice that you just feel good about everything action you perform and what used to regard as meaningless tasks take on a new appeal that you had never noticed before.
You start to experience the same sort of joy as an artist as they sit and create a beautiful masterpiece from a blank canvas.
I call it creating order out of chaos.
And this is what we spend our entire lives doing. Whether you love gardening, art, business, cooking, martial arts, cleaning, dancing, it is all the same. Creating something wonderful out of nothing.
But don’t take my word for it. Try and see for yourself.
