Find The Zen In Everything You Do
While I was standing outside the school gate on a cold and wet November evening waiting to pick my son up, I struck up conversation with one of the adults waiting for his nephew. Through our conversation I learnt that he was a motor bike courier and spent many hours in all types of weather on the London roads. I asked him how he coped with the discomfort, the traffic, the noise and the cold and the wet. “By appreciating the warmth and comfort when I walk into the house at the end of the day, by realising that I am free to watch what is happening around me, by focusing on what I am doing each moment and by and discovering the wonders of thermal underwear” Besides, he added with a smile “I love my job. Isn’t life about finding the Zen in everything you do?”
What he said resonated with me particularly because I had been writing an article about the benefits of meditation. Shelley the courier enabled me to understand that you can live life as if it were a practical meditation. Joseph Campbell advises us to “follow your bliss” and Shelly to “find the Zen in everything you do.”
Perhaps we can best accomplish this by living life in a perpetual state of appreciation, acceptance and presence. I know this is extremely challenging. Our minds flash backwards and forwards from our past memories to future possibilities and we can waste a lot of energy wondering what other people are thinking. Every time we delve into a painful memory we evoke the emotion associated with that memory and when we project into a fearful future we stimulate worry and anxiety – both of which will take us away from experiencing the joy of now.
Living in the present takes disciplined practice and I really recommend the processes described in Jerry and Esther Hicks book “Ask and It is Given.” The book encourages us to feel good in the present –that is our only work. One of the processes that is particularly helpful, (and one that Shelley does naturally), – is to appreciate everything in your life. Writing down these daily observations in a notebook encourages you to channel your conscious awareness to things that enhance your energy and optimism and make you feel good - and find the Zen in everything you do.
Catherine Dixon
What he said resonated with me particularly because I had been writing an article about the benefits of meditation. Shelley the courier enabled me to understand that you can live life as if it were a practical meditation. Joseph Campbell advises us to “follow your bliss” and Shelly to “find the Zen in everything you do.”
Perhaps we can best accomplish this by living life in a perpetual state of appreciation, acceptance and presence. I know this is extremely challenging. Our minds flash backwards and forwards from our past memories to future possibilities and we can waste a lot of energy wondering what other people are thinking. Every time we delve into a painful memory we evoke the emotion associated with that memory and when we project into a fearful future we stimulate worry and anxiety – both of which will take us away from experiencing the joy of now.
Living in the present takes disciplined practice and I really recommend the processes described in Jerry and Esther Hicks book “Ask and It is Given.” The book encourages us to feel good in the present –that is our only work. One of the processes that is particularly helpful, (and one that Shelley does naturally), – is to appreciate everything in your life. Writing down these daily observations in a notebook encourages you to channel your conscious awareness to things that enhance your energy and optimism and make you feel good - and find the Zen in everything you do.
Catherine Dixon
posted by Energy Roots at
14:38
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