Floating Mindfully

After class yesterday I was extremely hot. Not in any metaphoric sense of the word: My body temperature was off the charts and I was burning up.

Luckily there is a pool in my apartment complex. Unlike many other outdoor, communal pools I've experienced in my day, this one is extremely nice, cool, clean, and underused. I know it takes a lot to keep up a pool to those standards, and everytime I talk with the maintenance guys in my complex, they tell me that much. You'd never believe the time, energy, chemicals, water, and money that it takes.

To bring my body temp back into a manageable level, I decided to float in the deep end for a while. And because I was still inspired after our meditation period in class yesterday, I decided to focus on my breathing while I floated. I didn't really have any expectations ( I wasn't trying to achieve a Nirvanic state, I wasn't trying to take a nap), I just wanted to bring a formal mindfulness practice into another sector of my life.

Overall it was nice, although there're a lot more distractions when you're focusing in a public space instead of a space that is being shared by like-mindedly mindful people. The old lady and her grandkids were loud and jarring. The wind kept blowing my raft into the diving board. The sun was beating down harshly on my face.

But because I didn't have any expectations, I found it rather comforting that, despite the distractions, I had something I could ground myself with. I used the method of saying (kindly) to myself in my mind, "Thinking" when I would lose focus. This worked, but I found myself saying it an awful lot. But, true to my intention, I did so without judgment and carried on with my breathing.

My conclusion is that I REALLY appreciate the shared space we meditate in everyday. To really be able to focus inwardly, it's important to be safe and comfortable in the space you're occupying in the outside world. I feel that when we meditate in our classroom together, that it is a safe space and I am free to really concentrate on the breath and work to mitigate the stimuli from without.

Thanks :)