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 :)

What is this mindfulness you speak of?

I'm glad you asked. According to 'some', mindfulness implies the practitioner is paying attention, on purpose, in a particular way, without judgment. And from what I understand, mindfulness can be applied to almost any activity. Writing is just one way. In class we talked about mindful swimming, mindful cat petting, mindful reading. The only requirement is that you undertake the activity with those traits in mind.

Mindfulness also has a temporal element to it. Being mindful asks you to be firmly in the present. So often my brain is pulling me into the past (which I cannot control) or pushing me into the future (which I also can't really control). One thing I really focused on during our meditation in class was keeping mind in the present by focusing on an anchor point that kept me in the here and now. For a while I was concentrating on my feet pressing against the floor. I focused on my spine for a little while. Then I listened to my heart. Anything that gave me a connection to the present.

I was also thinking about Ron Swanson when he went to meditation with Chris. I couldn't find the clip, but here's a pic that gives the idea.

If you'd like to say little bit about your meditation today in class, please do so in the comments. I'd be interested to hear how it went for you.