“Take a Moment for Mindfulness”

My Apple Watch haptics function futilely reminds me each morning (and in times when my heart seems to be racing) to take a moment for myself.

Yeah right. I press “Ignore.”

I don’t have a minute for mindfulness. I don’t even have 2 seconds to breathe big belly breaths for a full minute while I watch the circle graphic on my watch expand and contract in sync with my breathing. The days are just too busy. My Apple Watch, personified as a persistent, yet exasperated friend, sighs, shrugs its shoulders, and says, “Ok, I guess I’ll try again tomorrow.”

I’m sure you can relate. Our days are jam packed with stuff. Even one minute of mindfulness is difficult to cram into an already busy day, complete with work, meetings, practices, housework, and on and on and on.

One morning, my long-suffering Mindfulness app gently tapped the top of my wrist and asked me if I wanted to take a minute to be grateful. My index finger habitually reached for the tiny “Ignore” graphic, but then I stopped. I read the word grateful. I wondered how many times I ignored a moment to be grateful. There are so many things to be grateful for, but to stop what I’m doing, make a conscious effort to reflect upon those things, and name them one by one – now that’s a big ask on a busy day.

Yet, it shouldn’t be. The act of being grateful should be as natural to me as frantically driving my kids from practice to practice while simultaneously adding to an online grocery pickup order while using voice to text to respond to an urgent work-related email. Am I right?

It takes practice. It takes commitment. It takes prioritizing. It takes me actually pausing my day and telling myself I am going to take 60 seconds out of my 86,400 seconds to thank God for all the things – my family, our health, access to food, a warm home, a fulfilling career, a comfortable life, a bowl of chips and salsa, the conversations in the car with the kids on the way to school, Christmas lights on homes, and on and on and on.

I’m working to be more mindful and heeding the persistence of my Mindfulness app to pause what I’m doing (or pause when I can) and look around myself and be grateful for what I see. This shouldn’t be something I do just during the season of Thanksgiving, but all the time. Gratefulness should happen when I’m in the middle of a cyclone of activity, and when I’m laying my head on the pillow before bed. Yes, I have so many blessings, that there can’t possibly be enough time in the day to mindfully pause and name them all.

And for that, I am grateful.

Holy One,

During this busy time of the season, help us to be mindful of the infinite blessings we see all around us. Slow us down, pause our minds, and cause us to look around and be grateful for all we see.

Amen

Kelly is grateful for her crazy, busy life as mom, wife, teacher, grad student, driver, and calendar coordinator. While a lull in the schedule would be nice, she is relying on her watch to remind her to take a break every now and then.