Chat
03-28-2016, 04:41 AM
Listen to those nudges. You don't want to end up like me who, when I've dropped out of the present moment and my mind is revving into the red zone so loudly with my thoughts that I can't hear my team, get kicked in the pants somehow to get my attention. That has ranged from knocking over a can of paint onto the carpet and spending hours cleaning it up, which provided hours of being in the moment, to being hit with some sort of flu bug and having no choice but to be still. The team never says it but I imagine them muttering, "Do we have your attention now?" 
Usually when I'm not present and in the moment, I do something to myself that gets my attention, like walking into a closed door or almost falling off a ladder. Pain is a wonderful attention getter. When that happens, I have to stop, take some slow, deep breaths, and pull myself present again. Sometimes that requires me describing everything I feel and am experiencing at that exact moment. "I'm standing in the hallway. There's a cool breeze coming from the open window. I hear the birds singing. One of the cats is scratching. I'm feeling hot. The tile is cool on the bottoms of my feet. My toe hurts like hell. I hear my breathing." That sort of thing.
Usually when I'm not present and in the moment, I do something to myself that gets my attention, like walking into a closed door or almost falling off a ladder. Pain is a wonderful attention getter. When that happens, I have to stop, take some slow, deep breaths, and pull myself present again. Sometimes that requires me describing everything I feel and am experiencing at that exact moment. "I'm standing in the hallway. There's a cool breeze coming from the open window. I hear the birds singing. One of the cats is scratching. I'm feeling hot. The tile is cool on the bottoms of my feet. My toe hurts like hell. I hear my breathing." That sort of thing.