Professor Sharon

I’ve been thinking a lot about this lately – well, actually, if you were to ask some friends and colleagues, they might tell you I think about it most of the time. In my workplace, perhaps in every workplace, one gets a “reputation” for certain ways of being. I’ve not asked anyone, but I think that one of the ways I must come off – I guess I really hope I do! – is someone who champions the need for time and space to be, to think, and maybe most importantly to me, to reflect, not just to do the task at hand, but to do it mindfully.

I know that a good deal of this desire of mine comes from a childhood where living in my thoughts kept me from getting underfoot and in the way – which generally caused more attention than I wanted (the attention one got was not, the majority of the time, pleasant). I also lived through and beyond those years with a semblance of good mental health because I did think alot about the people and behaviors. To be a survivor for me meant getting really good at observing and thinking about what I observed. To this day, quick meetings, quick thinking, quick statements are not my cup of tea — I need slower explanations and time to think about what has happened, not to understand it, but to come to an understanding of and with it.

I was going to call this post something like Mindfulness – because I am wont to use that word when I ask others for that slowing of thinking, for that time to reflect. I wish to be mindful. I wish to do it mindfully. Pay attention to your work totally as you complete it.

I’ve been thinking of this in an interesting new way this week as I do the many daily tasks of living, and the many fascinating chores of preparing for my long trip. I think most of us busy adults have had those moments when we are trying to complete more than one – probably six, more like it – tasks at once. One of the tasks just flies out of our brain, and we’re so mad! I do it frequently, like to blame it on advancing years and crowded brain cells; and I’m fond of my daughter’s label for it: “brain fart”!

However, this week I’ve noticed that when it happens to me, because I am in no rush to get to work, to get anything accomplished in the next 10 minutes, I stop and notice in a different way. My life has a lot of time in it at the moment – besides getting my list of stuff done by the leaving date; I still have close to three weeks to accomplish that task, so I don’t get all frustrated about it. When those moments have happened, I’ve taken the time to retrace my actions, actually look at the objects I have on hand, make a mental note of the actions I have achieved, and lo and behold the “forgotten” task or object reveals itself!

I even stood at the top of the stairs yesterday – one of those moments when I’d dashed up two flights of stairs only to get to the top, stop and have no idea why I was there, nor why I rushed there — and with probably no more than 30 seconds of retracing, and rethinking, I retrieved the task to be completed.

Time and space for my brain over these next months will mean many things. I know that mindfulness has many meanings, some important to religions; to me it is that I have the time for a bit to take the time: to enjoy each moment for what it is, to not fill each moment with more things than the brain can take in, to appreciate each moment for the experience.

I think it will be challenging to go back to a full life of full-time work in September – but for this moment I will enjoy this moment!