How Do You Roll?

And a Present-Moment Awareness meditation

Hello,

Sometimes the strangest things can slow you down.

Have you ever pushed a grocery cart with a wheel that’s stuck? The kind of cart that veers off to one side requiring you to work a little harder to keep things straight? The worst is when it also has that attention-drawing squeak, and you have an audience to go along with your struggle. Maybe you knew right away the cart was defective and decided it was too much trouble to do something about it and were annoyed for the duration of your shopping trip. Perhaps the way to go would be to start over with a new cart, or stop and try to fix it. It might just be that the experience is a reminder to slow down and think about how to proceed, which is invariably a good thing to do.

Image from an interesting book I came across while writing this post: The Stray Shopping Carts of Eastern North America: A Guide to Field Identification by Julian Montague

We all want to live life with ease. We want a shopping cart that rolls properly. Green traffic lights and a parking spot right outside our destination. A subway car that arrives just as we step onto the platform. An avocado that’s ripe on the day we want guacamole. No line at the coffee shop. A strong internet connection. We tend not to notice when things go our way, (see this post on gratitude), but the moment things go awry? We notice. And notice we do! It’s gotten pretty harsh in the world. Maybe you’ve seen viral posts of restaurant patrons misbehaving. These days, unfortunately, people react to minor inconveniences in ways that are truly shocking.

Accepting the ups and downs of life is a skill. We are talking about minor inconveniences here, but things beyond our control, big and small, often arrive without warning. Once in a while, we pull the wonky shopping cart. We will not get the concert tickets despite spending a morning trying. The flight gets canceled. You know the feeling. Sometimes, despite our best preparations, things don’t go our way. String a few of these together and things feel off.

So what do we do? How can we train ourselves to slow down and think even when we are in a hurry? What’s the secret to focusing on what our friend is saying and not composing our response before she’s finished speaking? How do we discern what’s worth responding to and what we will let pass? When do you smile and walk away and when do you do something?

Beyond the basics of being well rested, properly fed and hydrated, and not overscheduled, it probably won’t be a surprise that I suggest adding meditation into your day. Just as you can work on building a stronger body through exercise, you can strengthen your ability to direct your attention by practicing this week’s meditation.