It’s Really Important That We Practice Mindfulness Right Now.
Finding our way through the pandemic
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Photo by Jeffrey Hamilton on Unsplash
Last week I wrote a post Can You be Happy During a Pandemic? I’m going to try a different spin on it here because I think it is so important.
It is important for our mental health to try to find happiness, especially during a pandemic.
Maybe happiness isn’t exactly the right word. Perhaps I should say mindfulness or being fully present. But for me mindfulness creates happiness.
The ability to be calm and fully present in the face of a difficult situation means several things:
- That you enjoy the parts that are enjoyable
- That you accept the unpleasant or difficult parts of experience as part of the whole
- That you are able to be fully present in the face of reality, neither running nor hiding but facing it head on
One of my favorite fictional heroes who has this capability is Jack Reacher. The author of the series, Lee Child, has given Jack this ability to focus intently on the problem at hand, to avoid worrying unnecessarily and to persistently, sometimes to my bewilderment, enjoy the parts of the experience that he can enjoy.
Suppose he’s arrested for no good reason and sitting on the floor of a cell waiting for someone to tell him what’s going on. Is he crying? Banging on the bars or screaming? Ranting about how ludicrous and unfair it is? No.
He reads the newspaper. If there’s no newspaper he runs a favorite blues tune through his head and enjoys every minute of it. When it’s time for action he’s looked at all the options and planned out what has the best chance of success and dives into it headlong.
He always has time to enjoy his coffee or an interesting looking woman. He excels at being present. Now, of course Jack is fiction. But you and I need to do it too.
