Splash Into Calm: Find joy in the mundane

There are so many tasks throughout our day we deem unimportant but necessary to accomplish.  Before we know it, a big portion of our day is spent “getting tasks over with”, and we miss out on many opportunities for enjoyment..

Eckhart Tolle, in his book The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment says: “As soon as you honor the present moment, all unhappiness and struggle dissolve, and life begins to flow with joy and ease. When you act out the present-moment awareness, whatever you do becomes imbued with a sense of quality, care, and love—even the most simple action.”

There are simple practices that will cultivate the moment-by-moment experience that both the yoga text and Tolle are speaking about. Give this a try next time you clean, wash the dishes, dust, iron, sweep, or do any other tedious task:

• Take a few breaths and feel your feet on the floor.
• Scope out what needs to be done.
• Pick a place to begin.
• With each movement, watch how the object you are cleaning changes.
• Notice the state of your body. If you are uncomfortable, shift your alignment.
• If you find your awareness drifting away, reset your attention to what you are doing.
• Continue to notice each step of the process until you finish.
• Now, look at the end result and notice the changes.
• Check in and become aware of how you feel.

When you bring this deeper level of awareness to your activities, you will notice how much more there is to appreciate throughout your day. The smallest shift will open you to a variety of opportunities that enrich and uplift your life in a way that you could not imagine.

Let me know in the comments below how this simple technique shifted your experience accomplishing the task.