It's All Good Under the Hood

As I prepare to write my first 2012 newsletter post, I am startled at the date on the calendar. With just 3 days left in January, I guess you can say I’m a little behind in getting our message out. Then again, I think I am sending a message by the mere fact you are receiving this in February. Have you ever asked yourself where has the time gone? Then, as you slowly stroll down memory lane uncovering how you spent all those days, weeks and months, you find yourself letting out an audible sigh. Here I am. Other than the eyes toting a tad more puffiness & the temple hairlines glistening a bit more hints of silver, everything else looks the same on the outside. There is however, more that has occurred over those torn off pages of the calendar. There is an expression I hear my grown kids use, “all good under the hood,” I love this saying and here is where my New Year’s message lies.

All those days, weeks and months that sped by stirred things “under the hood.” So here I am, wincing a bit knowing all to well how powerful mindfulness practice is and recounting how many times I “missed” key opportunities to capture precious moments. I can write a grocery list of excuses as to why each day was gobbled up and how I missed some of those precious moments.

Lessons painfully unveil themselves as I sit with the stirrings. Just before Thanksgiving my sister’s husband died. It was sudden, completely unexpected and terribly sad. Before that, it was a few wonderful women who had come through our mind body medicine program who lost their battle with cancer. With each heart-wrenching scenario a common thread showed itself about time lost, words not spoken or perhaps spoken in haste. The grasping, the ache to somehow figure out how to slow the hands on the clock so as to feel, touch, smell, listen and hold moments with much more appreciation is clearly needing more attention. We can’t get back what we’ve lost from time expired. We can however, Sit more. Pause more. Listen more intently to those we love as they share their stories. Forgive more. Be in relationship rather than win disputes. Love. Show your love, don’t withhold it when you are hurt or angry. Time has a way of fooling us, thinking we always have tomorrow. Those who have lost loved ones know this ache with every cell in their body.

It’s a new year, a month of it is already spent and you and I get to decide how we will spend this day. Pause and listen to the whispers of your heart. Notice your breath. Choose how you will mark up those pages on the calendar mindfully.

All good under the hood? It helps if you stay mindful, pause more often soaking in those precious moments. If the exploration that I described above sounds intriguing to you, consider looking into one of our classes at our center. Whether you are in active treatment, survivorship or you are a caregiver, we invite you to join us in a safe healing environment to learn more about how you can benefit from mind body medicine practices.

“Non-doing has nothing to do with being indolent or passive. Quite the contrary. It takes great courage and energy to cultivate non-doing, both in stillness and in activity. Nor is it easy to make a special time for non-doing and to keep at it in the face of everything in our lives which needs to be done.” ~ Jon Kabat-Zinn