All these talk about multitasking points to the other extreme - mindfulness. It's coming out more frequently in the mass media but it's been there all along. Whether you're working out or just want to get into the moment, mindfulness is the antithesis of this bewildering, fast-paced world, when everyone wants to do something all at once. I've been guilty of this, wanting to do multiple chores, for example. I guess it's one way to deal with all that's happening in our lives.
Mindfulness can mean getting so much out of the moment instead of just trying to do everything all at once. In exercising, it's paying close attention to how the movement feels, how the muscles, how the body react to the effort. In breathing, it's imagining one's breath as reaching out to all one's bodyparts, especially the extremities. Even just while walking, mindfulness can be in the form of thinking how each breath invigorates as the body takes step after step.
Mindfulness. It's for free. It's one of the ways to relax in our harried world. Yet it's not easy. Much in the same way that exercise isn't easy. All those products being hawked in the Internet about quick and easy weight loss are setting up even more people for disappointment. Mindfulness. Again, it's not easy, but it's worth the effort.
