I’ve been thinking about Mindful experiences lately, and I’ve realized that there are almost always a number of opportunities in our day to create them, even for the most mundane of activities.One simple way to create a Mindful experience for yourself is to build a buffer around an activity and then totally immerse yourself in it, but without being concerned how long it takes.

I put it a little more gracefully on page 133 of The Zen Teacher: Creating Focus, Simplicity, and Tranquility in the Classroom in the chapter called “Where’s The Fire?” when I wrote:

Choose one task you have to do today and build a time and space buffer around it, so that you don’t feel rushed or anxious the make that task a mindful experience—whether it’s doing a load of laundry, getting your oil changed, or teaching a lesson on figure drawing in your art class. Whatever it is, just allow it to take as long as it takes.

Allowing something to take as long as it takes is a subversive idea in our culture when it’s ALWAYS time to be moving breathlessly on to the next thing and the next thing after that.

But just allowing something to take the time that it takes reduces the stress, anxiety, and urgency that often surrounds our day-to-day stuff.

Building a buffer allows you to luxuriate in whatever you’re doing.

And that’s positively decadent.

TZT  **

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