Today I left the house at 7:45 AM expecting to be gone for an hour. I listened to an audiobook on my way to work. Unexpectedly, I ended up working an 8-hour day. My writing goals fell by the wayside and most of my To-Do list went undone. I drove home from work at 4:30 listening to an audiobook.
By the time I got home this evening I was feeling tired and hungry. I cooked dinner (spicy chicken andouille sausage sauteed with fresh green beans, onions, and baby red potatoes) while watching a girl talk about her favorite makeup on youtube. While I waited for the potatoes to get soft, I wrote a To-Do list for tomorrow. It looked something like this:
To Do:
ALL THE THINGS!!!!
We ate dinner and settled onto the couch to watch a show together. Out of habit I reached for my phone – I don’t even know if I intended to resume my game of Candy Crush or just to check my messages for the two dozenth time, but something made me pause.
Mindfulness, I thought.
I put my phone down on the end table and turned towards my husband. I tucked my perpetually cold toes under his perpetually warm legs and we watched the show together. We laughed in the same parts because for once I was engaged enough not to miss any of the jokes.
Maybe you’ll say that I can’t practice mindfulness while watching TV. That the distraction of the TV goes against the spirit of the thing. I’m no expert, but if I had to guess I’d say that choosing to do just one thing at a time instead of three or four is a step in the right direction.
Maybe it’s a baby step, but it’s still a step. It’s only January 4th, people.
Lily Ellyn 
Perfect timing for me. I happen to be watching the Mummy and my “mindfulness” reminder happened to kick in as someone was dying. haha In all seriousness, great thoughts. 🙂
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Haha. Glad I could help you mindfully watch someone’s demise. It’s the little things that make life so sweet. 😉
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Hahaha indeed, my friend! Indeed!
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Love
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Thanks!
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I definitely benefitted from reading this. This is such a good reminder to practice mindfulness in everyday activities, but also not to be totally anal about it.
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Hahaha. Favorite comment. I’m so not into being totally anal. About anything. 😉 I’m really glad you enjoyed this.
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this was great. i so do the pick up phone thing and i remember the time when i didn’t. thanks for this reminder to be mindful of the simple things like being present with those we love, even if it is just to watch a tv show. taking this to heart and putting into practice
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That’s so cool. I’m really glad you liked it. I’ve been trying to continue with this this week. Maybe I can make a new habit. 🙂
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So many times during the day I am multitasking and don’t get the whole experience of any one task. They are all a jumble with my mind in 3 or 4 different places at one time. Then I wonder how anything got done at all! ~Elle
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YES! The scariest to me is when I occasionally end up somewhere and I realize I don’t really remember getting there because I was so zoned out, doing things on auto-pilot. I don’t want to live my life on auto-pilot!
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