This is a ‘Guest Blog’, written by my hubby, explaining how it feels to be married to me, as a mindfulness meditation practitioner…
Being Married to Mindfulness
Pretty much every morning we have a routine that I’m well used to. Soon after breakfast, the usual level of quiet in the house settles still further as Annya begins her Mindfulness time. She kneels on the floor to read from a meditation book for a few minutes and then begins her actual mindfulness work using a meditation practice. There she remains for anything between 10 to 40 minutes.
I try not to disturb the stillness in the room but sometimes it is unavoidable – I’ve learned, however, that I don’t need to worry.
To avoid throwing stuff about and making a load of noise is welcome (!), but the usual walking about around the house doesn’t disturb her.
So, while I move around getting my stuff together in readiness for the day, Annya is at the opposite end of the spectrum.
Even after all this time, I still find the contrast striking.
Have I noticed changes since Annya started her Mindfulness practice?
Well, I’m reminded of a lovely line uttered in a Jodie Foster movie “Contact”. Her character, ‘Ellie’, is always eager to take the next step in all she does, but she hears her father’s voice settling her down: “Small moves, Ellie… small moves.” It’s like this with the changes in Annya. There have been incremental changes over time – difficult to notice from day to day but when I think back, the changes are profound.
Annya had a tendency to be inward looking… THAT has changed big time. A contradiction with that, you might think, “how can mindfulness be anything other than inward looking?” A question that loomed large as life to me when she expressed her initial interest in meditation some years ago and worried me a fair bit.
Well, there is an element of inward looking in the practice. There has to be if you are to get ‘your own house in order’. Once that was done, then many other more open, more inclusive and more loving ways of being became possible and it was both a relief and a pleasure to witness them.
Certainly, with recent and traumatic events affecting her family, I can’t help but attribute her mindfulness practice to keeping her calm and coping well.
It’s been a great asset in helping her through what has been a tough time. When she’s been worried about her Dad or her relationship with her Mum, Mindfulness has played its part in sorting out the mountains from the molehills in terms of what needed to be done.
Also, Annya has her Acupuncture practice, The Pain Relief Clinic, to run and, in order to make her life more challenging, she’s working on a second business, teaching Mindfulness and Meditation. There’s always ‘sorting the wheat from the chaff’ when deciding what to spend precious time on and mindfulness has been, once again, a great asset.
