Ten Breaths

I gave myself a new practice this week, inspired by a function I discovered on my computer. I’ve set my computer to announce the time on the hour and the half hour. When I hear the announcement on the hour, I’ve promised myself to stop whatever I’m doing and breathe consciously. Sounds simple, right?

So first I told myself I’d stop for one minute, just 1 minute.

Well, it was hard to tear myself away from the task at hand when “Alex” announced the hour. But I did it.

Hmm… how to know when a minute’s up? I didn’t like looking at the clock on the screen waiting for the zero to change to a 1.

So then I said to myself, I’ll just count ten breaths. That should take about one minute.

I counted. I watched the clock on the screen. Ha! One minute is only eight breaths! Who says I have to do ten?

Wow! My mind was grasping to recover 15 seconds for my precious activity! I committed to stick to ten. And, no, breathing faster is not permitted.

So my hourly pause is 1 minute and 15 seconds…

I wouldn’t have believed this but every time I hear “Alex” announce the hour, I squirm and procrastinate. Really! I don’t have time to stop my important work in progress. I’ll do it later, in a little while, just after I finish this one…

Excuse me? Don’t have time? For one minute (and 15 seconds)? That’s absurd!  But the voice of resistance is loud.

Try it. See what games your mind likes to play.

I’m continuing the practice. I think the present moment (and my breath) deserve at least one minute of attention every hour.

Did you notice I started by setting my clock to announce every HALF hour? Yeah, well that just seems too advanced for me at this point…

Of course, I have no problem taking a one five-minute break to make a cup of tea, go to the bathroom, or Google some random idea that pops into my mind. But breathing, unboxing now that’s tough!

What does this tell me? It tells me that I can feel urgent, pressured, time-scarce even when there’s absolutely no justification. Hmm… So maybe in the course of my days, when I REALLY feel urgent, pressured, and time-scarce… maybe, just maybe, some part of it is just my mind’s creation…

Imagine that!