Presence is an obvious one given the Retreat I just wrapped! It was literally all about training the mind to be present, to what the mind perceives as ‘good’ and also what the mind perceives as ‘bad’. We spend so much of our time being distracted and running away from what we view unpleasant but in this, we miss our opportunity to be alive and in the moment.
So this week let’s dive into this intention and some Journal prompts for you too;
- Where in my life am I continually distracted, and what am I prepared to do about it?
- Where in my work am I divided and pushed leaving me exhausted and worn out? Can I reduce my distractions in any way?
- What am I avoiding, and by distracting myself with what? Where does this leave me?
- Where am I completely present in my life? Where and how does this presence enrich my life?
- How can I immediately implement things so that I am more present, thinking as small as possible?
Can I recommend also the following to avoid further distractions;
- Turning your phone on silent. I have mine on silent 90% of the day and it’s made the world of difference to my sanity.
- Turning all tech off an hour before bed and an hour on waking. The sacred bookmarks to our lives that we have each day that we erode by being on devices.
- Limiting your screen time through the screen time settings if you have an iPhone.
Google how to do this and separate each app out – so e.g. don’t bundle and keep WhatsApp with Instagram if you use WhatsApp as your major messaging service. An hour a day is a good limit to begin to work out how much time you are spending where, on what, and on who. An alert will come up blocking you from using that app after you have used up your allocated time which you can ignore for another 15 minutes of the whole day. It’s an incredible eye-opener. - Don’t have your phone on the table – at meals, at work, in meetings, ever really. It reduces your cognitive ability just from being seen. Read more here. Additionally, we are spending more and more time on our devices, on average 5 hours a day on our phones and 2 hours of that on social media. It’s no wonder people complain they don’t have enough time to meditate, go to the gym, be with the ones they love – read more here.
Written with love,
Jac x