Take Your Mind to Work Week... a Challenge

The 5-Day Mindful at Work Challenge, developed by the Huffington Post and the Institute for Mindful Leadership, starts this Monday and ends on Friday, Jan. 31.  If you sign up here, you get tips and support on bringing mindfulness to your work life.  Do you need them? 

Here are some questions that the challenge developers offer to gather how mindful you are at work:

1. When you get to work, do you remember how you got there?
2. When you finish eating your lunch, do you remember eating your lunch? 
3. At the end of the work day, do you think you accomplished anything?
4. It's almost the end of January.  Do you remember January?
5. Do you pay attention in meetings?
6. When you are home, do you worry about work?
7. When you are introduced to new people, do you remember their names?
8. Have you ever driven past the exit to work? 

I thought so.  Me, too.  I signed up, and hope you do, too.

Hello in There

My adventure in Christian mindfulness has begun to open up more awareness of my own head.  As John Prine would say, "Hello in there, hello."

It's been interesting to say the least. Several times, I've been able to deal with a feeling of being overwhelmed with work requests by concentrating on my breathing and watching the anxious feelings come and finally go.  Interesting.  I feel I really am doing as much work as possible, and getting myself in a centered mode helps me to maximize it.  Yet the "Oh no, I'm going to let someone down" feeling has always been hard for me.  Now I know that it can ebb away, and that part of me is always calm.

Then there's looking backwards with sadness.  One of the aspects of having a daughter who writes a lot of autobiographical pieces is that you find out things you didn't know.  I bought copies of the two "Rookie" yearbooks, which feature her writing.  But I haven't been able to get myself beyond the first article, in which she talked about her wretched high school years.

I found that she had two major incidents in the high school cafeteria ... that seat of evil.  Kids were cruel to her in a public, obvious way twice. She never told me about that. When I read the story, I just felt so sad, so sick to my stomach. Now, this was at least 13 years ago.  (We eventually pulled her out of that high school to be homeschooled, and thank God we did.) But I still feel such emotion when I learned about it.

I left the book alone for a few weeks, and now I know I need to go back and read it.  It is, indeed, the first published book containing work from my daughter. This time I will be a little more aware that it may contain information that will upset me. So I hope to read with mindfulness, perhaps by being aware that this is in the past and there is nothing I can do about it.  When I get upset, I will stop reading and breathe.  Let's see if it works.

Just Say Thanks

Ever prayed for the same thing over and over again?  Since the '80s?

I have.  Sometimes you feel that you are supposed to.  You are praying persistently like the nagging widow that Jesus said.  But it can become a faith issue over the decades.

Today's "Jesus Calling" app meditation by the wonderful Sarah Young gave me some new perspective.   Yes, we are supposed to speak our hearts clearly to the Lord.  And then thank Him for handling it.   But:  "When your requests come to mind again, continue to thank Me for the answers that are on the way.  If you keep on stating your concerns to Me, you will live in a state of tension. When you thank Me for how I am answering your prayers, your mindset becomes much more positive. Thankful prayers keep your focus on My Presence and My promises."

I love this.  It's much better than praying:  "Lord, in case I haven't mentioned this in the last hour, so-and-so still needs healing"   I am hoping that focusing on trust and gratitude will make me be less like my friend below:

Simply Frozen

It's coming.  You can see the deep purple on the Weather Channel map.  Cold is coming.

Trying to take a mindful Christian approach to this is impacting me three ways:

1. Lots of prayer that it won't be so cold so I can get to work without being afraid.
2. Trying to observe the beauty of winter:  the clear night sky filled with stars, the white mounds of snow.
3. Working to keep my own natural irritability about winter inside so I'm not as snappy as the wind.

It's a good time to hibernate, but I don't get to.  I have a meeting this afternoon, and lots tomorrow and Tuesday.  So I need to stay focused on keeping my inner peace.  Here's hoping.

The Simple Living Calendar

 "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord. "Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." 
- Jeremiah 29:11


I am a lot like this dog. Not so sure that the plans are something I'd like.  But I am determined to have a mindful year.

So far this New Year's Day, I've had mindful filling-out-of-the-calendar, mindful cooking, a mindful conversation with my beloved daughter and mindful eating of Salt & Pepper potato chips.  YUM.

I also discovered a link to a perpetual calendar that I bought a decade or so ago:  The Simpler Living Alternatives Calendar for Any Year.   You might like it as well.

Alternatives, a Christian organization that supported a mindful simplicity lifestyle, has ceased to exist. Which is sad, because we need it more than ever. The good news: A podcast using the Alternative simplicity materials is now available through iTunes: Simple Living Works! podcast.

We hear so many voices from the materialism side of life and from non-compassionate "Christians" that we need a diet of thoughts from those who listen a little more deeply to the Lord. The podcast and the calendar can help.