This morning I snuck off to Starbucks following a Meditation session for a client who lived close by. Martyn and Noah were out seeing Martyn’s dad for Father’s Day and so I had a quiet hour to myself. Perfect, well almost.
When I queued up for my coffee there were a couple of men standing at the fridge section and I noticed them as I approached. One was on the phone and the other was consumed by the contents of the sandwich section. I didn’t interrupt but I didn’t wait behind them either. I went ahead and ordered my coffee.
The trouble was that I then felt like I had pushed in front of them. They didn’t seem to think I had – they chatted away and seemed fine. It play on my mind though, I hate any sort of bad relations. It created a little bit of anxious mental chatter which entered into my otherwise peaceful mind.
I knew that to feel better about the situation I should have checked with them that they weren’t ready to be served yet, that would have been the right thing to do. However I didn’t get the opportunity and so I didn’t and I was left with the way I acted.
On a much more positive note, what I did do was to commit then and there to being more patient for the rest of the day. So when I drove home I was an accommodating driver letting others go first when the opportunity arose. When I rode the horses I was kind and relaxed with them, no hurrying them along when they didn’t want to go faster. I remembered that they had eaten a lot of grass and needed time to get going.
Sometimes we all slip up in our efforts to be Mindful, but when this happens we then have a choice in terms of how we deal with it. We can beat ourselves up and make the situation even worse. Or we can learn from it, however small the situation, and then commit to trying again.
I chose the second option and it certainly paid off for me. The rest of my day was lovely because I had really committed to a better state of mind. My incentive was to help others but the result included me feeling so much better about myself.
If you get lots of mental chatter that bothers you all day long then come on a Revitalise Session and lean how to work with your thoughts so much more effectively. You will love the difference that a quiet mind makes to your everyday.
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