Mindful Doing, Mindful Being!

Prefer to read? Here’s a transcription of the video:

I want to talk today about mindful doing in mindful being.

Now this is relevant at any time and in any situation, but particularly now when we are having this world pandemic, the Covid-19, and we’re at shelter in place six, seven weeks, and we don’t even know how many more weeks we’re going to have to stay at home.

I’m Anna Gatmon, and this is coming to you from the Expansive with Anna Gatmon YouTube channel.

So when we are here at home, we can call it stuck at home or staying at home, some of us are busier than ever before. The work that we have means that we have so much more work right now. Maybe our work is online and we have much more work right now. And so I see many people who have more work than they had before.

Others have been working very hard before and suddenly they feel like, “I have the break that I was looking for and I was waiting for for so long,” and it happened.

Some of us are just escaping into Netflix series and just bingeing on those and just escaping. And some of us have more time and are actually doing things that we have had on our list for a long time and never got to. And some of us have time but are not able to do what’s on our list. We’re finding it hard, we’re maybe lethargic, we can just do the basic stuff of feeding ourselves, or the minimum of work that we need to do.

So I see different people on this different range of doing and being during this world pandemic that we’re staying at home. And so I thought I’d do this video about mindful doing and mindful being no matter whether, if you are being more or doing more, how to be more mindful about it.

So the expensive way is to pick a situation that you recall that’s more of an expansive nature and blissful nature, a loving nature. And then take qualities from that and resources from that situation into a more constricted situation. So you’re picking something from an expansive situation and bringing some of that wisdom and resources into a more constricted situation.

That’s one of the ways that we work with the expansive teachings. And so we’re going to do the same here now.

And so what I want to offer you is to pick a moment where you experienced ease; where you were just in a state of being, just being. And it can be a time when you had a massage or when you were out in nature or listening to music or just gazing or reading a book or focused on a hobby that you love, but you just, there was a feeling of being, just being, without having to effort, without having to do something to force yourself, to will yourself to do something. You just were in a space. And you can take your time, you can stop and think of a moment like that.

And then when you have this moment, think of a quality that was present in that moment. So maybe it’s a moment of ease or maybe it’s a moment of just being. But see if there are other layers of qualities in that moment, any sensation in your body, any particular place in your body, a specific emotion that’s present in a moment like that. Any specific thought that you relate to that moment of being or lack of thought at that moment.

And then the next thing is to bring that quality into situations that you are living through today and imbue them with that quality.

So let’s say that you are overworked. You are on Zoom calls all the time, all day from morning until evening, you don’t have time to breathe. Well, take that quality from that moment that you can recall of beingness and bring it in to your work, to your Zoom calls. Can you bring more ease or delight or quietude, whatever it is, open heart, bliss, whatever it is, can you bring that into the work that you’re doing so that your work is informed by this beingness and by this expansive state of being?

And if you feel that you’re escaping too much and it’s one series after another, it’s great that we’re allowed, it’s legitimate now to binge on a Netflix series and that’s wonderful, but if you find yourself just doing more and more and more of it and you know, after a while it gets boring. It’s like, “Okay, I’m not really doing anything meaningful. I’m not being who I can be. My full potential.”

Then again, bring that mindful moment of ease, of bliss, of beingness, this equality that you can identify the feeling, the sensation, the thought or the lack of it. Can you bring it into your life so that you can start and begin to do something that actually will nourish you?

But then again, maybe you’re one of those who have been working really hard all of this time before Covid-19 pandemic and you need a break.

And so just allow yourself be in this break. And you can escape at times, but also give yourself time to just be in a being space.

And the more you’re aware of the qualities that nourish you when you’re in a being space, the more you’ll be able to bring those qualities into the rest that you’re having right now.

Now, if you have the time that you didn’t have before and you find yourself unable to do what’s on your list; you thought, “Oh, I have all this time now. I should be able to do so much more.” Maybe you are more tired than you think you are. Maybe you need to give yourself some time off. And so it’s important to give yourself specific time that’s time off. Specific time that’s time to just do nothing or escape.

Give yourself time to escape. Don’t just escape. That’s mindfulness. Say, “okay, two hours, I’m going to watch a movie, or two episodes, or four episodes.” Give yourself that conscious time to escape. Then give yourself a time to rest or to just sit outside on your porch and just gaze at the skies.

Just do that. There’s time to do that and if you’re overworked, then still give yourself the time a minute before you get on a call to be in that place of ease and then bring it into your meeting. Can you speak from that place? Can you interact with someone on a Zoom call from that place of ease, from that place of just being.

So wherever you’re at on the spectrum of doing or being during this time, if you can bring qualities that you enjoy and that nourish you when you are in a state of being, and you can bring those into any level of your being or doing during your shelter in place time, you will create an expansive mindful experience and you will enjoy your escapism as much as your doism.

So practice this.

Wherever you’re watching this, leave me a comment.

Blessings.