The start to the new year can be emotional – coming off the high of being the magic makers for our families while pushing off the sadness of missing loved ones who still occupy our hearts from beyond. While on a daily walk, I realized it was the first time that I could actually appreciate the time and space for my mind to simply enjoy wandering. In a culture that tends to overschedule and keep busy as a badge of honor, perhaps we might consider the necessary indulgence of giving ourselves permission for our minds to wander.
What is mind wandering? Similar to daydreaming, it’s letting our thoughts that have nothing to do with the immediate environment or task at hand, pop in and out. Mind wandering can be related to mindfulness in that we can incorporate mindful thoughts to lessen our anxieties. We can try positive affirmations or light calming strategies to help reduce stress.
For example:
As I breathe in, thank you for this walk this morning.
As I look up at a clear blue sky, I feel the sunshine and brisk breeze as they refresh my spirit.
Breathe in love, breathe out hope.
Mind wandering can help us solve problems, enhance our creativity and perhaps support us in finding the meaning of life.
Let’s talk about gratitude
Always so much talk about gratitude. Yes, let’s be thankful for the simplest things in our lives. That mug of morning coffee. That evening cocktail. The unsolicited tight embrace and “I love you” from our partner or child that we needed in that moment. Or even when we are engaged in the necessary tasks of domestic work such as dishwashing or cleaning bathrooms, we can be grateful for our home where we make our lives. Gratitude is a serious business, perhaps the one that might keep our communities supportive and stimulating. Insgead of relying primarily on a market economy, might we consider a gift economy?
I recently stumbled upon this reframing during my most recent read of Essential Labor: Mothering as Social Change by Angela Garbes. She references Mother/Scientist/Professor Dr. Robin Kimmerer's idea that we should operate from a fundamental belief in abundance grounded in the currency of gratitude:
The currency in a gift economy is relationship, which is expressed as gratitude, as interdependence and the ongoing cycles of reciprocity. A gift economy nurtures the community bonds that enhance mutual well-being; the economic unit is “we” rather than “I,” as all flourishing is mutual.
What about the gift we give ourselves so that we can restore and replenish? Ah, sleep! We owe it to ourselves to consider our personal wellness and rest our minds with sleep. The attention we gift ourselves can be an act of radical love. The everyday miracle of sleep invites us to nourish our physical bodies in a way that complements our wandering minds when opportunity arises in the thrash of it all – when we mother, father, parent, engage, lead and follow, do things well, make mistakes and get on with our day-to-day. Our personal growth along with those in our families and circles depends on loving acts of attention as we continue to show up for each other most humbly with curiosity, gratitude, wandering minds and centeredness.
a perfect moment when i wonder,
search up the naked canopies for nothing in particular
what if, i worry, what will happen when?
what’s our plan?
the january freeze smacks me,
i take a deep breath . . . and sigh out . . .
if i could, oh! a thought inspires me
motivates me
just as my four-legged walking pal keenly eyes two foxes hidden in the woodgrounds in a tussle
