When is the last time you remember being fully present – not worrying about the past or anxiously planning for the future – just available to soak up all that the moment has to offer?
It’s probably easier to recall the last time you arrived at work and then didn’t remember driving there. Or finishing a meal not having tasted a single bite.
Or being so preoccupied during a conversation with a friend, spouse or co-worker that you couldn’t really listen to them or remember anything they said.
If that sounds like you, you’re not alone.
Today most of us regularly experience being so lost in our thoughts, distracted on our phones, and caught up in our never-ending to-do lists that we aren’t really experiencing our lives in the present moment.
We have a tendency to think – and our culture reinforces – that doing more and achieving more is what will bring our lives into alignment with our core values and what matters most to us.
How Much Have You Missed While Constantly Trying to Doing More?
We live in a culture of busy.
In 2012, Tim Krieder wrote a much-circulated piece in The New York Times about “The ‘Busy’ Trap” – and why we fall into it. He suggested there that being busy all the time “serves as a kind of existential reassurance, a hedge against emptiness.” So, am I actually busy? Or is feeling busy serving another purpose? Or is busyness simply trendy these days?
Jewish mindfulness practices can help you find ease amid your anxious overdoing and experience more of the sacred moments and meaning of your life. (iStock)
Almost as far back as we look, actually, our culture has associated being deeply caring high achievers – with an accepted high level of striving, stress and busyness.
Secretly, we may even be a little bit proud of our anxious, overworked minds – as if they’re a sign that we’re actually successfully marching through that long to-do list or toward that next goal we’ve set for ourselves.
Simply put, if we’re not that stressed or not that busy, it might feel like we’re just not trying hard enough.
But what does being so distracted by and caught up in our never-ending to-do lists cost us?
And what if you could actually achieve more – while also feeling centered, clear-minded and present to the people around you and the everyday sacred moments of your life? (You can.)
If you want to discover how, join the Institute for Jewish Spirituality for Hardwired Habits: How to Use Jewish Wisdom Traditions to Outsmart Your Overworked Brain, a free online event on Wednesday, June 5th, at 5 p.m. Pacific/8 p.m. Eastern. (Or register to receive the free recording.)
Join the Institute for Jewish Spirituality executive director, Rabbi Lisa Goldstein, and board member and mindfulness teacher Larry Schwartz, as they offer a fascinating, one-hour look into how your unconscious habits and constant busyness may be hardwiring you to be more distracted and spread too thin – and how you can use Jewish spiritual practices to find some ease amid all your anxious overdoing … and begin to experience more of the sacred moments and meaning of your life.
There’s absolutely no cost to register or participate.