Living a mindful life is never boring

I’ve been practising mindfulness for over 30 years. That might sound like bragging except it doesn’t mean that I’m perfectly mindful! One of the things it does mean is that I cope much better with making mistakes and not being Superwoman.

For example, a couple of months ago I lost my phone. Boy, did that cause some worry and inconvenience. I managed quite well, accepting it was gone, until I had to deal with the fact that my automatic contacts backups hadn’t in fact been backed up. Then my composure jumped out of the window leaving me with a small child (me) wailing ‘It’s not fair!’

The thing is, I acknowledged that I was feeling upset and didn’t take it out on anyone. I did what I needed to do practically (retrieve and sort previous contact details), looked after myself (exercise, fun and friendship) and simply recognised that it was hard to accept what couldn’t be undone.

Only then did I receive a text telling me that a man called Chris had found my phone. It was down the side of the train seat where it must have slipped two weeks before. So now, my mindfulness allows me to enjoy a happy ending, with a deeper resolve to pay attention when getting off trains in new places (deepest Yorkshire) and gratitude for the kindness of strangers.