Optimizing Awareness
Unpacking Mindfulness
As I walked through the forest on my morning walk, I listening to a podcast about mindfulness. It brought me back to where I began this journey, a place where I was not aware and mindfulness was something other people practiced, not me.
Fast forward to today and mindfulness is something I practice all the time because it is an optimal awareness for learning, performing, and being present. It benefits my music-making and can be practiced at virtually any moment, which means I don’t have to carve out another block of time in my day.
This week I offer you different ways into mindfulness or as we refer to it in Body Mapping, Inclusive Awareness. Perhaps these posts will invite you in, be less abstract than some “fluffy ideal” that people who are enlightened espouse.
Day 1 - Begin listening to the layers of sound around you.
As I walked today I could hear animals scampering through the leaves, I could hear cars passing by and I could hear my podcast. I could hear all of these things at the SAME time. Some sounds were close, like the melody in a piece of music. Others were more distant, like the accompaniment to the melody. Together they made up a rich dimensional soundscape.
When I am aware of this soundscape, I move better. Yes, you read that right I move better.
For today notice the sounds around you as you read the paper, write, create, or do Parkour (that’s where I am going next.) Listen as if you are at a concert, enjoy it.
Take this panoramic listening into your craft and of course be curious…