The Mad Rush in the Morning

I can't help but wonder where Mindfulness plays into the "Mad Rush" in the morning that is the norm across our culture and so many places in the world. It is interesting to note that we associate the word 'mad' with the word rush. How many people start their day rushing to work, to the daycare, to school, to a meeting, to the gym, to a yoga class to wherever? RUSH, RUSH, RUSH. My son is the first to call it like he sees it, "I don't like to rush, Daddy. I don't like to rush through lunch to get to the playground and I don't like to rush to school in the morning."

It occurs to me that noone likes to rush and yet we all do it so somehow we do like the rush. That rush of adrenaline when you are late is not unlike the rush we get from a thrilling adventure. We, as a culture, are addicted to the rush. Whether rushing for a meeting or the emotional rush from a recreational activity or the rush of a fight or argument. Something about the RUSH makes us feel alive. So much so, in fact, that when we are not rushing we are typically talking about our last rush or planning for our next rush. Weekends are a rush, vacations are a rush, entertainment is a rush and everything else is....blah.

Our lives are characterized by the peaks and valleys, by the rush and the blah. Mindfulness is the practice of awareness of life itself. As we practice being aware of life happening things tend to slow down a bit. The gap between the rush and the blah gets smaller. The rush still happens but we notice it from the inside out and the blah still happens but we get to experience that as it happens. CBC has a great title with "As it Happens" how about we try atleast amidst the rush and the blah to be aware AS IT HAPPENS.

Life will always have its ups and downs, its rushes and its blahs. Perhaps in the simple act of noticing the peaks and the valleys of life we will come closer to understanding the great essence that is continuously rising and falling.

Namaste,

Steve

Yogi Jayanta