Next Time You are in Public Try this Simple Action and See if you Can do it

It’s so simple yet can be so difficult. Have you ever felt what it’s like to be to mindless?

Sit and observe everything around you. The environment you are in, the people, the sounds, the smells, everything. While you are doing this, try to just observe it. Don’t classify, categorize or judge any of it.

When the mind tries to judge the clothes people are wearing, hairstyles, or what you think of people, let it pass. When the mind tries to judge the buildings around as something you like or don’t like, let it pass. Even go beyond the name of something you are looking at. ex. a tree, a car, or a building.

As you see the tree and say “OK there is a tree and it has leaves on it. It’s brown and green and tilts slightly to the side. Oh there’s a squirrel on the tree! He just jumped from one branch to the other! Oh geez the squirrel almost just fell, crazy squirrel.” Instead, just look at the tree and see it as simply something that is there.

What this allows us to do is pay attention to the moment. It reveals all the stories, the mind chatter and the effect the ego has on every moment we are awake.  This can be a very relaxing and profound experience to play with as it’s something we generally don’t do often in our every day lives.. simply observe.

We are usually always going somewhere or waiting for what’s next or watching something intently. We don’t take the time to just sit and observe, feel and not judge. My most creative an profound moments have come from doing stuff like this. And peace and freedom all lie within this state of being. Beyond all anxieties, fears, emotions etc.

Another Experiment

There’s another exercise I pulled together one day when I was walking down by the lake here in Toronto. There were no people around and things were still and yet I found my mind distracted. So I began to walk with my head up, as opposed to down looking at my steps, and I focused on breathing. Next, I picked up my walking pace and began scanning my environment with my eyes… it all hit me at once.

I was completely without mind chatter. With the combination of a slightly brisk walk, head up with my eyes looking at back and forth slowly across the horizon, and breathing, I found some sort of ‘hack’ that immediately allows you to feel what it’s like to be without mind chatter.

I’m not entirely sure how this works but it does, and it has worked on many people who I have taught it to. Try it out and let me know how it goes!

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