Most of us are very busy with the time we spent in our life. We have to wake up early in the morning, get dressed, wash up, eat breakfast and get ready to go to work. And those who have kids are even more busy, because we have to get the kids ready also for daycare or school. Once we reach work and then we get busy with our own job duties that we have to perform. We get pretty tired close to noon and then we are rewarded with a lunch break, to refill our gas or charge our human physical and mental batteries. Once we are done eating lunch and we feel more energized, but sometimes when we overeat, we get sleepy and tired. I had that experienced few times and learned my lesson.
After lunch break, we start with our duties again, but with less energy than in the morning. We get even more tired close to end of the shift because we have used most of our battery energy at work and it’s saying low battery again. Once our shift end, we feel relief and happy knowing that our work is finished, and we can go home now. We walk fast to our car and rush to get home. And those who are parents, have to stop by school or daycare to pick up their kids. The kids are very tired also, being at school or daycare all day. And they are bit crabby and yell at you. The parents are also tired from work and start yelling back at the kids and get into big argument. Until one of them settles down and apologize or stop talking back and forth. I had this moment with my daughter few times, my daughter wins most of the time, lol.
Once we get home, we spend time with our kids, or watch tv and rest a bit. And then we have to make dinner and its already bedtime. Time sure flies by really quick. After dinner, we brush our teeth, wash our face and off to bed. Most parents read bedtime story to their kids until they fall asleep. Those who don’t have kids, tend to stay up bit late, because knowing they don’t have kids and less responsibilities and more time to go to bed and sleep. And then the next morning our daily routine starts all over again. Most of us feel very tired and don’t want to get up early in the morning, but knowing we have to get the kids ready for school, and those who don’t have kids, know that we have to get to work on time also. Sometimes we feel very stressed and anger, and ask ourselves, “Why do I have to go through this, why me?” We feel hopeless and we can’t find any answers to the questions in our confused brain and mind. I had this feeling of confusion many times before.
And then one of my close friends, Sherab introduce me to mindfulness meditation by Mingyur Rinpoche on YouTube. I watched his video and started practicing breathing meditation. I practiced breathing meditation every day and my mind started to become calm and peaceful. I also read books of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, The Art of Happiness. Those who don’t know the Dalai Lama, he is a great philosopher, philanthropist and a noble peace prize award winner in 1989. In his book he taught how to practice analytical meditation, which means looking at a situation from different angles. For instance, if it’s snowing outside and cold, instead of thinking from one angle, I hate the snow and cold, but looking from another angle from positive side, even though it’s snowing outside and cold, but I am very thankful and grateful to be inside a house, nice and warm. And looking from another angle, many poor homeless people, who don’t have a shelter are sleeping outside, in the snow and cold. So, I shouldn’t complain about this weather, instead I should think positive, I am very thankful and grateful for what I have. So, this is an example of analytical meditation.
Every morning, I started doing breathing meditation and analytical meditation. I would sit in a quiet place and remind myself, even though it sucks to wake up early in the morning and have to go to work, but looking from another direction I am very thankful and grateful to be able to wake up, able to breathe, able to open my eyes to see, able to hear, able to get up to walk, able to use my hands, able to have this human precious one life and have this human great intelligent brain and mind. Looking from another, many people out there can’t get up in the morning, many are blind, many are deaf, many can’t walk, can’t talk and many passed away. And many people who live in the poverty don’t have a job and dying from starvation. So, from this logic reasoning, I shouldn’t think negative and complain about my life and be thankful and grateful for what I have. And instead of asking question, “Why me?” I should ask “Why them?” When we think only about our self and our problems, we blind ourselves from seeing other people’s problem. And because of this our own problems seems very big but when we think of others’ problems, own problems seem very small.
This daily analytical and breathing meditation helped me a lot. When every morning I greet people at work, “Good morning and how are you doing today?” and they reply back “Ok”. And then they ask me,”How are you doing today?” I answer, “Thankful and Grateful”, my coworkers and other employees look at face and smile at me, with this answer. Few people told me that, they love my positive reply, Thankful and Grateful. We have this great intelligent human brain and mind, and also have the freedom to choose our own answers. So why not train our mind to transform our negative thoughts to positive thoughts. And life is very short, it’s better to be thankful and grateful for what we have, because tomorrow is never guaranteed. Good think, thankful and grateful is free, so you don’t have to pay lots of money to buy this luxury vocabulary, lol.
I would love to hear your thoughts and opinions about; how do you deal with your daily routines and share with us so it can help others. And also, I would love to know what you think about my daily mindfulness routines that I use, of being thankful and grateful every day.