Magic in the Mundane!

If there's one thing that can make a day seem humdrum, its a daily commute, taking the same route and transport day in day out whatever the season, don't you think?

I have a particularly punishing commute as we get up and out to catch a 6.20am ferry from my small island over to Hong Kong and I am in my artroom at 7.00am! Yes and it is dark at the moment !!!

Recently I decided to spice up the mundane routine by taking a few photos along the way either in the morning or on the way home, I posted these daily on Facebook for a month. To my surprise I got all sorts of feedback,  I realised I was giving people overseas a small window into my world and local friends started to comment upon how my photos were helping them to stop and stare too..........................

It's so easy to rush along the same old trek, our attention settling upon what's to be done that day, without particularly noticing the world out there, isn't it !! 

Somehow the taking of these photos and thus focusing upon the world around me, offers me two rather lovely gifts...........one is the ability to collect magical moments, like these fabulous drying fish......and the other is that I feel I am creating a conscious connection to the wider world, which is a great way to keep a handle on perspective!!

I recommend it!

In the meantime I have also joined a month long photo challenge with 2 friends and that has continued to give me a lovely creative project each day, as well as the drive to try and perceive something "ordinary" with new eyes!

A utensil

Favourite drink

Seeing something Magical in the Mundane is a great way to pause and give our full attention to something, to actually take a moment to be "Mindful". Vietnamese monk Thic Nhat Hanh says that Mindfulness is a particular way of paying attention to whatever our experience is, in the present moment, without preference or judgment. It allows us to clearly perceive our own thoughts, emotions, physical sensations, sensory experiences and events as they occur, Mindfulness asks us to engage our full awareness and all our of our senses.


Water

Full awareness and engaging all of our senses means Paying Attention, which happens to be a key part of a Wild at Art Weekend Retreat, and I know how hard it is for people in a big city to shift gears and achieve that! 

Try it yourself :

Stop reading for a moment, sit back and look around you and see what can you see……notice the colour, shapes, textures, and detail. Let your eyes alight on what is all around you, play with your awareness by opening it to include as much as your eyes can take in, now isolate aspects…….what do you notice? Where do your eyes lead you …….Sometimes shifting our attention to images rather than our inner dialogue can be a means of achieving relaxation. It allows the mind to rest and replenish.

I bring you a lovely Mindfulness exercise from Thic Naht Hanh, on the delicious experience of eating an orange................... 

Meditation on an orange (click here)

                                      

    Orange

Till next time my friends, stop and take a look around you today, have a mindful moment, see where your attention takes you Have Fun
Katie xxx