I went for a nice, peaceful walk today. I chose the quieter area available to me, the arboretum with its paths through the woods. I wanted to commune with the winter songbirds and, also, to walk on paths shielded from the wind by tall pine trees. I saw two friendly chickadees, one determined woodpecker, and a fat tufted titmouse. We watched each other, which is the interesting thing about birdwatching.
Anyway, I returned home in a particularly peaceful frame of mind with a particularly open heart, and there in the mailbox was an advertisement for Shambhala Sun, a Buddhist magazine. And there, nestled in the marketing materials, was a letter from my teacher, Thich Nhat Hanh, writing about mindfulness, about how mindfulness is the miracle that makes happiness possible. And then it hit me.
To a certain extent, I've been seeing my WW process as a battle, as a fighting to stay within my point ranges and burn those calories through exercise. But the combination of birdsong and Thay's message reverberated, and shook loose this idea: What if I reframe this undertaking as a sort of mindfulness? What if I see this counting points as a form of food meditation, intended, as all forms of mindfulness, to create health? Why, it becomes a whole different thing, doesn't it? So this is my new frame: mindfulness.
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2 comments:
That IS profound. And it mirrors something I've seen, both in my own thoughts and in a long NYT article some while ago, where people who were most successful at maintaining a healthy weight saw any diet scheme they used as a lifestyle, rather than as a punishment.
I've had similar revelations of late about Chuck--instead of engaging in the self-recriminations, etc., what if i think about our relationship as the best one we could have had, given where we both were?
And, I must say, I'm really intrigued by the things you've been posting here.
They are definitely into the "lifestyle-not-punishment" mentality at WW. However...it's all peppy and motivational, which is great, but it doesn't always match my energy. I often (though not always) do better with a calmer approach. Getting up that much pep is sort of tiring to me. But mindfulness, that works.
I love your revelations about Chuck and your relationship with him.
Thanks for your kind words! It's been great hearing your feedback.
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