Week Eight: Have you packed your parachute today?

As a child growing up in the Lake District, in a small fishing village called Flookburgh, I often found myself looking up at the sky watching the latest group of thrill seekers hurling themselves out of a plane which had taken off from the local airfield. Like lemmings falling from a cliff, I would watch as the tiny ants in the sky, hurtling towards the ground below, miraculously grew wings in the form of parachutes as their ripcords were pulled, scattering the sky with flashes of colour. I’d often imagine the sense of relief that the jumpers must have felt as their parachute leapt out of its bag, jolting them back to reality, halting their free fall experience, protecting them from the danger waiting below. Just moments ago they'd been stood 'on the edge' ready to throw themselves from a plane flying 10,000 feet above the ground. Voluntarily. These people had paid to jump out of a plane. They'd chosen to make themselves uncomfortable and to go against all of their human instincts in order to experience something new. Brave souls, seeing my village from a new perspective, one which until drones came along I wondered if I would see in my lifetime without boarding that plane myself. 

Free Falling

Just like those parachutists, that I used to stare up at in the sky admiring, we all need a safety net. Something, or someone, to catch us when we are at risk of, or have already, fallen. It would be easy, given the amount of flying I’ve done in the last few weeks, to also compare this to the instruction given to us all by flight attendants to secure our own oxygen mask first in an emergency. Allowing us to breathe and focus on what's ahead. But I like the parachute analogy better, a little less dramatic and a more proactive solution to coping with potential challenges you can foresee ahead of you. When you’ve spent as many months as I have walking out of the door wondering what the day ahead of you will bring, it’s important to know that you have a toolkit ready to help you respond, positively, to an ‘emergency’ that might come your way. Mindfulness has become my parachute, along with a greater appreciation and reconnection with the people around me. A way to stop me from free-falling through life. 

Mind the Gap

Ask yourself this question: 

How often do I check-in with myself to reflect upon what I’ve managed to achieve? 

Probably nowhere near often enough, or as much as you used to? You might even only do this when you are forced to, for example, when preparing for an appraisal at work?

We live in a time packed with distractions. Distractions which take us off-course, shift our focus, often destroying any hope that we might have once felt of achieving a sense of completeness. Tasks seemingly roll from one into another, as deadlines move, circumstances and priorities in our personal and professional lives change, adding unnecessary pressure to our lives. Making us anxious and more stressed than we have ever been before. Somewhere along the way we’ve lost what Williams and Penman call ’the gap’. The time to take stock and reflect on what we’ve achieved and what we aspire to focus on next. Worried that if we stand still for too long that we’ll be left behind by this frantic and frazzled world in which we all live. But this gap is important, punctuating our life and allowing us to be truly present, living life to fullest, in the now, the best version of ourselves. 

Some of the ways in which I've aimed to punctuate my life more frequently have included:

• Meditating. I won't pretend that I've stuck religiously to the exercises set, but I've found a couple that work, and just the act of sitting and doing nothing but breathe has been surprisingly liberating at times.
• Completing mindful activities. Potting plants in my garden. Building a Lego bus (yes Lego, it's the adult version...). Going to the cinema, alone. Taking a walk around Clapham Common with my favourite podcast. Reading. No phone surfing allowed.
• Exercising more. This has boosted my energy and is helping me to sleep better. It's also given me confidence back. Some strut back into my walk.
• Talking about what I'm experiencing. Opening up to those around me and sharing what I'm going through has broken down walls that I'd built around me.

Finding peace in a frantic world

It’s this which I am most thankful for at the end of my eight-week journey. The mindful habits that I've embraced where I consciously dedicate time to the things that matter to me and stopped trying to multi-task. It was hard at first - the temptation to check my social media, and emails was not, and is still not, easy. But I’m finding more and more each day that when I commit the time to one soul activity that I’m feeling more energised and better connected with myself, the world and the people around me. And as I become more aware of this, all of those negative thoughts that once plagued me are beginning to fade to grey. My tunnel vision has widened and I’m spending less time lost in my own thoughts spiralling towards the ground, and more time focusing on those important next steps into my future. The only time I plan to find myself free falling in the future might just be the moment I take that leap from the plane in Flookburgh myself…

Have you packed your parachute today?

Happy #MindfulMonday and thank you for allowing me to share my journey with you since April :)

Week Eight is the rest of my life.

Previously - Week Seven: Learning to dance (again)

From the beginning - Week One: The raisin I'm being more mindful on Mondays