While I was standing naked in the shower this morning (note: the author cannot be held liable for detrimental psychological effects of the mental images evoked by his blogging), it occurred to me that I was barely aware that I was showering. My body was going through the motions of shampooing, soaping, and shaving, but my mind was elsewhere. I thought of CatGirl’s jogathon (with resentment, since I usually volunteer at the event, but my work situation prevented me from doing this year), of the servers we moved last night and of the calls that I would likely get this morning when data connections failed (which they didn’t, thankfully), of the readings for school not getting done and blog posts not getting written because of increased duties at work.
The shower was a microcosm of my worries and fears.
Then I struggled to remember if I had just washed my hair. I realized how mentally non-present I was, and tried to keep my mind in the shower and focused on the feeling of the warm water on my head and back and of fingers massaging my scalp. I drifted in and out of the shower (ironically, mentally writing this post). The moments that I was in in the shower, I could feel my breathing slow and my shoulders relax. When I was mentally back in the office, my whole body tensed.
So here’s the challenge for the week: take a shower (or engage in some other activity, like washing the dishes, playing with a child or going for a run), and try to be fully in the moment. Were you successful? How did you feel? Do you find it easy or difficult to be fully present, fully aware? Or like me, do you have what Buddhists call “monkey-mind,” forever jumping from past to past, future to future, and rarely sitting still in the present?
5 responses so far ↓
1 pilgrimgirl // Mar 28, 2007 at 3:27 pm
I’m actually fairly mindful when I shower. I do this purposefully because in water I relax so much better than anywhere else. Honestly, if I wasn’t so anti-materialistic, I’d want a waterfall in my house. Kinda like that waterfall shower at the Madonna Inn except w/recirculation so it was going all the time.
2 Chili Pepper // Mar 29, 2007 at 12:57 am
I’m rarely aware of myself when I shower. I hop in, soap up, shampoo, and hop out, in that order.
For journeygal, however, it’s a ritual, one of a kind. Our water bill can prove it!
Warm water, I guess, is her private love affair. But not so private when our water company bills us. 
3 Elise // Mar 29, 2007 at 9:02 am
LOL. My dream some day is to have a jacuzzi right outside my back door…..until then, steamy showers will have to do.
John, my biggest hang-up when it comes to being mindful is my habitual multi-tasking. It is amazing and scary at the same time that I can cook dinner, surf the internet, read a magazine, talk on the phone, and sweep the floor simultaneously. Or how I can eat breakfast while driving to work, talking on the phone, and listening to talk radio. Yikes. Being mindful for me means doing one thing at a time. Sometimes this takes longer, but the quality of what I am doing is usually improved. For example, I do enjoy cooking from time to time, but I get a lot more fulfillment out of it if I *just* cook, as opposed to the situation above. Music is the same way - occasionally, when I *just* listen to music, without doing anything else at the same time, I end up really refreshed after just a few minutes.
It is quite difficult for me to do one thing at a time, being mindful as well. It feels inefficient and reserved for an occasional luxury rather than a way of life.
4 Miko // Mar 30, 2007 at 10:16 am
I do my best thinking in the shower…I’ll have to try turning that off. I actually accidentally managed this while making lunch yesterday. I was very present in the stripping of meat from bones, which is rare for me. I usually have NPR or my iPod on.
5 Miko // Apr 3, 2007 at 11:09 am
Wow. That’s…damn hard. Usually, the shower is where I think: plan the day, organize my thoughts, &c. Today, I couldn’t do anything but think. I thought about my response here, what I need to do today, Sesame Street songs, an article in Wired about showering, food in general, nuts in specific, shopping in general, grocery shopping in specific, TV shows, books, a post I’m thinking about, posts I’ve read recently…just about the only thing I didn’t think about is a white bear.
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