I have the unfortunate habit of reading while I walk. I’ve read chapters of textbooks, academic articles, even novels, while walking down office hallways and along city sidewalks. I just caught myself reading the front page of the newspaper while walking down the corridor toward my airport gate. I say “caught myself” because this is not something I want to do.
The Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh, in the opening chapter of The Miracle of Mindfulness, describes a conversation with a friend who popped tangerine sections into his mouth, chewed, and swallowed without missing a beat, the whole time they talked. He chided his friend that even though he had consumed the tangerine, he hadn’t really eaten it. He barely tasted it, let alone savored it, and he may as well not have eaten it at all. Others echo this notion that living fully means attending to whatever we do, whether washing the dishes, mowing the lawn, making music, or balancing budgets. This anti-multi-tasking mindset not only enhances our lives, it is also, according to recent studies, the only way to do anything well. Humans, no matter how hard they deny it, are not wired to focus fully on two things at once. (See, for example, http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/brain-wise/201209/the-true-cost-multi-tasking)
Two things help me to do a single thing. One is noticing when I’m not doing that. For instance, when I find that I’ve begun wandering around the house while brushing my teeth, I take myself back to the bathroom sink and make an effort to feel the bristles against my teeth, gums, palate, and so on. The second is to narrate my motions when I realize I’ve been mindlessly rushing ahead. For example, when I just tore my attention away from the newspaper en route to gate A3, I said to myself things like, “I am breathing, I am lifting my foot, I am shifting my weight to the other side, I am putting my heel on the floor, I am rolling toward the ball of my foot…” Sounds like a lot, but it all happens in an instant, and then I am more aware of my body, my surroundings, and a sense of the big picture.
If all we get is one moment at a time, and if life, ultimately, is what we do with the series of moments we’ve been given, then I think it makes sense to live each one as fully–as mindfully–as we can