Not every day is sunny. We don’t wake up feeling the same every day and starting our day with motivation and excitement sometimes gets difficult. Now that every day looks more or less the same during this confinement.
Today it was more a type of misty morning, and my mind was a bit misty too. I had so many house chores to do, all that cleaning, tidying, laundry and cooking waiting for me. Sometimes I feel these are not the most exciting things to do, they can be so boring and burdensome to do. I wonder, does this ever happen to you? Just one more ordinary day …
But in the middle of my misty mind there was still a little ray of light cutting through, pointing towards what I could focus instead. I took a step back to observe all these foggy, heavy thoughts passing in front me. Just by that simple act of observing and distancing myself from them I was able to start shaking off the heaviness they were putting on me.
I was reminded how fortunate I now am, how fortunate I am to be able to have more time for everything. Like having a house to clean, food to cook, and clothes to wash. How fortunate to be able to have the freedom to decide when to do my meditation practice.
Then after an hour of sitting there with just myself and my mantra I remembered that I don’t need a sunny day to feel joy. I don’t need to eliminate all these chores from my routine to be happier. I just need to regulate my mind to adjust to my environment, because I am not the master of all the external circumstances in it.
I can’t change everything happening around me, so I remind myself that it is better to direct my energy toward regulating myself instead of the outside world.
The sun is already shining inside me, the bliss is residing within me whenever I am willing to find it and feel it. Then I set that as my intention for the rest of the day.
I remember a phrase from the Bhagavad Gita, one of the best-known Vedic scriptures. It’s where Lord Krishna tells Arjuna (his cousin and disciple), “Give your full concentration to discharging your duty and not to the result of your work. The result is with Me; all responsibility is with Me.” This statement made me notice I should not waste my energy and mind calculating whatever gain or loss there is for me in all that I need to do.
Then the magic happened. All these ordinary things on my “to do” list became a ritual, an offering, an act of love. I put all my attention, all my intention, and all my love in them. Attention, intention, and love were there in each breath, in every carrot I chopped and each stir of my lentils. They were there in the soft swaying movements when sweeping and mopping.
I am creating more beauty, health, and flow, around me and inside of me. Instead of more resistance I’m now remembering there is something so much greater than “me” that flows through all existence. And when noticing this and offering everything I do as an act of service towards that which is sacred in everyone, including me, everything changes.
In that act of serving and giving there is presence, attention, and love. There can be no resistance, just the openness and flow. To some this might sound too silly or irrelevant to share. But I think it might be useful to remember how we decide to feel and how we create each moment. Starting out unmotivated, I ended up by singing and enjoying my morning full of house chores, because I decided to shift my mind. That shift made them fun and filled with love, as an offering to the sacred life in me. An offering that extended to that breath within my breath. To my loved ones, to feeling happy, full and useful, and grateful to be of service to my family.
It is up to us to decide to put life into everything, to put joy and love into everything. Every little action and thing we do can become sacred in this way.
This conscious choice changed the whole start of my day. I had one of the most productive and happy mornings at home, just doing the ordinary. And guess what, after 4 hours of doing my chores the sun came out outside too.
Life is beautiful. Remember.
Find beauty in the ordinary.
May your day be filled with ordinary magic and the beauty of existence.
… Written by Andrea Navascués (Peru)