When you have no time to meditate, meditate all the time.

I headed outside yesterday with the intent to sit under a tree and meditate for a while.

But things don’t always happen as we plan them. Loik absolutely wanted me to play with him in his snow castle, the dog was going crazy running after the cats and there was a good 2 feet of packed snow to remove from the balcony that wraps around the little pink house.

I would have loved to indulge in my need for a peaceful, meditative moment… and ultimately, I did.

I’ll admit that I felt a twinge of frustration because I knew I’d be shoveling snow for an hour or so and I secretly wished that Loik would play with Jack for a few minutes but I learned a while back that I don’t have to be sitting in a lotus position with incense burning to be able to meditate and center myself.

So, I played “princess, knight and snow dragon” for a while as Jack, Bonsai and Willow became friends again and then, when everybody was content, I headed over to the balcony to take care of the task at hand.

I took 3 deep breaths and 2 different shovels and I began to meditate; clearing my mind and the balcony all at once. How’s that for multitasking! The bonus was that I meditated for much longer than I would have had I sat in lotus position (my legs tend to fall asleep) and a really unpleasant and back breaking job became a cathartic experience! The snow became a metaphor for the heavy negative feelings I’d been accumulating.

I think I’ll start applying this technique the next time I wash the dishes or clean out the cat litter! Try it! Let me know if it works for you!

Namaste

Yanik