Mindful Diner - Sitting in a place from the past, living in the present!

Lately I have been listening to a lot of Podcasts regarding running, triathlons, and overall working out. One thing that I have noticed is that many of these podcasts have some similar themes that go along with exercising and living in general.

That main theme that I have found in many of the podcasts is finding Zen and being very mindful about what you are doing.

Very brief history, the Shaolin Monks believed that enlightenment was found through exercise, and from what I know they used martial arts as that form of exercise. Anyway, many people now have taken those themes to running and working out and doing a ton of other things but with the underlying belief that you should be mindful in what you do.

"Okay Fred, why are you talking about this?" Well one thing that I have found is that as an adult we have lost our connection to "now" and we are always looking to "then"... two different thens, it will happen then, and it did happen then. We have forgot about NOW!

The disconnect is that children live in the now. I have been trying to incorporate this in parenting to help understand the girls as well as appreciate them more and more.

I am not the one to preach about this at all I find myself reaching for my camera before I ever get a change to relish that is going on now. I try to capture it now, so I can look at it in the then in the future... too bad I missed it then in the past.

Even on vacation I find that I take more time taking pictures than actually soaking in what I am looking at.

Our kids are growing up so fast that from one day to the next they will be different people. We need to be mindful of our kids and try to share the now with them. Get in there and color that dog in green and go outside of the lines! Take your shoes off and jump into the sandbox with them. Get Dirty! Roll around in the grass! Just sit and watch them work. Look at their face when you give them ice cream. Remember time goes from now to the past... not the future to the present!

If any of this means anything to you and you are interested in learning more please read up on it. Along with the girls I am really trying to be mindful about what I am eating as well. Think about how many times you eat a meal and don't remember what it actually tasted like. There is a lot of research about mindfully eating and becoming more full faster, and in turn losing weight.

Listen to this eposide of Running with Ghosts and it can give you a good understanding of what I am talking about.