The exercise: Any time you find yourself waiting – whether in line at a store, waiting for someone who is late, or waiting for the “please wait” icon on your computer screen to go away, take this as an opportunity to practice mindfulness, meditation, or prayer.
For the majority of time that I was doing this exercise, I was pretty good. It helped a lot that I was staying at the Integral Yoga ashram in Yogaville Virginia, a mecca of mindfulness. I was there taking a training class in Yoga for Scoliosis with Elise Browning Miller, a senior Iyengar style yoga teacher. The ashram was actually an excellent place to practice this mindfulness exercise since there were many times I was required to wait.
Most notably you have to wait in line to get your food at mealtimes. Before the dining hall officially opens and you can go through the buffet line, there is also a Sanskrit prayer that has to be chanted. My one big mindfulness faux pas occurred on Friday night.
Up until Friday night, I remembered to chant and patiently wait in line. I offer the following facts in my defense:
1. Ashram food (especially in the winter months) at Yogaville is pretty basic. And I had been there for several days, faithfully eating my spinach, beets, and brussel sprouts.
2. The number of visitors to the ashram doubled over the weekend so there were a lot of people there. The lobby to the dining hall was packed with people waiting to eat. I later found out that most of the visitors were there cashing in a groupon that was run in the Washington D.C. area. Who buys a groupon to an ashram? But that is another story.
3. Dinner was pizza. PIZZA I say! With real cheese!
So on Friday night, when the doors opened, my caffeine deprived brain saw the pizza and I picked up a plate. Spatula in hand, poised to nab a piece, the prayer leader reminded everyone that we had to pray before we eat. Oops, I knew that. Caught, I put the spatula back down and hoped others would think I was one of the groupon visitors unfamiliar with the ashram procedures. Major mindfulness fail.
The up side of making a mistake is that you learn from it. For the rest of my Yogaville stay, I made sure to be very gracious and took my time getting my food. As the cliché goes, patience is a virtue.
To read more about the ashram, click here.
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| Lotus Meditation Center at Yogaville |
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