Mindfulness: how to feel the fun in your life

The current siutation with COVID-19 globally serves to remind us of how wonderful it is to simply wake up. We may feel our life is boring and from that conclude that we’ve no fun in our life. The same old monotonous things happen each and every day. Alarm goes off, get up, wash, eat breakfast, go to work, come home, eat dinner, watch TV/go for a walk and then it’s bed time again. Repeat the exact same thing for five days out of seven, 48 weeks out of 52, year in, year out. There is no excitement in that one could easily say. What I say is the fun is definitely there, but that we often don’t open our eyes, hearts and minds fully enough to notice the joy and excitement of our regular lives. Where to even start?

Well, first of all, let’s look at the very first part of this “boring” routine as an opportunity of another day. We wake up when the alarm goes off; let’s look at that act with our hearts, minds and eyes fully open.

I believe a lot of people reach for their phone when they wake up, please don’t

If when we hear the alarm go off every morning we could fully realise what that means; another morning I’ve woken up, another day I’m alive. Without putting too fine a point on it, the reality is many people all over the world will not have felt the sensation of waking up this morning.

I believe a lot of people reach for their phone when they wake up, please don’t. Think about how you’re framing your day when the first thing you give your attention to is some banal item from the internet.

When you do that you’re actually stepping out of your own life at that moment, believe it or not. Why would you do that to yourself? Why would you do something that steals the pure joy of waking up?

Noticing the life in your body could be the feeling of your breath or feeling your heart beating

The truth is; with our eyes, hearts and minds still asleep, we often just reach for the phone out of pure habit and without thinking.

Hear the alarm, realise you have another day at your disposal, tune in now to feeling the life in your body; so simple it’s almost absurd, but it’s so profound. For you could live a day without the phone but you could not live a moment without the life in your body; yet we give it so little attention when it is so, so precious. Noticing the life in your body could be the feeling of your breath or feeling your heart beating.

Then we ask ourselves, so what are we going to do with this life today? Let’s set an intention before we even get out of the bed. Examples of intentions can be:

This month we might try to embody our own inner tree pose, discover how we can move but also stay still, how we can be both steadfast and yielding, how we can bend without breaking.

Standing on the right leg, lift the left until your thigh is parallel to the floor, then open your hip by allowing the left knee to point to the left.

Place the sole of the left foot against the inner calf of the right leg. Lift both arms above your head, like branches reaching high above.

You may feel wobbly to begin with but once you focus you can remain steadfast even in the midst of those wobbles.

Stay here for three breaths to begin with before repeating the process on the other side.

Some will say that fun and play are for children, not for serious professional adults with grown up jobs and responsibilities. I couldn’t disagree more. For sure, there is a time and a place for joking, but having fun doesn’t necessarily mean making fun of something or someone.

You can have fun and enjoyment in your everyday simply by waking up to the wonder of your own life. Now, once again I know I may be inducing a lot of eye rolling but, if we cannot enjoy this life, if it’s all work and no play, then one would wonder what indeed is the point?

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