Has anybody noticed recently, how there seems to be a bit of an ‘era’ craze sweeping social media?
Every second person you come across seems to be either entering one….or leaving one, with the ‘soft life’ era and ‘flop era’ (ie. Failure… romanticised!) seeming to command the highest social capital.
From what I can gather, if you’re not dabbling in one of these self-determined epochs, well… you’re not doing it right, and to this end I’m leveraging the power of ‘if you can’t beat em, join em’ and officially declaring this my…
‘Moving the needle’ era.
I thought about calling it a ‘mindfulness era’, but ultimately decided this was too cheesy at worst… and an over-statement at best.
After all - if I’m honest - my ‘be more present’ game is (at the moment) pretty weak, and thwarted by all manner of school-summer-holiday shaped over-stimulus.
That said, the ‘more mindful me’ that’s hanging on the imaginary fridge door in anticipatory ‘after’ style - it’s a work in progress.
This end-goal that I’m aiming towards, in part, hinges on the priceless expertise of a professional Cognitive Behavioural Therapist, whose advice on ‘mindfulness’ was, in essence…to start small.
‘Start with the shower, and when preparing food’ she said.
In the latter case, the guidance centred on noticing the details… the textures, the smell, the colours!
Of all the daily opportunities to practice this exercise, the aftermath of my annual foray to the fruit farm… seemed as good as any.
It’s a tiny snippet in a 24-hour expanse of otherwise not-very-mindful moments, but I am starting to see now, how the effects of these micro-efforts might percolate into the surrounding time and space.
Some might argue that ‘intentional’ fruit prep, executed without regard for the peripheral child-shaped chaos simultaneously unfolding… it does not necessarily an ‘era’ make!
However, I would counter this by saying, with respect…'au contraire!'
After all, according to the trend’s etiquette, just the declaration of an intent (to pause and peruse more) is enough to make an ‘era’ so.
Not only this… the fruit chopping, I’m sure you know, is a metaphor.
A metaphor for a much broader chip-chopping of interests, priorities…attitudes, the mundanity of which is made all the sweeter, and more palatable, by some berry-shaped confetti!