First of all, let me just start by saying that I am totally throwing myself under the bus on this one. You have undoubtedly heard the saying…”Be where your feet are.” Maybe you’ve even heard it from me as a theme in a yoga class or in a previous antics. BUT let the truth be told… just because we say it or write it, doesn’t necessarily mean that we always do it. Even those of us who teach yoga can be guilty of not always practicing what we preach. In fact, things that I’m struggling with in life often are my inspiration for a yoga theme or an antics. I figure if something is challenging for me maybe there’s someone else in the class who can relate and we can conquer this together.
Ok enough of a build up…and yes that whole first paragraph kind of sounds like a disclaimer…BUT…here’s the part where I throw myself under the bus.
Last Friday, I was working at BL. No one else was around. I was trying to get a bunch of things crossed off my list. BL, as you can probably imagine, is a big ship to manage. There is tons of behind the scenes busy work that has to happen to keep this ship on course. Some of the responsibilities are mine and some fall into Chris’ lap, but the vast majority of line items require both of us. Or, at least we both feel better being able to bounce things off each other. So back to Friday afternoon…I’m working in my office…I have a huge list of line items I’m trying to cross off before going home and everything left requires chatting with Chris. I’ve been trying to connect with her but she’s been busy and now the phone is ringing and it’s finally Chris. All the things I need to chat with her about are listed on a post-it in front of me. I put my phone on speaker phone so that I can chat with her while crossing off each thing on my post-it which is in my other hand. Somewhere in the middle of this conversation, I have ignored that fact that I have downed my whole ice tea and realize I need to head to the bathroom. I continue talking as I walk out of my office, through the Link and into the bathroom. And it’s only once i have sat down on the toilet and am mid-pee that I realize I am literally talking to the post-it that’s still held in my hand…not my phone!! As if it weren’t bad enough that my intention was to multi task by continuing to take my speaker phone conversation with Chris into the bathroom, I literally left my phone in my office and am talking instead to the post-it. The moment I realized I was sitting on a toilet talking to my post-it, I seriously thought to myself, “you’ve lost your mind.” Chris said later she just heard me talking and my voice fading away and then I was just gone…she’s wondering what the heck is going on at BL?? When I called her back to tell her, she agreed with me losing my mind.
Truth is…my mind is fine (no comments Chris). My ability to multi task, maybe not so good. This brings us back to “being where your feet are.” How often do we try to do two things at once and realize we are not doing either well. How often are we in a conversation with someone and instead of giving that person our full attention, we are formulating our response or rebuttal. How often are we laying on our yoga mats, planning the next part of our day. Throwing myself under the bus on this one…guilty as charged but perhaps it can serve as a reminder to all of us to “be where our feet are.”
Today let’s try and give each moment our full attention.
Don’t wait until you’re talking to a post-it and it’s not answering back to make this realization.
