The title of the above photo is "Mindfulness Rocks." As you probably figured out in the last 2 seconds, it's a play on words. Yes, stacking rocks is a mindful pursuit, and being mindful is a great thing to do. It "rocks."
Unfortunately, being mindful is counter to our culture of efficiency and multitasking. Endless distractions on the internet and elsewhere give the mind something to do all the time. It's the infinite loop of doing one thing while watching/listening/thinking about another thing.
We have this idea that doing two things at once is efficient and makes the best use of our limited time. There are things that we do that don't seem to require us to pay too much attention. For instance, I wash dishes while listening to the news on the radio. The dishes get clean enough, I learn a little more about what is going on in our world, and nobody has gotten sick from the dishes, yet. Seems like a win-win.
The stacked rocks above are at a Buddhist temple outside of Kyoto, Japan. To me, these are like a starter set of stackable stones, Flat and easy to work with. It's a good way to start with the idea of stacking rocks and advancing to more and more difficult stones to balance. The flat rocks require only the mindfulness of noticing what others have done and doing the same yourself. It does require some attention to not just walk past the garden and not see all the tiny stacked stones. Noticing the garden is an entry-level sense of mindfulness. Stopping to stack some stones yourself takes it a step further, if you aren't catching up on a podcast at the same time.
The past several months have been overwhelming for a lot of us. There is no denying that a lot is going on everywhere. No matter where you land in society's strata, the endless news cycle and available distractions take a toll. It is difficult, sometimes seemingly impossible, to stop the noise in our minds. The chatter of our inner-selves keeps prattling on, adding to the noise floor in our heads. Our culture pushes us to do more, achieve more, learn more, accomplish more, which seems to qualify our "always-on" brain activity.
Over the last several years, I have been thinking about and learning how to be more mindful. While washing dishes, I don't turn the radio on anymore. But then I thought about what else I had to get done before whenever. This mindfulness stuff is hard. I'm at the point now that I can think about nothing but the feel of the water and soap suds. I hear the clang of the dishes in the sink, smell the odor of the soap...and the trashcan, which reminds me I have to take that out and then sort the recycling and move the bins to sweep... So yea, at this point, I'm good for about 30 seconds to a full minute of mindfulness.
The dishes are my starter set of flat stacking stones. I'll keep working on being in the moment and ignoring the chatter in my head. I have considered picking up some stones on a walk in the canyon behind my house. Those stones are really round though. Indeed very difficult to balance, let alone stack. Those are most likely advanced stacking stones that a novice like myself shouldn't rush into. It's something I'll work up to. I know it can be done. I just need to think about not thinking about other things.
Thank you to Jonna Jinton, who inspired this article in part. Please take a look at her talent for mindfulness and being in the moment. It's pretty amazing. https://youtu.be/UqU19dR0bFE

Thank you for reading