Let me first start by saying, I have been remiss in my posting and for that I’m sorry. With studying for the bar exam, traveling and then studying for the MPRE, I wasn’t doing as much writing as I would have liked. But I’m back!
The last exercise I left you with was to see the color blue. Although I haven’t written in quite awhile, I have been doing this exercise, if only intermittently.
The first thing I noticed with this exercise is that blue is everywhere! Whenever you’re outside, it surrounds you, from the blue sky to blue tones in many natural objects to blues on cars, roads, signs, houses, etc. But blue is, if anything, even more present when you’re inside.
Blue is a favorite color for consumer packaging. Look around and you’ll notice that so many consumer goods have elements of blue in their design. And blue is common in decorating as well: blankets, cushions, art, wall colors. At your home, in a store, in an office building: everyone loves blue.
But while blue does seem to be ever-present, this is as much a matter of fact as it is a matter of noticing. Swap green for blue and you’ll find green everywhere as well. Maybe not as much on consumer goods, but it’s everywhere in the grocery store and it’s also a favorite for decorating. Not to mention, of course, nature. It’s called the green movement for a reason.
And that is really the point of this exercise: that whatever we take the time to notice we will see. The world is so incredibly full that in order to survive we quite simply can’t notice everything. But we tend to take this to the other extreme and notice almost nothing. One important aspect of mindfulness is to notice your surroundings, whether it be what you’re eating, how you leave a room when you're done using it, the trees you see, the sounds you hear, or the colors you see.
So stop going through your life with blinders on: take the time to notice!
This week’s exercise is “Bottoms of the Feet: As often as possible throughout the day, place your awareness in the bottoms of your feet.”
