The Little Things

Posted by Elise Mitchell on August 17, 2014

There are so many reasons to invite more mindfulness into one’s life. The reasons are as plentiful as the practices themselves. One of the subjects regarding mindfulness that I enjoy teaching most is, “Indulging the little things.” The implications of enjoying the subtle and simple are far reaching in ways that can surprise and inspire.

The Western world buzzes with ever broadening concepts of bigger, grander, more extreme, more exciting, the ULTIMATE! This has led to a desensitization of our own senses. If the mind is not getting absorbed into the latest extreme (drugs, video games, risky behavior, social media, etc.), it’s bored. It’s like trying to enjoy the sweetness of a carrot when you’ve been drowning your taste buds in Jolly Ranchers. Perhaps even more tragically, with the preoccupation of ‘bigger is better,’ people are losing their own inherent sense of grandness. Their own life just can’t compete with the externalization and exaggeration that Western culture has so astutely embedded into our modern psyches. International Yoga and Tantra teacher, Mark Whitwell writes this beautifully:

We experience life vicariously in the movies, where there are always lots of adventures, while we live our own regular lives in comparative isolation. With our attention of the make-believe realities, we do not see or feel our own nature. We allow the celebrities to have all the fun—at least in the media—while our regular life drones on. Our cultural and social mind create the dichotomy of imagined, brilliant otherness, where all the good stuff happens, while we are blinded to the miracle of our own flesh and energy. We have developed a passive relationship to the main script—our own life where everything is happening.

—Mark Whitwell, Yoga of Heart, 2002

We see this repeatedly in the youth and young adults of our program. Disillusioned, overwhelmed, depressed, and numb to the inherent magic in their own lives. This trickles down into deeper disconnectedness from the “little things” that are, in truth, the BIG things. Thankfully, the wilderness can help to unburden Screen Shot 2014-08-17 at 7.37.25 PMthe mind and heart from the distraction of “more is not enough” consciousness and return us to the sanity and sanctity that “we are enough.”

It’s like trying to enjoy the sweetness of a carrot when you’ve been drowning your taste buds in Jolly Ranchers.

I was honored recently to witness this shift in a client with whom I had worked several times at the Oasis. He had been a part of a class I teach simply referred to as, “Indulging the Little Things.” We explore the subtle profundity that we can generate or tap into by mindfully enjoying a piece of fruit. The texture, the color, the memories that surface with aroma, the flavor, the simple enjoyment of slowing down and how it can enhance or engender favorable moods. The next month, when I saw this client again, he had just finished a parent visit. What he shared with me and the group was beyond affirming to the power of mindful indulgence of life. He was in tears as he described the details of the visit. He compared the life he was living previous to Second Nature and how numb and unaware he had been toward his connection to family. Now, in the wilderness, detached from the over-stimulation of the front country, peer pressure, and drugs, he could appreciate the significance of having a simple conversation with his dad, sitting under a juniper tree. Noting the details of his dad’s face, he looked at me and the group and said, “I didn’t realize until now what it really Little THingsmeant to indulge the little things.”

When we reconnect to the present through any variety of mindfulness practices, whether taught or spontaneous, we are reclaiming the richness that is our life. When we stop seeking “better and more,” which perpetuates the belief that we are lacking and are inherently flawed, we can heal the wounds inflicted by the feelings of inadequacy toward ourselves and our life as it has been given to us. This is the gift of mindfulness. This is the gift of the wilderness.

Elise Mitchell is the Health and Wellness Coordinator for Second Nature Entrada. To learn more about Second Nature for Adults contact one of our admissions counselors.