WWWDWFB?

Yes, I am resorting to long-winded acronyms for the title of my blog. But I will pay you if you can figure out what it stands for. Well, that's actually a lie. But I am willing to dole out more than my share of cool points, replacing the awesomeness of any monetary gain. Pinky promise.


So tonight, my fine Interweb specimen, hear this. I am about to write a blog connecting the worlds of internet networking and meditation. No need to reread, my lovelies, you read right the first time. Tonight, meditation and Facebook are joined in coupledom. At least on the Swiss Cheese Channel.


Friday evening, I found myself wandering the myriad rows of books at Barnes & Noble. Again. I swear those people get sick of seeing me. If not now, very, very soon. Anyhow, I love reading the titles, seeing the colors on the spines of the books. I even like to feel a cover or two of a nicely textured binding. I know, I know. Don't judge me. Keeping  focus now..I stop in the Self-Improvement section, perusing titles, half-paying attention. Then I read the spine of this one. Nothing about it was dazzling; the typeface was vanilla. Nothing about the colors were exciting. But for whatever reason I read the title, and that's what made me slide the book out of its designated resting spot. It was called "Wherever You Go There You Are". Interesting concept if you think about it, no? So I opened the cover and read a few lines of the jacket. The more I read, the more I liked. "You, my little paperbacked friend, are coming home with me" I thought. And so it did.


(Don't fret, I will extinguish any hunger for the book's contents momentarily.)


During my Facebook travels this evening, I stumbled across a friend's status that read:

"there is a dull pain in my heart tonight....and its ok that its there. I'm just being with it."

My new paperbacked friend and I aren't very well acquainted yet, but the chapter I did read was on this topic exactly. My proverbial jaw dropped. After I cleaned up the "slobber" that was created by said jaw drop, I thought about the connection between what I read and my friend's status. In the intro of the book, the author (I feel very relaxed reading his writing, so I'm going to call him Jon) talks about themes of the book, the most prevalent being "mindfulness".


I'm a word nerd, so I took an immediate liking to this one. It just sounds peaceful. Being a major ideal in Buddhism, it would make sense to carry such a connotation. Jon says this about "mindfulness":

"Mindfulness is an ancient Buddhist practice which has profound relevance for our present-day lives. This relevance has nothing to do with Buddhism per se or with becoming a Buddhist, but it has everything to do with waking up and living in harmony with oneself and with the world. It has to do with examining who we are, with questioning our view of the world and our place in it, and with cultivating some appreciation for the fullness of each moment we are alive." 

I had to commend my friend for her recognition and appreciation of the pain she was referring to. Just "being" with that sort of feeling isn't easy. Pain obviously isn't a pleasant thing to chill with; oftentimes we wish time would speed up so we can be healed of whatever is ailing us. Sit with it. Welcome it. Understand it. In doing this, we sit with ourselves. We understand ourselves that much more intimately. Additionally, built into everyone's brain is something called the limbic system. This is the area specifically responsible for emotion. Consider that for a second. A whole blasted section of our brain is dedicated to the decoding and recognition of emotion. Don't waste it. Cultivate it.

I feel challenged. Having read and reflected on all that was just discussed, I have to share the depth of my experience. It truly was eye-opening, friends. Sipping on my chai latte*, sitting cross-legged on my floor in my comfy sweats, listening to nothing by my fingers move across the keyboard and the soft hum of the computer fan, I become aware of my thoughts, my feelings. I'm at peace. I'm powerful. I have the capacity to understand hurt, anger, elation, and everything else in between. Not only do I have the ability to understand these things, but now I know to stop and appreciate them too. Savor them. Carpe diem, bitches.


End hippy-dippy-cheese-wizz. 


Did you figure out the acronym in the title? I'll tell ya. What Would We Do Without Facebook? That's what it stands for. 

As always, thanks for reading. JenP, out. 


*A little bit of refreshing and random knowledge here..my friend Anna is Latvian (a Russian-speaking country), and she taught me this evening that saying "chai tea" is redundant, because in Russian, "chai" means..what's this? Tea. HA! So I will no longer be ordering a "chai tea latte" because who drinks a tea tea latte? Not this chick. I drink chaiiiiiii lattes. Indeed.