…no, not like that. What kind of blog do you think this is?!
I mean, who do you think about?
What argument do you play over in your mind? What hurtful words do you hear on your repeat? What stinging and witty comeback do you plot in minute detail? Whose birthday present do you plan?
I’m betting, if you’re anything like me, you don’t shower alone.
I find that, whenever I am without any distractions, my mind leaps to and fro: if I am not ruminating on a conversation I had yesterday, I’m worrying about a meeting I’m having tomorrow. I am rarely completely in the present.
Having a shower (or a bath) represents one of the only distraction-free times we have on a daily basis. No phones, no TVs, no laptops; just us and the drum-drum-drum of the water. I find that my mind tends to go wild. Sometimes, this can be a good thing; an inspirational thing. I even planned this blog post in the shower.
But usually, it’s not.
What if we used our shower time for something else?
Something I have been trying lately is to meditate in the shower.
For those who have images of me zoning out only to wake up half an hour later with someone giving me CPR… well that’s not what I really mean by meditation. I could talk endlessly about this subject, and why meditation and Buddhism in general greatly appeal to me (more on this in another blog post), but for our purposes here, when I say meditation I really mean mindfulness.
Take time to concentrate on what’s going on right now. With no judgments or values. The past and the future do not exist, not in any real sense.
What does the water feel like?
What can you hear?
What does your shower gel/bubble bath smell like?
What do the droplets of condensation on the cubicle door look like?
How does the foam bunch together on your hands?
What is your breathing like?
Be present, in the moment, right now. Really observe what’s going on.
You will emerge feeling rested, having given your brain a much needed break from all the to-ing and fro-ing. The health benefits of this sort of meditation are well-documented (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7319043.stm); but I find that the main benefit is just a rest from all that exhausting thinking.
And what’s more, you will have banished everyone else from your shower. That’s real alone time.