19 May Who Do I Want to Be Right Now?
Someone recently told me they think about mindfulness as a way of choosing who you want to be right now. What a beautifully simple and profound description.
When faced with difficult situations, it is easy to let our emotions run the show. We may not pause to think about how we want to respond. Instead, we simply react. Our impulsive responses usually are not so helpful to the situation.
One of my favorite Viktor Frankl quotes is, “Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”
By practicing mindfulness, we can use the space between stimulus and response to decide who we want to be in that moment. In moments where I find myself stressed or frustrated or overwhelmed, I’m taking a moment to ask myself this question: Who do I want to be right now?
“Who do I want to be right now?” I ask myself in the car, waiting for someone to stop looking at their phone and notice the light has changed to green.
“Who do I want to be right now?” I ask when I’m focused on a project with a tight deadline and a colleague asks if I have a moment to talk.
“Who do I want to be right now?” I ask myself when the girls come into the room covered from head to toe in a shocking blue from an exploding science experiment.
Everyday moments shape so much of who we are. It is the law of little things. Moments that ripple. Behaviors that become habits. Small decisions, made consistently, end up having a big impact.
So far, this question is helpful for me. It’s allowing me a moment to pause in that space between stimulus and response.
Perhaps it will be helpful for you, too.