I had an important meeting last night, in which I had to share my screen. To ensure all the right things are accessible to me when I need them, I closed out everything that wasn't important and I didn't need. My chrome probably had 40 different tabs that were open from the past week. I read a few of them at a time, made notes and moved forward. But I often end up having more tabs that I can read at a time.
These Tabs and the To-do list had been eating away at me for some time now. But as I closed the tabs last night, I suddenly noticed the heaviness of having things to do completely went away. I felt light, very light. This is a feeling I am familiar with. In meditation, I have felt this lightness quite often, and that's when the answer to an old question came to me.
What is mindfulness meditation? To slowly close all the metaphorical tabs open in your mind, come back to the moment now and focus only on your breath. In fact, the act of focusing on your breath slowly closes the metaphorical tabs in your mind.
The best part? You realise later that you didn't need the tabs in the first place. You feel light. The weight of the world goes away from your shoulders. I really enjoy that feeling. This of course is an oversimplification of what mindfulness meditation is, but it gives you the right flavour of it.
Do the tabs open again? Yes, at first, by themselves, but with practice, they open exactly when you want them, and once their job is done, they close by themselves. And that is the beauty of it. You slowly gain back control of the things you can control, and you start practising acceptance for things you can't.
Maybe try this today? Close all the tabs today before you go to sleep. Once you wake up, I can promise you, you will feel lighter and realise that most tabs were unnecessary in the first place.
Love,
Rishi