Days of Mindfulness

I had nice morning doing the usual. Yoga in sun, replied emails, studied wireless connection in Ubud further to find the most economical cost, and… more cleaning. I found out living in Ubud is not as clean as I thought, similar to living in Jakarta and Malang. In Jakarta we deal with pollution with black oily dust. In Malang, we have volcanic mountains that often burst ash. In Ubud, we have thatched roof and all kinds of animals: spider, ant, gecko, little lizard (tjitjak), rats perhaps,.. It’s so hard to keep inside house clean at all time.

I wiped clean my wooden stairs this morning. It looked clean but I know it could be more. Not that I’m freak, well I am freak, but I could see it’s dull. I’m happy with the result, like my jalousie, the wood shines now. I don’t know how long it will last. I remember my Bali staffs liked to tell me when I asked them to clean the shop often It won’t be long..., Ibu. Ya ya.. but something has to be done :-)

And just now I got an idea to clean my fridge. I was disturbed since I saw it for the first time. I never saw such dirty fridge before. Many black spots in the interior, and the rubber… yeeew! Three months ago, I managed to clean the shelves, interior, and exterior walls but not the insulation rubber and interior door. I don’t know why the rubber was not wipeable.

I took my milk cartoon out when I spotted the yew again this morning. I had an idea. I tooth-brushed it with strong cleaning agent from Amway I have for metal. I tried and it worked perfectly. The black spots melted and became like black paste. It’s yew but I continued doing happily. I did it thoroughly not to miss a spot. Minutes later I closed the fridge door satisfied. I hope it stays clean loooong time. I smiled looking at the brand again. Don’t tell me because of the brand. It’s Indonesian male name – Tanto.

I’m going to create something now. I also have ideas for necklace but the bad news is I forgot bringing my tools. I might have to go downtown to buy tools for emergency. It’s 10:20 now. Nice mild sun outside.

Yesterday I read the excerpt of a book titled The Miracle of Mindfulness by Thich Nhat Hanh about ways to be mindful. I’m happy to know that I had been in the right track. He mentioned about:

- ‘breathing’: I had watched my breathing through yoga, at least.

- ‘self-watching’: When I was kid, Mama liked to ask why I cried. I feel like I have to have reason to cry. Now I see why. She had taught me to observe my sadness. And it’s true, through observation, my sadness subsides because I know what it is.

- ‘the half-smile’: I like adopting a half-smile since waking up. First, I half-smile for waking up nicely. Then, I half-smile for a morning with hope to have a nice day. And the rest of the day, a half-smile becomes my accessory. Even now I’m able to have full-smile from heart when check-in counter says Your name is not in our system, Mba like when I flew here. I smiled. I asked him What’s your plan? Of course, I got a seat. Half-smile enables me not to be lost in my emotions. There’s always ways anyway.

- ‘a day of mindfulness’: Nhat Hanh encourages us to devote a whole day in the week to the practice of mindfulness. Take plenty of time to clean the house (which I’d done often) or have a bath (sure!), not rushing anything. Do everything slowly and deliberately (I only adopt this recently, I need to practice more because I have quick movement nature, especially in Jakarta).

- ‘mindful meditations’: Thing that hasn’t become my ritual is meditation. Like be quiet for a moment (20-30 minutes?). I still have issue in quieting mind but I could enjoy doing things with mindfulness. Let me see if I can also develop this :-)

I told my friend last night that I’m afraid I’d been addicted to being mindfulness because then I start to be anti-social. He sees it from different point of view. Addicted to mindfulness gives power and awareness. That’s very true and that makes me happy :-)

So how’s my day today? With mindfulness, I manage to do a bit of everything like I wanted yesterday. I did some cleaning of course, I gave touch to two tiny oil paintings I bought in Pasar Ubud last month, I designed some necklaces to be developed in the next days, I walked downtown slowly, I stopped by some places to chatting with nice persons I know, I had nasi in a nice stylish warung after days of not, I took time while walking to study what I can do in Ubud, I studied the coming Ubud Festival program,… Not bad for a day.

Tomorrow is my time to be social. I have plan to meet up with some close friends.

Photo of red Buddha in Ubud House.