Pan 8 - When washing dishes becomes meditative.....

That's as 'present' as it gets.

What faizan does in half hour, I think is taking me an hour or more.

The difference? for her it's a job, plus she has the expertise.........for me neither. Over the last ten days it has grown into an activity of 'being in the present'. 

Plus, cleansing is potentially meditative (pun intended)

Meditation is no easy ask. Keeping the mind free of thoughts comes with a lot of practice, and honestly, though I've been at it for years, 'the stillness' or 'trance' or 'connect' or what have you...will still come when it wants to and not when it doesn't. You just can't make it happen.

And when one is in overwhelmed space, as I've been over the last couple of weeks, it's becoming more and more challenging. I haven't given up, but the body just takes over, and it's so tightly wound right now, that the simplest meditative tool of calming is also not working.

And that's when dishes have become cheat code :)

Steel and glass lend themselves to cleansing so beautifully. Atleast visually (thankfully we can't see the microbes :).

The whole process of starting with a sink full of dirty dishes, and ending with a tray full of sparkling dishes can actually be enriching, especially if you surrender yourself to the process. 

It went from being a chore, to a space I actually found fun and engrossing..... not to speak of the fact that the more stubborn ones like the cooker and frying pans are actually looking nicer than in the pre-covid era :)

Who'd ever think a picture like this would come onto the blog. Well....'life's changed' is not for nothing.....it's today symbolizing 'messy and meditative'.

That's when you realize that the choice is not just in 'what you do', but also in 'how you do what you do'.