Mindfulness in your day to day

Yesterday, I flew back from Baltimore to San Francisco with a layover in Salt Lake City. On our way to Salt Lake, we had a medical emergency and the plane had to be diverted to Columbus. It was a bit scary as I wasn’t able to see what was happening back there, but I can only imagine what this man was going through. We got to Columbus safely and the man who needed medical attention seemed to be doing okay.

It was a scare but it seemed that everyone was safe so I was grateful for that. I ended up getting to Salt Lake late and ended up missing my connecting flight by 15 minutes. While any empathetic human being would say that this stop was necessary, it was obviously a minor inconvenience for myself and perhaps a bigger inconvenience for others on the flight.

I was put on the next flight but had a 3 hour layover. During this time, I got some food, meditated, and cranked out some work. Many years ago, an experience like this may have put me in a spiral and stressed me out beyond belief. I can imagine my thoughts running through my head.

“Ugh… I lost my entire day.”

“What am I going to do in Salt Lake City for 3 hours?”

“I just want to be home.”

Of course, it’s a human reaction and I had some of those reactions as it was happening, but like clouds in the sky, these thoughts passed and I was able to make the best out of my day. This is just one very simple example of what mindfulness has done for me over the last few years.

Mindfulness is not about blocking out these negative thoughts. It’s about accepting them as they are. Being mindful allows you to process your thoughts and thinking in an accepting way. In practice, this leads to thoughts such as:

“I want to be home earlier, but I can’t so I’m going to make the best of my time here and not waste it.”

Being mindful is an amazingly powerful tool. It’s a completely transformative mindset that can be a huge stress relief…. and make flight delays a LOT better.