FOCUS!

The teacher that taught my driver’s education course my sophomore year of high school was an odd duck, may he rest in peace. He kept us busy. You probably won’t believe this, but during his class a student could expect to have a film being shown on a screen on one wall, an overhead projector (there I go again, dating myself) casting to a second wall, and him at a third wall writing on the blackboard (not whiteboard, this was the 80s) while lecturing. I’m surprised he didn’t have all four walls going, but, hey, the door and windows have to go somewhere. It’s a good thing learning how to drive is a hands-on experience, because only someone on a significant amount of caffeine could take in everything that was going on in that classroom setting.

Talking about that experience would probably give many of my classmates anxiety. When your brain is doing too many things at once, it can just shut down. Perhaps that isn’t really what goes on physically, but can’t you identify with that emotionally and mentally? I sure can. If you were to be grocery shopping with a set of four-year-old quadruplets that were each asking you to buy them five different things and needing ALL your attention RIGHT NOW, would you not pack up and go home? Or you might cave and spend money for each of them to have one toy so they could be distracted for 2.9 minutes while you get a gallon of milk and a loaf of bread and get out of there.

If it were me, I would never bring them to the store again until they could pay for their own stuff, say, at age 27. The next time I went grocery shopping, I might be tempted to do it in the middle of the night when they were safely tucked in bed and sound asleep so I could CONCENTRATE only on what I need and stick to my BUDGET. You with me?

This, my friends, is an example of what experts call MINDFULNESS. No, it’s not meditation, although meditation IS considered a form of mindfulness and is actually a GREAT practice for physical and mental wellbeing, but I’ll leave that for my sister who does the health blog. According to Kingsford, mindfulness is often described as “being fully aware of what is happening in the present moment without judgment” (see chapter 4, page 61 of her book “Brain Powered Weight Loss”). You certainly should not beat yourself up for bringing your preschool quad squad to the store, and you can probably cut yourself a break for caving and buying them each a toy, but let’s not let it happen again, shall we?

When you need to spend money, try Kingsford’s suggestions…limit the distractions around you (leave the kids with grandma or a friend), bring your attention to what you’re doing (silence your phone for an hour), pay attention to what you think and how you feel (see last week’s post “Remove the Specs”), be aware of your own bad spending habits (like adding stuff to your cart that is not on the list), and engaging in positive self-talk (“I am CHOOSING not to buy ice cream” which, by the way, is a win-win for the budget and the waistline).

Now take a deep cleansing breath.