Return, return, return | Essay Snacks 013
persistently and patiently
Our minds spend a lot of time wandering. By some estimates, it’s roughly half of the time (1).
When it wanders, it’s not focused on the task at hand. That’s part of the reason why meditation is difficult. To sit and focus on the breath while the mind wants to swing from thought to thought seems so simple yet daunting.
But if we know that the mind has this tendency to wander, then we wouldn’t fault it for doing so.
Instead, we’d focus on noticing when our mind has wandered and guiding it back to the breath. We’d focus on the return. It’s like when a child drifts off the trail over and over and the parent gently nudges them back on course. Again and again.
Most of meditation is about this persistent, patient return.
The same can be said for other aspects of life, too.
When we fall off our workout routine — we get back into it.
When we fall off our sleep schedule — we get back into it.
When we fall off our creative pursuit — we get back into it.
Instead of berating ourselves for falling off, we can embrace the return.
Because, it doesn’t matter how long we’ve been away for, as long as we eventually return.
The return is eternal.