Just for now

Across the street from where I live, there’s a park.

The perimeter of the park has a walking path that’s a half-mile around. The signs along the route refer to it as the Path to Health.

I’ve been using it more as a Path to Peace.

I leave my phone at home and walk loops around the park, running experiments in half-mile chunks.

On this loop, I’ll smile at every person I pass.

On this loop, I’ll feel my feet touching the ground.

On this loop, I’ll listen to the birds chirping.

Anything that requires tuning into my sensory experience and out of my thinking experience is fair game.

In between these experiments, I grant myself a loop where I let my mind go to whatever crazy, spirally, redundant places it wants.

One loop on, one loop off. Each mile is 50% conscious awareness, 50% free for all.

The more I engage with this practice, the less spinny my thoughts are on the “off” loop. In giving my monkey mind a rest, she’s slower to wake back up.

It’s not news that getting off screens, being outside in nature, moving your body, and tuning into the present moment is good for you.

What feels like a new awareness for me is the way the reward of letting my mind run wild for a defined period of time—of knowing that “freedom” is just a short half-mile away—incentivizes me to stick with it.

I don’t know why this is so helpful—and I don’t need to fully understand it. What I’m here to report is, this “just for now” approach is working. It’s bringing me peace.

Would you be willing to put aside whatever’s buzzing around in your brain, just for…

This car ride?
This shower?
This meal?

Then as soon as that car ride/shower/meal is over, give yourself another defined amount of time to go nuts.

On your second “loop,” you’re allowed to think, rationalize, justify, judge, scheme, tally, defend, calculate, examine, worry, predict, regret to your heart’s content!

You could do this exercise by setting an alarm on your phone—5 minutes of tuning into your senses followed by 5 minutes of thinking.

If that works for you, great. For me, that starts to feel like timed meditation, which I’ve never had much success with.

If you’re someone who struggles with meditation or other mind-quieting modalities, gives this a try and let me know if it helps.

You might discover your path to peace in an unexpected place.