Pinecones

As I woke up one morning and looked out my window I saw a yard full of pine cones. It was absolutely crazy, I hardly saw any grass! I thought to myself:”Holy cannoli balls this yard is a disaster. I started feeling overwhelmed and got exhausted just looking at all the yard work!” 

After some deep breaths I decided to tackle the work. Wow, I was raking for a few days to clean the yard up and it was a workout!  After 1 hour of raking the pine cones up I noticed my breath becoming heavier, I was taking deep inhales and exhales through my mouth to get enough oxygen in me. I noticed my stomach tightening up, my arms and legs got stronger by moving and I started feeling sweat move down my forehead. I felt I was in an outside gym. I followed my breath and noticed the air moving in and out of my body. After a while, to my surprise I started actually enjoying playing with pinecones in the yard. Moving around from one end of the yard to the other end. It started feeling really peaceful and I was happy doing the yard work, which now had become “yard play”. I realized that when you approach work mindfully it actually becomes fun to do! Mindfulness helped me turn my chore into a playful fun task.  One swoop at a time the pinecones entered my rake and were off to the back of the yard. As I was raking I noticed the left over bits of pinecones that the squirrels ate, I noticed the animal poop in the yard, I noticed the wind on my face, I noticed how tall the pine trees were, I noticed the sun coming in through the clouds. As I was in the moment with everything around me I felt more and more relaxed. I was happy to see the green grass so nice and clean, I really enjoyed seeing a tidy yard. I was thankful for my rake, my body, the sun and the shoes I was wearing. Breathing in and breathing out I enjoyed my time cleaning up the yard. So remember to use mindfulness daily so you can turn your chores into play-time.