This week, try every day to find a beautiful flower (yes, it can be the same one every day if you like) and spend five minutes just looking at it. Don’t label it or try to describe it mentally. Just look. Become one with the flower. Feel the inherent stillness present in it. Flowers are an easy access point for the stillness within all things, and in connecting with the stillness in the flower, you automatically connect to the stillness within yourself. My favourites for this one are orchids for their intense otherworldliness, but any flower will do. In fact, sometimes the simplest and smallest flowers hold the most wonder when really looked at without the interfering mind.
To continue this exercise throughout your life, buy yourself (or even better, grow yourself) a beautiful flowering pot plant for your desk. Then, every time you feel yourself getting sucked into the world, simply connect with your flower for a moment and feel the power of this simple meditation come to life (next thing I’ll have you hugging trees... Ha ha!).
Happy ogling!