Mindful Moment #11 - Let's Get Granular

Life in the Middlespace

Existence is vast and yet minuscule in each moment of every day. You can get lost in the big picture of the universe, or so focused on a pixel-by-pixel view that you can’t even tell what you are looking at anymore. I think this dichotomy captures how we are asked to live in the modern world. We can watch global news in near real time while simultaneously using an app on our phone to track each and every step we take in a day. I can watch live sporting events happening on the other side of the planet while also puzzling through hundreds of shades of beige paint samples for my spring renovation project. How can there be this many shades of “beige?” Maybe I should be looking at the greens…

The shift between the “wide and distant” to the “small and close” sometimes feels like proximity whiplash, both mentally and physically. If you can’t shift gears quickly enough, you’ll end up stalling out. But there is a happy balance we can achieve somewhere between zoomed out and zoomed in that I like to call the middlespace. In the middlespace there is this glorious experience called “having perspective.” Sometimes it is so very hard to gain some perspective on what’s happening around us. Especially AS it is happening. At the very least, however, perspective allows you to give various aspects of life their proper weight. You can better define what your days mean and where your path leads when you can stop and find that perspective.

What Do Your Days Mean?

Time itself is of the essence. It’s non-renewable and easily wasted. Our days are just units of time, but fleeting and precious all at once. Sometimes we pressure ourselves into packing so much into various portions of the day that multi-tasking zooms us into compressed thinking, ticking down a list, whirling through tasks, and losing perspective. If we aren’t careful, the day slips away entirely this way, with little more than a sigh of tiredness at the end of it.

When we zoom out too far from the day-to-day, we put off our plans for later, procrastinating, or even adjusting the schedule to suit an attitude of non-urgency until…whenever. This does not bode well for our “grand” plans that get postponed for someday in the future. If we take the future for granted, we may find ourselves entirely missing the journey we always meant to take. Sure, plans can grind to a halt or money may run short, but defaulting to a mindset of “there’s always tomorrow” can easily expand into “there’s always next year.” If you can’t find the happy medium of the middlespace, you might find yourself surprisingly out of time.

Where Does Your Path Lead?

Choosing your path with the intention of customizing it to what you want out of life might seem a little more challenging to control. Unpredictable circumstances can cause your path to change whether you want them to or not, but keeping a middlespace perspective can help you stay grounded and able to adapt. Some people have the knack of being able to forge a path toward their life goals regardless of obstacles or roadblocks, while others of us get stuck somewhere along the way, spinning our wheels in the mud of indecision, swamping our engines with failed plans and busted deadlines.

Keeping a balanced perspective, however, helps you hone in on the problems and identify the issues. You can always try again. You can always alter your course. You can even change your mind, and start over at the beginning again. In the middlespace, you can keep yourself focused on the fulcrum between today and tomorrow. You can plot, pivot, and go for your dream. Even if you need to pause along the way to expand your view or look more closely, there’s always potential for progress, meaning there’s always a possibility for success.

The next time you feel that vastness of the universe keeping you too distant, or too disengaged, or when the minutiae of thousands of details have bogged you down into cross-eyed uncertainty, actively call on your sense of perspective. Consciously seek out the middlespace. Relax. Look around to get your bearings. Breathe. Refocus.

And give yourself permission to engage once again more mindfully.

Namaste.

-Amy

INSPIRATIONS THIS WEEK

We’re feeling inspired by these incredible and thought provoking pieces:

Astronomers use “galactic archeology” to solve a mystery about the Milky Way’s origins Astronomers dig into some forensic archaeology to determine how the Milky Way got its current shape after a series of mergers.
Mapping the Brain for Early Alzheimer’s DetectionA new study aims to map the brain from the onset of Alzheimer’s disease through the different progressive stages via neuro-imaging data to identify novel biomarkers associated with the disease at different stages.
Employers boost mental wellness benefits amid the Great ResignationThe Covid-19 pandemic drove home the demand for mental wellness benefits. The Great Resignation is showing the need for companies to follow through.

That’s all for today, y’all – remember, taking time to focus on you is an act of love.

We hope you found this helpful – don’t hesitate to reply with any feedback on how we can improve future Mindful Moments! We can’t wait to hear from you.