The way my mind works as of late is akin to that of the ‘Tasmanian Devil’. I am constantly shifting focus. As a hospitalist, and probably like a lot of other types of physicians, I find myself switching my train of thought often every minute. Triggers of course are the barrage of pages, cell phone texts, acute patient care issues and the list goes on. Honestly, I was fine with this pattern because it has been going on since the beginning of my residency years, but now that I have a child….the rules to my crazy game of life have changed.
My baby girl who is now two years old is at this incredible age where every moment is of significance. She’s discovering her mind and the world that she is in. I realized I must focus and ‘be in the moment’ during the limited time that I have with her throughout the day.
So these past few weeks I’ve dived into the field of focusing. Strangely enough, after scouring the Internet and stumbling upon a TED talk about ‘happiness’, one main finding that I thought was intriguing is that the mere lack of focus or shifting of the mind can lead to unhappiness. The other activity that I’ve started are guided daily ten to fifteen minute meditations. It’s helping to drown the noise in my mind, and practice being aware of what is now.
I’m starting to see the effects of some of this and I’d love to hear what the rest of you brilliant moms out there are doing to hone your focus and truly be in the moment.
I'm an academic hospitalist at SFGH/UCSF. I have a 2 year old daughter.
You can follow me on twitter @psanyaldey.
I have 3 kids (11, 8 and almost 2) and spending quality time with them has become more important to me as I see medical school coming more into focus in the next 2 years after taking some time off from school. She's also going to be our last child so I think it's even more important to me to focus when I spend time with my kids. I make sure I put my phone away and really watch what my 2yo is doing when I spend time with her; how she reacts to what she sees/does and how she reacts to what I do and say to her. She has a limited vocabulary so I find it so much more important to pay attention to what she is trying to tell me. When you try to look at things through your child's eyes it can really transform how you view your child and how much impact the time you spend, no matter the quantity, has on your relationship. Little people are so amazing!
ReplyDeleteI try to do the same. It's an effort at times but it can be such a great counter to our days to immerse ourselves in their "world". Kids are the best at living in the moment!
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