Leonard Ng

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How to Be Mindful When You Don’t Have Time

17.03.2017 by leonard ng // Leave a Comment

hawk
Image by Adrian Kirby.

Meditation is good, but you don’t practise it.

You’re too busy, or you have too many things to do, or you’re always in a hurry to get somewhere, or you’re too tired at the end of the day.

And even when you do sit down to try and empty your mind, you feel a massive sense of guilt about everything else you ought to be doing instead.

(Oddly enough, sitting still for 15 minutes feels like a giant waste of time, while 15 minutes spent on social media doesn’t…

…because one forces you to pay painful attention to the messed-up inside of your head, while the other lets you take refuge in comforting distraction.)

Whatever your reasons, it all boils down to one thing:

You don’t have time.

So here are three ways to remain mindful even when you’re on the go — quick check-ins that will bring you back to the present moment and allow you to centre yourself before your next activity.

[Read more…]

Categories // A meaningful life, Meditation, Peak performance, Productivity, The art of living well Tags // clarity, concentration, emotions, energy, focus, health, holistic living, listening, meaning, meditation, mindfulness, productivity, rest, rhythm, social media, vision, walking, work

Walking Again

24.01.2016 by leonard ng // Leave a Comment

ECP Kallang
Image by Philippe Put.

I haven’t had this in a while, this sense, this sound. It has been a long day and I have been on the go since the moment I woke, criss-crossing the island, busy, with appointments and work and so many things to do. When did my life get so full? But now I am pleasantly tired and I am sitting by the water in the quiet nighttime city, a fountain whispering at my back.The moon tonight is full, lovely and large as it rose out over the bay, and now it sits, high and silent, a circle of stark white in an empty black sky. Occasional pinpricks of stars. There is a breeze. And I am glad to be here, glad to be out and walking and alone, as in ones and twos the tourists and the lovers and the runners go by, passing like thought, as on the wrinkled water the boats. And in the distance, chiming the hour, a bell.

Categories // Journal Tags // walking

Leonard Ng

Leonard Ng is fascinated with the practice of both the active and contemplative modes of life.

He is the founder of the copywriting agency Text/ure Collective, and is the author of two collections of poetry: This Mortal World and Changes and Chances.

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© 2016 Leonard Ng.