"Seize the Breath!" Paying attention to one's inhalations and exhalations is a classic way to develop mindfulness—deliberate, nonjudgmental awareness. (cf. Present-Moment Reality) A standard method is to count breaths, from 1 to 10, then start over. But my attention constantly wanders and suddenly I realize, often quite belatedly, that I've become distracted and lost count. Embarrassing, but no problem: just start over with "1", and don't worry.

But how to bring myself back to self-consciousness efficiently and with shorter gaps? What I really need is a gentle reminder, a trigger that happens frequently but not so often to lose effectiveness. The "Pause on Each Threshold" technique, for instance, is wonderful but it only works intermittently and when walking about, and I generally forget to apply it. Likewise for the other approaches I've heard of.

But I've come up with a new trick that seems to have great potential: I try to awaken whenever I think about—hmmm, how to put this politely?—grace, beauty, pulchritude. Yes, s*e*x, but in the nicest way, those slightly spicy moments with a gentle charge of eros. A toss of hair. The curve of a calf. A glint from a diamond ear stud. A glimpse of decolletage or hint of thigh, if clothing slips slightly—when "A sweet disorder in the dress / Kindles in clothes a wantonness". A womanly-mathematical hip-to-waist ratio. The Big Bopper's lyric: "Chantilly lace and a pretty face / And a pony tail hanging down / That wiggle in the walk and giggle in the talk".

There are enough such voluptuous moments in everyday life to bring me back to occasional self-awareness ...

(cf. RearAdmiralLowerHalf (2003-07-01), AwesomeProwess (2003-07-17), ...) - ^z - 2009-06-15