No, I’m not advocating you go off on a chocoholic’s wild sugar kick devouring those delicious little chocolate filled multi-colored candy shells (I go for the blue ones). Just the opposite. And, no, from personal experience, I’m not offering any atmospheric or banal musings. Just the opposite. The M & Ms I’m talking about will put you into a quiet, introspective, focusing place. They will ease the tension and loosen you up. They will reignite burned out parts of your life. They will put you in a place that will give you an edge by sharpening your edge.

You see, yesterday, I went out to the koi pond in the hot, steamy, pre-dawn morning before my walk, thinking of a profound, insightful, three hour lunch I had had with Katie on Monday. As I sat at the edge of the pond, the three water falls with their relaxing and calming trickles, I was, as I always am on the dawning streets, intensely aware of my breathing, deliberately listening to the rhythmic almost mesmerizing passage of air in and out of my lungs. Listening and feeling my heart beating, I slowly drifted away from everything around me and toward everything within me. It’s a blissful contemplation that is like discovering the silence inside the noise; it’s like being in a deep, still place while you sense the activity around you. That’s the first “M” in my M & M’s: MEDITATION.

I know, in the 24/7 helter-skelter world of smart phones, laptops, web, facebook, twitter, instagram, e-mail, it sounds so quaint, maybe soft, fluffy, touchy-feely. But, research has found that there is an upside to downtime. The unclenched mind unleashes creativity and productivity. And, as a recent study by Barbara Fredickson of UNC has found, people who unplugged, who developed a relaxed and positive attitude, improved mental and physical health. Sometimes, like a watermelon, to get past the hard rind, you have to cut yourself open to find the sweet parts and experience the enchanted moment. Other studies have shown that it improved determination and perseverance, as well as improving decision making.

I walk to stay in physical shape, to be sure. But, I walk more to stay in both emotional or spiritual and mental shape. The pre-dawn walks are my mobile meditation. It’s one of the ways I find to live bigger, to see that most of what appears troubling just isn’t worth it, and not waste my time consumed by what it seems to consume a lot of other people. As Marcus Aurelius said, the consequences of submitting to such stuff is worse than the stuff itself. Well, he didn’t quite use those words, but you get the point. Everything starts from within. So, as I take each step, I step back from the noise, static, and chatter, from all the trivial stuff what wants to inundate me. My meditation is my levee against any helter-skelter surge.

Whether you do it on the move or on a mat, in a garden or with a musical instrument, it doesn’t matter. Whether you cross your legs and pinch your fingers or just close your eyes sitting in a chair or talk to your flowers or let the music work its magic is of no consequence. Whether you do it for an hour, thirty minutes, or just ten minutes is irrelevant. What is important is that you do it; that you chill; that you stop doing what you’re doing, close your eyes, relax, blank your mind, go immobile and limp except for breathing, focus on the air going in and out. And, when you feel an urge or have a thought creeping up on you, bring yourself back to your breath. Think its simple? Try it.

It’s challenging. Try it. Break your routine. No e-mails. No cell phones. No computers. No appointments. No coffee. No nothing. But, the no nothing can get you to everything. Do it again tomorrow: just five minutes. Do it still again the day after that: just ten minutes. And, finally get into a daily quiet routine of breaking your noisy, frantic routine. Take is seriously and you’ll soon discover those few moments of battery recharging allow you to become less susceptible to distraction. You’ll become more productive, more reflective, better able to cope, more thoughtful, more intentional, more aware, more attentive, more alert, less impulsive, sharper. It’s emotionally and mentally depressurizing; its emotional and mental balancing; its a perspective offering. It is not a waste of time. It’s a process of “revealing,” “relabeling,” “reframing,” “refocusing,” “reevaluating,” and “revaluing” that prepares you for the second “M” that is essential for converting yourself from a teacher or professor into an educator.

Later.

Louis