Stop and smell the roses

Right around Mother's Day this year, I was feeling quite busy and a bit stressed as a consequence. I'd just returned from a long (6 day) business trip with full days and late nights, complete with 8 hours of plane travel each way. I was also gearing up for my daughter's 6th birthday party, which we were hosting at our house. We had to clean the place, assemble favors, decorate, buy snacks and drinks, etc. Add all this to a busy week of work catching up from my week out of the office was a recipe for feeling overwhelmed.

I was so distracted and stuck in the to-do list in my head that I kept putting off taking care of the lovely roses my husband and daughter had bought me for Mother's Day.

In fact, I was absently feeling a bit resentful of having yet another task to do.

Fortunately, I realized how foolish that thought was, and I was able to transform the care of my roses into a mindfulness exercise.

I enjoyed the snapping sound that the bottom of the stems made as I trimmed them carefully at an angle.

I watched the rose food dissolve into the water.

And I inhaled the lovely fragrance of the roses. Blissful.

This only took 5 minutes from my day, but was one of the more relaxing moments. But only because I reframed my perspective and turned my feelings of overwhelm into a more constructive attitude.

What do you have to do tomorrow that you can reframe as a privilege?