Professional Help - Exercise in mindfulness

A day last spring

I worked 13 hours yesterday. Now I am starting to sound like my co-workers starting my conversation with how much I have been working but  I made up for it today by getting in at 9 and leaving at 3 for a counselors appointment.

It has been a year since I saw her and with my old life finally wrapping up I thought a visit would be good for me.  She is nice and has a eastern take on life.  

Today we did an exercise in mindfulness.  An exercise on how to deal with our problems.  She said that when we have serious problems we sometimes let them take us over. To represent this she held her hands over her face. She said we can't see anything but our problems and we are lost.

She then talked about the other option and she said that we run.  We push our problems away by staying busy and pretending everything is just fine.  She took  her hands and put them up facing out.

She went on to say that both options drain the life right out of us. She said there was a third option she demonstrated by cupping both hands in her lap. She said we can take a moment to set our problems aside and while still acknowledging that we have them we can use our 5 senses to see there is something in life besides our problems. We have this moment.

What in the room could I see, hear, touch, taste and smell. Seems simple but I got it just for a moment I can learn to be here instead of in my head even if it is only for a moment. I am no longer lost in my thinking.

I understand what she was trying to teach me about being in the moment.  These days I live most of my life in the moment it has only taken me 20 years to get here.  When I was depressed I know sometimes I was lost in my problems and other times I was running.  It was only when I stopped doing either I did get past the worst of it.

I did enjoy our visit today but I don't think I will be going back anytime soon. My problems don't involve the past anymore they are just your everyday boring stuff. How nice is that?