follow your nose days
Posted by Melanie on Aug 2, 2010 in mindfulness | 7 commentsI love love love ‘follow my nose days.’ I aim to have a ‘follow my nose days’ at least once a week. These days were inspired by one of my long time favorite books, “The Secret River” by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings.
These are the days I wander through my life, following my nose. It feels like finding and re-aligning with the Current of Life moving through me in the present moment—rather than setting out to accomplish a set of prescribed tasks.
Following your nose if the mindful practice of sensing the impulse of Life within, mindfully attending to whatever I’m doing until that impulse leads me elsewhere. Being while doing.
Humans are a hidden stream whose source is hidden. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
On one recent ‘follow my nose days,’ I felt drawn to unload the dishes, mindfully. This lead me to cleaning out underneath the sink, mindfully. This lead me to deep cleaning my laundry room, mindfully. On any other day, I might have called these activities ‘chores.’ On this day, these activities led me to a state of bliss. I kid you not.
On other ‘follow my nose days,’ I’ve read, walked, played with the dogs, rolled around on the floor and stretched. The trick is to do whatever you are doing with complete attention and when you feel drawn to do something else, do that, EVEN if the thing you started is not finished. There are no rules, no shoulds.
In fact, following your nose frees you ‘should’ and teaches you to release the tension of ‘should’ in each moment. These are the days I practice living as Brother Lawrence, as if there were no one but Thee and Me in the world.
The perfectly precious gift of following my nose is realigning myself with the Current of Life in me. The bonus prize is the pure peace that comes from aligning with that Current.
If you can’t take a full day, take a morning or an afternoon.
If you can’t take a morning or an afternoon, take an hour.
If you can’t take an hour, take a half hour.
Follow your nose. What happens? What Wisdom flows to you when you are aligned with the Current of Life in you? Can you sense the Source of your stream? I’d love to hear your stories.
Love that idea, those days are hard to come by unless we actually see their value and schedule them in. Wonderful inspiration comes from follow-your-nose days, too!
Sue Painter
This is such a wonderful practice. When I’ve taken time like this, I always feel rewarded with an inner peace. Nice to break myself away from the push to “get things done.” Thanks, Melanie!
I’m so happy you have give this behavior a name!! I thought I was just unorganized and not staying on task! LOL. Just kidding, I love this idea. And what fun to have a “follow my nose day!”
I’ve never tried to “follow my nose”. I think it would be a great challenge, one I would learn a lot from. Thanks for sharing. I am scheduling a half-day for this Friday. Can’t wait to try it out.
2009 – as many have experienced – was a challenging business year. I decided early on that I had two choices; one – worry; two – write my book. I’m so grateful I did the second. Now … why do I bring this up. Something about that year opened me to my own ‘follow my nose’ times. And how much cooler life has become.
2010 quickly found the business not as much improved; at least at first. So I was challenged yet again. I am also very grateful for my love and need to fly fish our beautiful rivers and streams. And this has on many occassions cause me to veer off of the main roads and explore the side roads into the mountains following a certain winding river or stream. Those are the most fun ‘follow my nose’ adventures – they lead to some pretty darn good fishing.
And when I’m fishing, I’m fishing … nothing else. I’m there. I’m renewed. I’m mindful of the verb I’m in. Thanks Melanie for that thought.
I love this. What a reminder to be grounded and pay attention. Thanks Melanie.
Woo hoo, Melanie, I’m with you! There are days my heart leads me to washing the dishes, not because I have to, but because it feels so good to have my hands in the soothing currents of the water. Blessed Be!
Julie