#KiteLife

Change. Flexibility. Adaptable. All amazing terms which we all strive to incorporate into our day to day in order to ensure we are able to dance with all that life throws at us. I considered myself to be pretty adept at riding the waves of life. Until COVID-19 hit. That was an fascinating wake up call, as I am sure it was for the world!

The Stuggle:

From my perspective, I had a lot of trouble adjusting to the social (or lack of) aspect of quarantine. It was hard not seeing the people you laugh and joke with everyday. From seeing friends and colleagues five days a week to just hearing their voices over a computer, it was an adjustment for sure. I had to "flex my flexibility" in a way I never thought was needed. Learning that I was so much more social that I always thought was an interesting revelation which prompted me to re-evaluate my perspective on life and what I actually considered to be fulfilling social interactions, what I gained from them, why I sought them out and what that meant for us humans on a far broader scale.

Why Kites?:

Life has so many ups and downs, having a flexible mindset is key to be adaptable. Taking inspiration from kites, I thought about how they just flow in the wind, free and untethered (for the most part). In a similar vein, having a more flexible view of the world makes living our day to day so much more free and unrestricted. We have so many terms to describe this mindset. My personal favourite is "go with the flow," but it never really nailed down the emotion of being flexible and free when you just let go. At the time, my place of work was having a great time creating fun and interesting hashtags to help with employee engagement. Well, this prompted me to realize that I needed to engage myself and this idea of going with the flow. Why not a hashtag? Welcome to the world #kitelife!

So how does mindfulness help with all of this? Quite simply, as with any thought process bring mindful prompts us to reflect on how we take charge of change. Do we resist it? Embrace it? Don't take notice of it and just pivot? Watching the thoughts as they come and go proves to be rather entertaining while also very insightful. Resisting a co workers suggestion? Why not be more open to their suggestion and go with it (weighing pros and cons of course). Upset you didn't get that promotion? Perhaps rethink the outcome and see it as an opportunity to be ready for something different!

Now if you haven't already adopted the #kitelife lifestyle and would like to give it a whirl, here are some tips to help get you started:

1. Change your Vocabulary - adopt words and phrases that get you into that flexible mindset

2. Collaborating - working with other people can force you to become more open to new ideas and ways of thinking. Maybe that one co worker changes your perspective on how you

3. Forget Fearing Failure - not being flexible might mean we are scared a new way of doing things might lead to failure. Think of it this way - you might come across a way better way of doing things. Or maybe that project getting cancelled opens the door to something way cooler!

4. Don't Sweat It - The more flexible you are, the less stress you might experience. Resistance or rejection uses up a lot of energy. Letting things go and allowing a project run its course is far less stressful than trying to account for changes that might be out of your control.

Are you onboard to try out that #kitelife?

#kitelife #mindfulness #mindful #sati #mindfulliving