mindless middle age

 Now that I am a 41-year-old working mom-of-two, with the personality that I operate with, I find that I deeply enjoy the chance to truly zone out.   Several recent experiences highlighted just how pleasant this is for me.  

First, at the beginning of the summer D, my mom and I took a trip to New York City and we were part of a tour group, which was a new experience for me.   There were many good aspects of our multi-generational tour, but for me, the contrast between the first 48 hours of the trip, before the tour, and the beginning of the guided tour was stark.   I became a mental passenger, instead of the one responsible for figuring out priorities, routes and timelines.   I got to look at the sights, chitchat and follow blindly while turning off my planning brain.   

Secondly, I've gone to a few HIIT (high intensity interval training) classes this summer.  I did similar classes before and during my pregnancy with Dd and it is a format I like.   While I absolutely dither and agonize about whether I have time for the class and whether my body feels good enough to do the class, once I am in the room, I am pretty darn happy.   The instructor provides music and calls out which exercises to do and again, I don't have to think at all.   Each activity is about 30 seconds to one minute long, usually in repeated circuits and there is no counting of reps or deciding what to do next.   

Lastly, I rode the Microsoft Connector into the office the other day and I was a passenger in a more literal sense than in NYC or my exercise class.   A brisk 0.7 mile morning walk, followed by a comfortable seat on a reliably punctual, quiet bus driven by a professional is quite relaxing.   It almost, but not quite, makes me miss having a commute.   It's been about six years since I went in to an office with any regularity and while it saves a lot of time, there is no mental down time to transition from family and home to work and back again.  

In a more general observation, I love the chance to walk or talk (or both) while losing track of time.   I'd like to incorporate this kind of mindfulness, or perhaps mindlessness, into my life more often.