Lessons from my cat Dunkin

I share a house with three cats—three very spoiled and special cats who rule the roost I am afraid. If you’ve never lived with a cat you are missing many of the simple joys life brings. I’ve learned some valuable life lessons from my cats too.

One of my cats really loves to have her head rubbed. Dunkin is a sweet cat. She is smart too. I’ve learned thru her about the value of focusing on one task at a time—you see Dunkin not only demands head attention but she wants your full undivided attention and does in fact know when I am multitasking. She will in her very own sweet way force me to put down my pen, computer, newspaper or whatever I happen to be doing and give her a completely focused head rub. Which isn’t always exactly what I want to be doing either!

They now say that multitasking isn’t good for us, that we accomplish more doing one thing at a time. I gather Dunkin must have heard about that study! So often my mind has way too many thing going on at one time and I struggle with focusing. Well, my dear little Dunkin is helping me learn how to better mindfully focus on one thing at a time. And, it does bring me great enjoyment when I do that which I don’t receive when I am distracted and doing something along with rubbing her up.

This is the gift of mindfulness: a full and complete experience, not missing parts and pieces scattered about thoughtlessly! Ah Dunkin my little teacher….

What do you do mindlessly that you could try mindfully doing? What to you notice to be the difference between your experiences?