Mindful Living Community Event: The Broom Effect
Mindful Living Community at BMC
On May 3rd Julia and I hosted a Mindful Living Community Event at BMC to rekindle the memories of a retreat we attended two years ago in France. New friends came and engaged in meditation, mindful cooking, cleaning and silent moments of reflection.
I will let images speak for themselves, with gratitude to all for learning and for sharing the wonderful meal.
Preparing the meal
Ready to eat
Mindful Living menu
Pumpkin and carrot soup
Roasted cherry tomatoes
Yuxiang eggplant
Brocolli and cauliflower puree
White rice
Fruit salad
Mint and lemon water
Russian style cooked vegetables
First roast chopped onion, then add grated carrot, roast them together. Then add chopped broccoli, cauliflower, add some water to boil a bit. Then you could add chopped eggplant or zucchini. At the end its also good to add chopped tomatoes. Let it boil a bit under the lid. You can finish it with some sprinkles of greens or grated cheese :)
Roasted tomatoes:
Cherry tomatoes sliced in half, with as much garlic you would like, sprinkled with olive oil, balsamic vinegar and some salt. Roast for about 40min on 180 degrees.
Pumpkin and carrot soup
Ingredients: onions, carrots, and pumpkin. You can use organic coconut oil to roast everything before adding water.
At the end of the silent gathering, during the sharing circle a new phrase ‘the broom effect’ came to life: "A self-proclaimed ownership of an object that came to one's possession for only a short period of time".
This is the story of my broom effect:
A few years ago, Julia and I attended a Happiness retreat in Plum Village, France.
On the first day, we were allocated to our families and each had a role within the community: cleaning, washing, food preparation or similar. Our family, the Peaceful Elephants, had a task to clean the meditation hall. Arrange purple mats and cushions, sweep the floor, dust the piano and arrange chairs and the stage.
The meditation hall at the Plum Village
The first day, we almost finished our work when one of the sisters came and said that our layout was not beautiful and we had to do it all over again. Looking at the faces of other Peaceful Elephants I could see that I was not the only one who was triggered into anger. Judgments stormed through my mind: “Why is she saying that now? I wish she could’ve told us what we did right! If only she told us what she wanted, we would’ve done it properly!”
Alas, there was no space for complaining and we continued to work silently. At the end of the working meditation, the sister invited us to sing. Hearing that, I almost regretted that I signed up for a week of that nonsense. After all, I wanted to meditate, not to think of the beauty of the cushion layout or to sing.
The next day, armed up with a realization that sweeping of the hall was the most elaborate action, I quickly grabbed one of the three available brooms and started to sweep. After some time I went to take some water and to my surprise realized that somebody else took MY broom. A rush of heat stormed into my head, as I stood confused in the middle of the hall not knowing what to do next. Others were walking slowly around, engaged and busy while I didn’t have a clue what to do. I felt useless. At the end of the working meditation, we sang songs again. This time my anger dissolved and giggles become alive in my belly. Joy was becoming alive in me. As days passed by, working meditation flowed with more ease, the work was finished in less time and the joy of singing was echoing louder and louder.
This June Julia and I are going back to France to attend Mindful Leadership retreat with hope to learn more how to bring mindfulness into the communities and organizations. We will share more during the next BMC Mindful Living Community Event on July 21st 10 am to 3 pm. Stay tuned.
Mindfully yours, Dalida
Founder of Beijing Mindfulness Centre
Dalida has worked in the field management training and consulting in China since 1995. While living and working in this fast-changing environment she gained deep insights on the pressures people have in their professional and personal environment. In all her work Dalida is driven by a profound interest in what moves and motivates people. She believes in big change through small steps, whilst keeping the body and mind in balance.
She believes in the wisdom of emotions and coaches her clients to use this wisdom to bridge professional challenges and enhance presence at home, with their families.
Dalida is the founder of the Beijing Mindfulness Centre, author of Mindfulness for Beginners, the book for mindful parenting, and holds certifications as Professional Certified Coach (ICF) and Mindfulness, Wellness and Somatic Coach (Mindfulness Coaching School).
Her TEDx speech “The road less travelled” is available on https://bit.ly/2vEvaUd.
www.beijingmindfulness.com
hello@beijingmindfulness.com
Tel: 010-64034923
Address: No.44, Qian Yong Kang Hutong, Dongcheng, Beijing