Yesterday a friend of mine sent me this video. Watch it start to finish. It’ll blow your mind a little bit!

Lately, Husband and I have been having a lot of conversations about living in the moment–about monotasking and focus. We both have jobs where we spend the majority of our day in front of screens and often we find ourselves checking our twitter feeds regardless of our surroundings or company. There are so many devices trying to talk to us at any given point that it’s often hard to focus on the task at hand. So when I watched this performance, two things struck me. First of all, the intense concentration that Miyoko Shida has on what she is doing. How often do you perform one task, quietly (a state that is really hard for me in general) giving your complete attention to what you’re doing? Since Husband and I started talking about monotasking, I’ve found an everyday chore like washing the dishes can become something like a meditative exercise when done in silence–no dings coming from my phone and no Big Bang Theory blaring from the TV in the other room. It really clears my mind. The other thing I’ve found is that it is easier to be creative when my mind is free of distractions. We all go through times of creative block, regardless of whether you have a creative job like I do or not. But, I’ve found that when my mind is free of the noise from Pinterest, Instagram, and Twitter, it’s easier to come up with brand new ideas and work through creative problems. This brings me to the second thing I found so fascinating about Miyoko Shida’s performance: her willingness to create something impermanent. Often times, I think we hang on to routines and processes regardless of whether or not they work. Getting out of the box and having a willingness to change or even destroy the tangible things or the ideas I’ve created in the past has given me a new sense of freedom in my work and in our home. Be quiet. Remove distractions. Focus on the task at hand.