The first thing on my to-do list which I saved for after my board exams were over was shoe cleaning. I have this pair of white Nike BRS classics, and until today they have slowly been dirtied by more and more risky and dangerous behaviour (walking around in crowded bars, walking in rain, being on a dance floor).
I sat down today with a towel and a canister of shoe cleaner, and slowly began to go through the motions of cleaning while listening to some music. After a while, I noticed nothing was really getting cleaned, and the playlist had ended. I then proceeded to remove my headphones and clean in silence. This dramatically changed my approach to cleaning, as I began to take notice of how hard I was cleaning, what parts of the shoe I was cleaning and for how long I let the spray cleaner set before approaching the canvas with the towel. I started to "feel" the cleaning of the shoe because I paid more attention to the entire process with all of my senses, and was thinking myself through it because I was completely absorbed in the process.
This is something that was explained to me in a book I bought not too long ago called "The Idiot's Guide to Zen living", and I never thought to try it out until now. I suppose it can be argued that my baseline anxiety level is much lower than it would otherwise be since I have cleared a residency match and a couple extra board exams (not officially cleared them until I get notification of passing, though), but it nonetheless made a huge difference in the way I perceived a seemingly mundane task.
The cleaning was over before I knew it, the shoes were white (well, close to it anyway) and my mind was quiet. I'm going to go pack for my trip now. I expect that, with the same state of mind, I should be done packing fairly quickly.
Addendum : Packing for Europe is going to be very easy, and will also exhaust my current collection of clothes. I'll pack two days beforehand and I should be fine.
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