Shhhh.....

My mom worked for the school district for 20+ years. I, along with several of my friends from childhood, still remember her as being the coolest "lunch mom" on the planet. She often let me blow her special whistle that indicated that our 30 minutes of recess was up and it was time to head to the cafeteria for 30 minutes of eating. Together, that power hour was known as "lunch".

Recently, my mom informed me that the entire dynamic of lunch at the elementary school I remembered so fondly has changed. The modern-day lunch moms have now instituted a rule of thirds: 20 minutes to play, 20 minutes to eat, and 20 minutes of "quiet time."

Give me recess, or give me death was my first thought. How dare someone infringe on a child's right to play and then eat a PB&J? But the more I ruminated over it, the more I realized that this change may actually be for the best.  

As a now-adult, I see "meditation" everywhere - specifically the benefits of it. Even my husband is an avid "Head Spacer" who has asked me a million times to join him. Despite my greatest intentions and desires to reset, recharge, refocus...I simply can't. Meditation to me feels like archery. Like a skill I do not have and am unable to just "pick up".

When I try, mind shifts from calm to chaos so easily. No matter how much I try to visualize myself floating on a cloud, I can only picture my to-do list raining down on me like an avalanche. 

That leaves me to wonder...if quiet time was something instilled in my educational system at a young age, would I be proficient at it today the way that I know how to write, read, and do basic math?  And if so, how much value could that have brought to my life and overall mental health?