George Costanza and the Process of Mindfulness

HA

Mindfulness and George Costanza couldn’t be further opposites. George represents a never ending stream of anxiety and a high strung approach to any and all situations presented to him. At any given moment he is seconds away from a violent outburst, always living on the edge of his personal stability. This is why I didn’t name the article “George Costanza is mindfulness.” That would simply be inaccurate. Instead I offer up a simple mantra that entered my mind in the voice of George while running today:

I hadn’t gone for a run in over a month which is unusual for my habit structure. I knew that eventually I would go running again and feel that rush of endorphins, back in that state unique to running. All the same I couldn’t help but think of George’s triumphant declaration of those words “I’m back baby!” I had found my way back after some time and it was just as good as I had imagined in spite of being somewhere familiar.

For a while, whenever the concept of mindfulness came to mind it was this idea of “practice makes perfect” or that “it’s a muscle that can be trained” etc in order to eventually become “good” at being mindful. Since then I’ve learned that there isn’t really such a thing as “being good at being mindful.”