Mindfulness

PSY180
Dr. Palmer
M4 Assignment

The other day, I had received a call from the mother of my children. Usually, we

don’t have very good phone conversations. It’s pretty rare if we do. But I had this paper to

write so I figured I would try a bit of mindfulness and see if it would help damper the

situation and turn this talk into a good one. And with some mindfulness it turned out to be

just that. When made to face the one I usually don’t get along with, then I tend to be less

in the picture or mind frame because the things that come in this territory come with

hostility, so of course being mindful isn’t (and in this case still wasn’t) going to be easy.

But I knew if I tried and it worked then I could create a pattern of better talks. How hard

was it to be mindful? Well, it is usually difficult when we talk, but

this time it wasn’t that hard because she wanted to talk about the kids and how they are

doing in and out of school. It was nice to hear both of my children are doing very well so

far in school. Also the behavior at home is good too. The only time that other thoughts

intruded my mind was when she began to talk about herself or things that did not pertain

to the kids. The thoughts that popped up were of my future. And if I would do well in

school as I plan too. Also I thought of what I would do that evening, especially since

some of my favorite shows would be on that night and I was wondering if my roommates

would be home to join in on the shows and beer drinking (a great thing to do when you

have nowhere to go on a Tuesday night). But it was quite easy to get back on track once

she started to talk about the kids again. And what I had learned from all of this is that

sometimes, a little mindfulness can turn a situation (even one over the phone where your

missing body language and such) that is normally bad and make it not so bad. We had a

good conversation about the kids and how well they are doing, no arguments. And if this

is what has been brought to light, then I will continue to use this to further make my

future calls about the children more pleasant.