Cubing ➡ Mindfulness

It's Tuesday morning at 8:07 and I'm just cubing like usual (even though I have a beat sheet due in 4 hours). Then, I realized this time, the cubing experience is different from all other times. When I first started, I was just blindly following the 6 steps of beginner's algorithm. I memorized the steps, practiced whenever I'm bored (or procrastinating) and my mind had turned the steps into a habit. My fingers just turns without thinking. If I get distracted admist a step, I won't be able to complete the step. I'm pretty sure there's a word for this. (Citation: Power of Habits by Charles D.) From this method, my best time is 55 seconds and average of 90 seconds. For reference, world record is 5 seconds (observing cube beforehand), under 30 seconds is speedcuber territory and Justin Bieber can finish it in under 120 seconds (JB is proficient with rhythmic thinking and eye-hand coordination). However, this time I am just sitting there on the floor, the California sun was shining through my window, and I am mindfully cubing and being genuinely happy. I was mindfully manipulating all the steps in order to shave some seconds off my time.

Then I realized why I am so happy. It was because I was being mindful. It is one of those overly repeated advices that nobody really follows, "Live in the present," "If you're busy, meditate for an hour," "Don't multitask." Now I have a first hand experience of why mindfulness is such an essential concept and tool. It is the single figurative thing that makes you feel alive. It is what prevents you from being "a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more." Me also thinks one of the things that prevents people from being smart is simply not being mindful.

It is not that often I am this alert and sober, so that also makes me happy.

From personal experience, I realize that people can live through years without being mindful once. That's what makes "life a walking shadow." It is what makes time pass by so quickly.

This realization is so crucial that I have to drop everything and make a new blog for it before I forget.

So yeah, in conclusion, be mindful, cuz that shit really works.