Week 1: It starts with something simple …

52 Weeks of Now started simply enough with my first challenge: focusing on one page, one task at a time while on the computer. I'm terribly happy to report the results so far … a big sigh of relief! I must admit that my fingers literally itch to open multiple tabs when I sit down. It's so ingrained, so habitual, that it's hard to resist. But I have. Over the last few days, I've simply opened one page at a time, done what I needed to do, then moved onto the next. It has been empowering and I already feel a little calmer as a result. The emails are read and responded to, real estate perused, bank balance checked – the same things I was doing before, but in a much more mindful (and satisfying) way. A simple adjustment, but it has been a massive shift for me.

Far from an inconsequential change, the effort it has taken to do such a small thing has opened my eyes even further to the power of mindfulness. More than that, it's cracking open a window into my psyche and peeling back the layers of why I move through life the way I do.

I sit here now and the desire to flick over to check Facebook or my email is seriously strong. I'm starting to understand this urge a little more clearly now. I think it's this: I'm uncomfortable in the pauses. Those moments when I'm not doing, not achieving, not contributing. As I pause for a moment to consider which word to type next, I desperately want to fill that pause with another task. Wow. How did I get to this point?

I'm excited (and, I'll admit, nervous) about what else I'm going to learn over the next year …

How about you? Any flashes of insight you'd like to share?