Sometimes it happens without any planning- although you may or may not realize that you’ve actually spent all your life preparing for it- the unexpected idea, conversation, song- bursting forth almost fully formed from something within you that is greater than yourself.

In this specific case we’re talking about an acute sense of mindfulness.

Spend longer in the shower than expected.

Be late for work without any sense of urgency, be out of cigarettes and not notice it- comfortable, detached.

Read a magazine (June/July issue of Esquire, 2011) and notice that immense amount of effort and attention invested into the litle details. Consider the nature of preconscious perception.

Feel a sense of flow.

Recall a subtle exchange of text messages where a friend tried to coerce you into meeting, appealing to guilt and gratitude for favours granted in the past. Recall, detachedly, having felt a sense of frustration. Contemplate the complex nature of interpersonal relations. Recall Robert Greene’s 13th law of power (Appeal to self-interest, not to mercy or gratitude).

Contemplate self. Get reacquainted with the extent of the influence of fear, guilt, insecurity and weakness on the human psyche. Feel a little more comfortable in one’s own skin.

Read about a man whose wife and daughters were brutally raped and murdered. Feel a sense of perspective.

Notice improved ability to breathe deeply following a watershed half-marathon run.

Detached. In awe.