My friend said that wearing a mask added an unexpected challenge to her grocery shopping experience: nobody can see you smile.
She had always depended on a polite smile to smooth over shopping-cart traffic jams and accidental incursions of personal space, and now this versatile social tool was unavailable.
I discovered a similar problem on my first silent retreat. I had a habit of saying “Oh, sorry!” whenever I thought I might be in someone’s way, but we’d all taken a vow of silence, so I couldn’t. I felt like a wrecking ball.
In the end, my friend determined that it didn’t really matter, because people can somehow sense your attitude towards them, even without obvious visual cues like smiling. All that’s ever needed is genuine goodwill, even if it isn’t coming out of your face.
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I'm David, and Raptitude is a blog about getting better at being human -- things we can do to improve our lives today.
I highly recommend a consistent, daily meditation practice! For years I was interested in meditation, but never did much more than read a lot about it, and think a lot about it... but that doesn't hold a candle to actually sitting and meditating every day. I find it helpful to keep...