Short Chapter The next one will be long. I am sorry.
"Alright," said Duldy, "has anyone heard of the term 'mindfulness' before?"
"I tell my kid to mind me," said Verdo.
"And what do you mean by that?"
"Pay attention and do what I say."
"Alright good, anything else?"
"As Jedi, we are told to be mindful of our thoughts," I said.
"Which means?"
"Pay attention and bring them under control."
"Good. You both have kind of the right idea. Mindfulness is the process of paying attention and being aware of what you are feeling and thinking. However, it is not really about control yet. In mindfulness we are not judging ourselves, we are just making observations."
"What's the point of this?" asked Vednis.
"Well, there are a lot of benefits to mindfulness. It improves mental capacity like memory and the ability to focus. It improves your satisfactions in relationships. But mainly, it will help you get out of here. You can learn to reduce your stress, anxiety, and depression. It will help you get over circular thinking meaning your thoughts are on a loop and you feel like you can't control them. Finally, it will help you manage your emotions."
"If you came up with a magic cure that gets us out of here why are we just now learning about it?!" cried Verdo.
"Everyday at 20 hundred you have meditation, and that is a good time to practice mindfulness."
"I thought that was nap time," said Permans.
"How do we do it?" I asked.
"Well," said Duldy, "I will teach you three. The first one is deep breathing, everyone sit with their back against the chair and their feet on the floor, hands on your thighs."
We did as he instructed.
"Now, now take a deep breath in for five seconds...Hold…Let it out slow… Now rest for five seconds… Good, do it again, and this time, let your mind wander."
I breathed and just followed Duldy's breathing instead of counting to five. My mind went to Naboo, which it often did, and I wondered what Padme was going to put in the baby's room. As I repeated the process, I kind of pictured the room, there was a white crib, and a changing table, that was essential, but I wanted like a big stuffed animal that they can drool on when they sleep. It had to be big so it wasn't a choking hazard.
"Anakin," said Dudly, shaking me out of my thoughts, "what did you think about?"
"I think I want to put a big duck in the crib so my kid can snuggle with it."
"Alright."
Vardo shot me a look, but I didn't care.
"Does anyone understand the benefit of the exercise?"
"I feel a little calmer," said Mishi.
"It was relaxing," I said.
"Can I be pissed we aren't taught this day one?" asked Vardo.
"First of all you were taught this last week. But the point of the exercise is that you can feel whatever you want," said Dudly. "Alright, lets try another one."