A Lesson in Mindfulness From a Mom Who’s Always Multitasking

I am the queen of multitasking.

As a mom of young kids, a therapist, and a practice owner, there is almost always more than one thing happening at once.

I’m writing an email while making lunch. Listening to a voice memo while folding laundry. Thinking through my schedule while getting someone dressed. Responding to a message while standing at the kitchen counter.

And sometimes, I wear my ability to multitask like a badge of honor.

Look at how much I can get done.

But one quiet afternoon in my backyard, my toddler reminded me of something I talk about all the time as a therapist:

Sometimes mindfulness is simply slowing down long enough to notice what’s already there.

The Airplane

We were outside when my son suddenly pointed toward the sky.

“Airplane!”

I looked up, and sure enough, there it was.

We watched it move across the sky until we couldn’t see it anymore.

And then, not long after that, there was another one.

And another.

I realized something so simple that it almost made me laugh:

I had never noticed how many airplanes fly over our house.

I’ve lived here. I’ve spent countless hours in this backyard. I’ve pushed kids on swings, cleaned up toys, carried groceries inside, let the dogs out, and sat on the patio.

The airplanes had been there the entire time.

I just hadn’t noticed them.

That afternoon, my son and I sat outside for about 15 minutes and did nothing except watch airplanes.

Every time another plane appeared, he pointed it out with the same excitement as the one before it.

And for those 15 minutes, I let myself see them too.

The Airplanes Were Always There

What stayed with me afterward was the simple realization that the airplanes had always been there.

Nothing about my backyard had changed that afternoon. My schedule hadn't suddenly become less full. There wasn't anything particularly special about the day.

The only thing that changed was that, for a few minutes, I slowed down enough to notice.

And I think that's what mindfulness can look like in real life.

Not perfectly peaceful mornings. Not putting away our phones for hours. Not suddenly becoming people who never multitask.

Sometimes it's just a tiny interruption in the normal pace of life.

A moment where something pulls our attention away from what's next and brings us back to what's happening right now.

For me, that afternoon, it was an airplane.

Mindfulness Doesn't Have to Look Like Meditation

When people hear the word mindfulness, they often picture meditation, deep breathing, yoga, or sitting quietly in a perfectly peaceful room.

And while those can absolutely be mindfulness practices, mindfulness can be much less formal than that.

At its core, mindfulness is simply paying attention to what is happening right now.

It can be noticing the sound of an airplane overhead.

Feeling the warmth of the sun.

Watching your child's face light up when another tiny plane appears in the distance.

Actually tasting your morning coffee.

Noticing the breeze when you step outside.

Listening to your favorite song without doing something else at the same time.

It's giving ourselves permission, even for just a few minutes, to simply experience a moment without needing to turn it into something productive.

For someone like me—someone who is very comfortable doing multiple things at once—that can feel surprisingly unfamiliar.

But those 15 minutes didn't require me to change anything about my life.

I didn't need a new routine or another habit to add to my list.

I just needed to look up.

Our Kids Notice Things We Don't

One of my favorite things about little kids is how interested they are in things we've learned to overlook.

An airplane in the sky.

A weird-shaped rock.

A bug crawling across the driveway.

The moon being visible during the day.

To us, these things are ordinary.

To them, they're worth stopping for.

And every once in a while, they invite us into that way of seeing the world.

That afternoon, my toddler didn't teach me that I need to slow down more or multitask less.

He simply reminded me that there are little things happening around me all the time that I might really enjoy noticing.

A Little Invitation to Look Up

I'm still going to multitask.

I'm still going to answer emails while making lunch sometimes. I'm still going to fold laundry while listening to something. I'm still going to mentally run through tomorrow's schedule while cleaning up dinner.

That's real life.

Mindfulness isn't about being perfectly present every second of every day.

It's about those little opportunities to come back to where we are.

To notice something we usually walk past.

To give our full attention to something, even briefly.

To let an ordinary moment just be an ordinary moment—and still enjoy it.

That afternoon, it looked like sitting in my backyard with my toddler and watching airplanes.

And maybe that's the reminder I'll carry with me:

Sometimes the things worth noticing aren't new. They've been there all along.

We just have to remember to look up.

intake@creatingprogress.net

www.creatingprogress.net