Embracing Ukino: The Art of Enso for Mindfulness and Productivity

~ Liss Caldwell

Choosing to live a mindful, slow life, one with boundaries to the busy hustle of modern life, can pull you into a busy schedule, or time. It’s in these days, weeks, months when we seem to have less time, that we need to stop, breathe, remind ourselves of our boundaries and create the time. When we have it the least, when we get pulled into “the busy” is when we need to create in the cracks of time eg writing. It is also when we need our chosen well-being moments the most. Timeout for some deep breathing, sitting in nature, writing or creating in our journal, remembering gratitude, getting outside and walking or stretching into yoga.

When we are in “the busy” these timeouts that we need to stay aligned, in tune and flow with our surroundings, goals and balanced well being can be the precise time when we let these elements go, at the time when we need them the most. My yoga teacher used to tell us, “when you don’t have time for yoga, is when you need it the most.” Her words echo and remind me, and I’ve always found them to be true. (Thanks Kate.)

Shift perspectives and create an abundance of time.

Deadlines looming, or piling up, stress and demands of modern life, trying to fit too much in the day, week or month? It sounds counter intuitive that we accomplish more when we do less. I know my productivity increases, and I get more done when I take the time out to breathe. For me personally, (let me know if it’s the same for you, and what you think), I know that to stay in flow, in the state where I am honed in on what I am doing, I produce better results and accomplish more. If I allow “the busy” to compromise my boundaries, I start trying to multi task, my focus is divided and less is achieved and completed.

Multitasking was previously promoted as the way to accomplish more. I find it pulls me from the present moment, and my surroundings and the results are auto generated like a cog in a machine. Multitasking results in unconscious productivity, a disconnect from what is produced.

The Japanese concept of “Ukino” to live in the moment with slow movements, and slow living, removes “the busy” of common, chaotic hustle of problematic life. Similar to mindfulness or conscious living, it embraces the present moment, with your breath and movement. Being aware of your presence and focused in on what you are doing, taking pride in the motion of creating, whatever that is for you eg a report, a course etc

One way I remind myself to embrace Ukino, is through the simple activity of creating, Enso. The Enso is an incomplete or complete circle that is painted onto paper. Every Enso is unique. Like yoga and pilates, Enso incorporates the breath and should be created and completed in one motion, with the exhalation of one breathe. One singular movement.

Creating an Enso.

  1. Gather and arrange your paintbrush, water, paper, and ink or paint in front of you.
  2. Allow yourself to take a moment, center. I close my eyes, but it’s not necessary.
  3. Affirm your intention as you breathe in, raising your brush with paint on above your paper.
  4. As you exhale, allow your arm and paintbrush to fall, touch the paper in front of you near the base of the paper, and in one motion, sweep the brush along the paper in circular and clockwise direction towards the top of the page, completing the Enso in a full circle or leaving open.
  5. Lift your brush from the page as you breathe in.

I find creating Enso, a deeply meditative process. Five minutes is all you need, the more time and attention allowed the greater the benefits. People I’ve introduced this process to, who have problems stilling their mind, have found it beneficial for inviting stillness and clarity.

If you don’t have five minutes, try it with a pen and paper and give yourself three breathes. One to set intention and center, one to perform the Enso on the exhalation, and one to align and balance before returning to whatever you were doing.

Productivity at work in modern life can often include so much time in front of a screen. We can become transfixed to a word count, or meeting a deadline that we can forget to look away from the screen every twenty minutes, stretch our arms and neck and stand up every thirty minutes, or physically walk away every hour. These are basic time frames for Work Health and Safety Standards (WHS), and yet I find the majority of the workforce are unaware of them, or forget them, or are too busy to apply them.

Achieving more by doing less. Try an Enso or a three breathe break and see if it makes a difference to your flow, focus, productivity and quality of what you are creating. I’d love to know how you go.

If all else fails, hug a tree. It always works wonders for me.

Published by Liss Caldwell

Uniting over thirty years as a coach, trainer, teacher and facilitator, with three decades in the publishing and Digital Marketing Industries, I support you to bridge the gap between goals and accomplishments, by navigating your pathways to publishing aligned with your book, business and personal goals. As an author and developmental/structural editor and emerging artist I understand the creatives path and the importance of nurturing your project to completion as you envisage it, whilst combining the marketing strategy, designed for business growth and author brand development. I am passionate about sustainable business development within the publishing industry. I am a disability and inclusion advocate and sit on the Lismore Council, Disability Inclusion Access Group. After learning to walk twice this lifetime, and to read and write three times this lifetime, I am passionate about giving a voice for inclusion and progression. I write social novels woven with folklore, for YA and crossover audiences to initiate conversations and grow communities. An active member of the Landcare network, I am currently rewilding seven acres in the Northern Rivers of NSW. For eight years we have been returning, degraded and heavily eroded grazing land to rainforest and koala habitat. The property, known as The Torr, is home to a diverse range of native flora and fauna many endangered or threatened species, including koalas, yellow bellied gliders, richmond birdwing butterflies, grey goshawks, glossy black cockatoos, as well as bats, many birds, echidnas. The Torr is a recognised women's healing and birthing place by our first nations' people. The goanna and snake are the totems that have returned in abundance. 10% of all exchanges are put back into rehabilitating this land back to it's natural state, with a promise of 95% to be planted and treed by 2030. I look forward to connecting and collaborating with you.

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