Frame by Frame Consciousness

Action chosen: Tea prep
As I was preparing my tea, it was pretty much all thought stream instead of ‘being in the moment.’ I think because it’s such a mundane action, and because I do it so often (four times or more a day!) that it’s something my body knows how to do, without my mind being present.
Although at the same time my thoughts reflected what my senses were intercepting. For example, as I was sifting out the tea into the teapot, the smell reminded me of London. It made me miss it. Then thinking about London made me think about how my friend Samantha is visiting there this weekend since she is away in Florence for the semester. This reminded me of other memories of her from the last time both of us were in Syracuse for a semester. Similarly, memories played another important part because when I spooned out the brown sugar, it made me think of being home and reminded me of my mom. All the while I was making the tea, though, I felt stress because on some secondary level I was thinking about how much work I have ahead of me.
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I feel like it was a lot easier to just watch the action without any other senses besides sight and sound. By easier I mean that my mind didn’t wander as much. Also, with the way I framed the movie, the tea cup is right in the center, so it’s very focal, I’m not sure if that has anything to do with it. Instead, I was really keyed in on what was going on. Instead of thinking about memories or things I had to do, as the frame by frame went on, I would notice what sounds played. I would think about how I reacted to them. Like wow, that was really loud—especially since it’s going frame by frame. Also my mind would watch the way the light reflected off of the cup. I didn’t really get caught going off on a long tangent thought stream.
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After doing it the third time it was sort of a weird combination of the two. After watching frame by frame, I paid a lot more attention to my actual movements. It felt more like a process because I don’t normally pay attention to all the steps. I just do them. At the same time, I think I paid more attention to my sense of smell and hearing after watching the frame by frame. My mind didn’t wander as far the final time though.