We’re constantly talking and everything in our world is constantly talking. We say things through social media, connecting with friends, acquaintances, and even total strangers online. We talk in our jobs. We talk to our family and our friends in real life. Our bodies tell us that they’re hungry or they hurt. We’re constantly being bombarded with information and messages. And most of us try to shout what we want to say over this constant din. The problem with that is that many of us in doing so forget to stop and listen, so we’re constantly stomping on other people’s messages.

It’s fascinating. The more work I do, the more I realize in this age of instant messages, cell phones, and speaker phones (Have I mentioned how much I absolutely detest speaker phones? I’ll talk about those in my next blog entry.), it’s way too easy to shout our message at people and not listen to them in return. In my line of work, I’m constantly talked over. No one waits to hear what I have to say and then they wonder why I repeat myself fifteen times.

Being in one of those conversations is frustrating at best and rage-inducing at worst. How do you avoid being one of “those” people and being more present and mindful in our own lives? First, take a deep breath before you speak. Not only will the pause hopefully clue the other person in that you’re about to talk, but it will also give you time to collect your thoughts. Secondly, don’t spend the entire conversation thinking about that great story you want to tell or what you can say next. Spend it listening to the other person, really connecting on a heart-to-heart level. And third, sometimes it’s all right to be quiet. When the world is babbling around us, sometimes it’s good to sit and be quiet. Sure, the social media gurus might say that’s a bad thing, but a little quiet goes a long ways.

And, it’s beneficial to just sit there and listen.

My partner and I like to play Wii on our nights off. We’ve been doing the power cruising on the Wii Resort. Since we’re both big on plans and having goals, we’re working toward the stamp you get when you earn over 170 on all the levels. (I know some of you are going, “What? You don’t have that yet?” LOL!) Because of my fibromyalgia, I notice the pain in my hands and writs and sometimes the fibrofog make things interesting. They also tend to make me score lower than he does. It’s frustrating. Horribly so.

However last night, apparently my mojo was working because I kicked butt! He stepped outside and I ran through a couple of rounds and BAM! I upped my high score by about 15 points and hit that magic “170″ mark. (I scored 177.) I found the perfect synergy between speed and control.

Sadly, he apparently was channeling my bad mojo days because he could not work. But one thing I noticed, where I relaxed and had nothing invested in the outcome (Okay, my latent depression had me thinking I’d probably suck, so I was determined to enjoy it and not focus on the score.), he was completely, totally, wrapped up like a football fan watching his favorite team choke in the playoffs, wound up about his scores, or lack thereof. And the worse he did, the more frantic he got.

For my part, I was thinking that wii mirrors life. The more we wrap ourselves up in our problems, the more we get wound up by what’s happening around us, the worse it seems to get. (I also was very sympathetic to his plight, and he did end up getting back his mojo.) We need to relax, to breathe, and be invested, but not so much that it harms our peace of mind. It’s a good lesson to take forward.

Apparently the next time I need to find zen, I should play wii.