Dear all,

Life passes us by so quickly now that we barely have time to breathe, let alone stop and take notice.

Well January is a time for new resolutions and there’s one that’s sweeping Twitter and bloggers  – it’s simple – lots of people are resolving to take more notice.

Fiona Robyn, a writer has set up ‘a river of stones‘ – a month long challenge starting 01.01.11 to take notice of something each day and to write a ‘small stone’ about it.

Fiona describes small stones as ‘a very short piece of writing that precisely captures a fully-engaged moment.’ Although you write down these stones, you can choose to keep them private and you don’t have to be a writer.

For some more ideas on how to ‘polish your stones’ – check out what Fiona has to say here.

I have shared this project with Occupational Therapists and Occupational Therapy Students too because this is a prime example of a mindfulness technique. Mindfulness within occupational therapy is growing, especially within mental health. The theory is about connectedness with our world. It’s not just about being mindful in terms of taking time to meditate but being mindful in our daily occupations. Noticing the sensation of brushing our teeth, the feel of ingredients we are preparing, their smell, their taste. Really listening to someone, identifying their tone, noticing their expressions. Being aware.

I know that a lot of my writerly friends are going to engage in this journey of discovery – I hope that ‘non’ writers join us and discover themselves, their world and their inner poet.

How to join in

The simplest way is to jot down your stones in a notebook but if you would like to share them you can ‘sign up on the site‘ (I’ve added a widget to the right to share the river of stones – apologies this has been removed as it wasn’t working). You can set up a blog or on your exisiting blog use the tag aros against your stone posts. On twitter people are using the hashtag #aros. Or you can post to your Facebook status.

I will be posting here and on Twitter (which will post to Facebook). I have also made a Keynote presentation on my iPad that has a slide per page where I can post a picture and write my stone. This will then be zipped up in a pretty format to keep when January is over.

Now we haven’t officially started but I’ve just taken notice of something out of the corner of my eye so this one is just a bit of fun.

My eye catches a spider – lets it go as a speck – I really need to hoover!

Kirsty