Being Someone Else

Mindfulness is being fully in the present. So is getting lost in the story of a good book mindfulness?

I give this question an unequivocal: sort of.

Usually when I am reading I am also snacking (yeah, yeah, I know), sipping tea, and petting the dog. My attention is scattered. At a least at first.

But sometimes, the story sucks me in. The snacking stops. The tea goes cold and the dog curls up to sleep beside me. She knows my attention is elsewhere and the snacks are gone anyway. On one level, I am not fully in my body. I am not in my living room under my cozy blanket. I have been transported to another world, but I am fully in that world. My pulse quickens when the heroine is in trouble. I laugh when she is snarky. I cry when her grandmother dies. I am not reliving my past or worrying about my future. Her present has become my present. I am fully in the world, but an alternate one.

BTW, the book that prompted this question was The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill. You can find it at the link below. ex The Girl Who Drank the Moon