Breath in mindfulness- question

[mint]

I have been trying to practice mindfulness for the past few months. First tried just focusing on what I was doing- eg. driving- focusing on the road, signs, people...but realized that I tend to get distracted easily. I guess signs, people, etc start a chain of thoughts. Then as in insight meditation tried focusing on my body during activities. So in the example of driving, I focused on where my limbs were, sensations, movements, etc but again couldnt keep focus for long, my mind found it too complicated maybe.

I had best results with focusing on my breath during everyday activities. I could keep focus on my breath much longer before being carried away into thoughts again.

My problem is that when I am focusing on my breath, I am not really focusing on the task. So if driving, I am focusing on inhalation and exhalation but not really focusing on 'driving', much like being lost in thought while driving. I am not really focusing on the road, signs....and my subconscious is doing the work as it always is. Is that OK?

[JonW]

Hi Mint.
Good question and not an easy one to answer without knowing anything about your practice. Have you done the eight-week course? Do you have a regular meditation practice?
Getting a firm grounding in mindfulness is crucial, in my opinion. Otherwise we can easily confuse being mindfully present and self-consciously striving for a particular result. This is why Jon Kabat-Zinn says that mindfulness is simple but it's not easy.
If you could give a little more information about your practice, I'll ponder your question some more.
In the meantime, all best wishes.
Cheers, Jon

[mint]

No I haven't taken any course yet. I have been meditating for past 6 months using the vipassana technique and shall be joining an 8 week long course for the same next month. My current understanding of vipassana is based on reading and YouTube videos. I recently read books by Jon Kabat-zinn and watched his videos on YouTube. I understand the concept of ' just being' although staying in that state for long isn't easy. I find focusing on breath easier.

[JonW]

The rt. hon. Biosattva of this parish is probably the best to advise re. mindfulness/vipassana. Though I'm told the practices are very similar, I don't know enough about vipassana to comment.
I'm presuming there will be fundamental differences in approach between a mindfulness course and a vipassana course…