Everyday Mindfulness

A while ago a guided meditation suggested to do a mindful exercise throughout the day: trying to notice every time you get up and/or sit down. I thought okay, let's do that. When I came home from work in the evening I realised that I hadn't noticed it once! And it had been a day with an unusual lot of standing up and sitting down, coincidentally.

I was a bit shocked and found it also very confronting. It was such an easy task, but it is so tricky to get consumed by work and forget everything about being mindful.

So, question: how do you do it, being mindful throughout the day? Do you use practical tricks and triggers? I have a couple of ideas myself by now but I would appreciate your thoughts/ideas.

Hi Elisa,

What you describe is very normal. You've been 'practicing' being in thought your entire life. Now, you have to practice not being in thought. The more you've done so, the easier it gets.

But you have to realize you're training the subconscious mind. And you've no control over that. The brain just gets wired differently over time.

The basis for being mindful throughout the day is the formal meditation practice.

To answer your other question: I'm very often mindful throughout the day, and the 'trick' is just formal meditation. I personally wouldn't recommend using an artificial trigger, like some device (although I've said differently in the past), because that way you don't train the subconscious mind. Which, I think is key.

Peter

'How do you do it, being mindful throughout the day? Do you use practical tricks and triggers?'

Simply, you keep practicing. Eventually, it becomes second nature.
But it's important to remember that the aim is not to be mindful 24/7. As often as not, it is about catching yourself behaving unmindfully and bringing your attention back to the present moment, using an anchor such as the breath or sound or the taste of food, pretty much anything really.
Cheers,
Jon

As usual, I would advise experimentation. Maybe triggers aren't for you. Maybe you need different triggers (red lights?, door handles? cleaning teeh?). Maybe you were just having a particularly mindless day.