Micro Meditations

[Gareth]

As my practice developed, meditation became something that was easier and more natural to do. At the beginning of my practice threee years ago, meditation was in my room with the doors closed, making sure there was no chance of being disturbed. Over time I came to realise that any interruptions could be part of the meditation too.

This morning I was meditating in my bedroom before work when my little boy came rushing in to say goodbye to me, as he was going to nursery. At that point, he became the subject of the meditation. Instead of giving my attention to the breath, I gave it to my son instead. I held him close and smelled his hair, drinking in as much of him as I could. He ran out of the house, and I went back to observing the breath.

This greater ease with the meditative process enables me to have many 'micro meditations' throughout the day. Take just now at work when I have gone to make a cup of tea in the kitchen. I'm a little bit obsessive with my tea making and I like to leave the bag to infuse in the water for about threee or four minutes. As the tea was brewing, I did one of these 'micro meditations', looking out of the window watching clouds (one of my favourite things). I do it loads of times every day; there are so many opportunities to grab a minute or two meditation like this every day. I reckon the more practice we get, the better.

[JonW]

Hi Gareth.
What brand of tea bags do you prefer?
Cheers,
JW

[Gareth]

Twinings everyday is probably my favourite.

[JonW]

Hmm. I would have presumed you'd have favoured a more robust brand. eg. Yorkshire. And two bags per cup at that.
Twinings is very popular amongst the ballet dancing fraternity though.

[piedwagtail91]

i used to drink twinings , before i started on yorkshire tea, still feel bad about that though, living in lancashire

[JonW]

Yorkshire 2 Twinings 1
Could go to penalties, this one.

[Steve]

My vote is for jasmine tea.

Steve

[Gareth]

Jasmine tea? Tastes like old ladies knickers, as my wife would say.

Yorkshire tea is good. Top 5 I would say.

[rara]

Haha, Gareth, you are so Zen. But Yorkshire style.

Your mindfulness with interuptions...very good. I used to get annoyed when I was interrupted. Kind of defeats the point, doesn't it?

I presume the line between formal and informal meditation has begun to blur now?