More judgmental during formal or informal practise?

[LucidMind]

I spelled practice in the title like you guys do I love those little language disparities.

Anyways, I have gotten down my formal meditation practice pretty solidly. Whenever judgmental thoughts creep up ("you are doing it wrong") I just let them occur and stay on my breath....to which they eventually gently flutter away.

However, I am noticing how often I DO judge my non-formal practice. While trying to maintain mindfulness in everyday practice I find myself worrying about concentrating on the wrong thing; am I focusing on my breath too much and not enough on the smells? Or should I be focusing on my feet touching the ground and not focusing on the sounds of birds joyfully chirping? It is much harder for me to be non-judgmental during informal practice because there are so many different things to focus on or not focus on (for example: your feelings, your thoughts, sounds, sights, smells, moving through space, walking, etc etc). It's hard to know what should be the object of attention "in the current moment".

I'd love to hear any advice or similar situations you guys can share with me

[Cheesus]

I have had this experience. I had one just now, actually. I had been sitting in my attic room staring out at my town at night (I live on a hill). There is a train track that runs in the distance and I like watching the trains running at night.

I was feeling the wind on my face and then I suddenly realised a train had just gone past. I thought to myself 'ah crap I should have been mindful of that', which just made me laugh. I think if I had said 'no dammit, I shouldn't be judging myself for what I was mindful of' or if I say 'right, now I'm going to have to watch for the train to make sure I am mindful of it again', then I am just cultivating an attitude of greater judgement, not a better future practice (I use an extra 'c' too ).

If I laugh at my automatic judgemental thought, however, I find the moment flows in the spirit of mindfulness. I find that judging myself for being judgemental is actually worse for my practice than the initial judgement. I find that once I just decide that sometimes I am judgemental and subsequently observe the experience, it completely takes the wind out of its sails. It still happen, but meh! I'm never going to become enlightened, so I forgive myself for being trapped in Samsara.

I hope I have answered your question? Reading it back now I feel a little off the mark.

[Cheesus]

Vixinne pointed me towards this talk a while back, and I still fall back to it time and time again. I hope it will speak volumes to you as it has to me:

http://www.audiodharma.org/talks/audio_player/3956.html

I think what it comes down to is that you should just notice what you notice. Don't aim for ultimate concentration: if you mind flicks from your feet to the birds chirping and then onto your noisy neighbour, then that's just what your mind is doing right now.

[Bils42]

Sounds like you are on the right track Lucid.

A phrase that springs to mind is "Invest in failure". Each time you notice something is 'not quite right' is a chance to change it. Each time you change something which is 'not quite right' into something that is 'a little better' is another step along the path that some like to call 'awakening'. Spend time with your mistakes, learn from them, and try doing it differently next time. There is not point investing your time on 'success' as you are doing that right already, there is no need to change and nothing to learn.

Congratulate your self on noticing and make the most of the opportunity for change.

[JonW]

"I think what it comes down to is that you should just notice what you notice. Don't aim for ultimate concentration: if you mind flicks from your feet to the birds chirping and then onto your noisy neighbour, then that's just what your mind is doing right now."
That puts it perfectly for me.

[Gareth]

Just to be awkward, we spell it both ways. Practise is the verb and practice is the noun. It gets me scratching my head sometimes, and I live here.

[JonW]

I think it's sometimes easy to get caught up in being mindful about being mindful, rather than simply being present and attentive, just seeing how the universe is revealing itself at that moment and not feeling the urge to have things be different. Just this. And awake to that. The hardest thing to grasp is just how simple it all is. It's as though our pesky minds want it to be more like a problem to be solved or something to attain. Whereas it's really about dropping any concepts about how things should be and returning to where we already are: this ever-shifting, ever-present now which is always perfect as it is.

[FeeHutch]

I think it's sometimes easy to get caught up in being mindful about being mindful, rather than simply being present and attentive, just seeing how the universe is revealing itself at that moment and not feeling the urge to have things be different. Just this. And awake to that. The hardest thing to grasp is just how simple it all is. It's as though our pesky minds want it to be more like a problem to be solved or something to attain. Whereas it's really about dropping any concepts about how things should be and returning to where we already are: this ever-shifting, ever-present now which is always perfect as it is.

Jon sums it up really well for me here. Sometimes and I don't know if it is a personality thing, cultural or a bit of both but I find my mind is searching for extras or qualifiers and still occasionally distrusts the fact that something so (for me) profoundly life changing can really be that simple.

I am dyslexic, I just spell practice however the spellchecker tells me too

[LucidMind]

Yes, Jon's post about "being mindful of being mindful" is great and really gets to the core of my question.

Next time I worry about focusing on the wrong thing i'll definitely have to remind myself that everything is perfect as it is, including wherever my attention is focused on.

Mindfulness really opens up so many doors of action in everyday life. Bringing mindful awareness can help you get in touch with your body, nature, other people, sights, relationships, strangers, etc etc. As long as your attention is mindful, it seems like you can't really go wrong!

[JonW]

As Sailor Bob Adamson is fond of saying, "What is wrong with right now if you are not thinking about it?"
I remind myself of this line frequently, especially when I find myself caught up in a knot of worry about something. The answer is always, "Not a whole lot." Nothing is ever as bad as the mind convinces you it is. Even physical pain, which only truly becomes suffering when the mind adds layer upon layer of torment on top of the physical sensation.
It's all about practice.