Daily mindfulness

[Sunnyhel1]

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Thanks for this post. I am new to this forum and have found it very relevant to my daily life. I have been meditating for nearly a year and went on an 8 week Breathworks mindfulness for pain and chronic illness course which finished just before Christmas. I would highly recommend it. One of the issues we did spend significant time discussing was the importance of incorporating mindfulness into daily life while recognising the challenge this presents. Mindful eating is something I have really tried to focus on especially as I love both food and cooking so it is a way to get even more out of them. I have also found it very helpful when I am struggling with physical tasks because of health problems and am frustrated by how slowly I am having to do them; taking a step back and engaging in the overall task including the rests in a more mindful way focussing on the here and now makes the whole thing much easier to tolerate. We were also encouraged to do a three minute meditation focussing on breathing three or more times a day to remind us that mindfulness is available to us whatever we are doing. You can do that anywhere of course so it's great for queues, late running clinics etc. I am still struggling with really making mindfulness part of daily activities but making progress, some days I do better than others! It is good to read other peoples thoughts/ advice
Sunnyhel1

Posts: 1
Joined: Wed Jan 15, 2014 11:02 pm
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[Gareth]

Mindfulness throughout the day, aside from while meditating is a skill that takes lots of practice. Informal mindfulness is something that has seeped into my life over the past three years. I think it has only been made possible with daily meditation though. I also have two very small boys in the house, and the time that I spend with them is so naturally mindful; they do it so effortlessly, and I follow.

I think a hobby is most definitely a good thing. Your passion for food is a good one I reckon; I share the same passion. You can apply mindfulness to both the preparing of the food and the eating of the food. Keep working with it. Whenever your attention goes, then bring it back; it's all that you can do. The more you practise, the better you should get.

We've been used to following our thoughts around for our whole lives, so consciously bringing your mind back is a different way of being that takes some time to get used to. My personal belief is that regular practice also makes physical changes to your brain that may take some time to take effect.

[Enigma]

Mindfulness can and should (ideally) be practiced moment to moment. To assume there is a time and place for it only limits our practice. In truth, mindfulness is an unlimited resource that can never be depleted, available to us where-ever we go.

I also practice mindful eating and mindful work and find them especially beneficial to my overall practice. They are no less important than formal meditation. Without the ability to "translate" mindfulness into everyday life, there is not much reason to practice it in isolation.

When mindfulness is limited to one place and one time (on the cushion, during meditation), then it has no relation to our day to day lives and lived experience. When it can be translated into everyday life, only then can the power of mindfulness truly be felt.

[FeeHutch]

You really summed it up there Enigma, especially your final thought:

When mindfulness is limited to one place and one time (on the cushion, during meditation), then it has no relation to our day to day lives and lived experience. When it can be translated into everyday life, only then can the power of mindfulness truly be felt.

[JonW]

I agree with Fee. Excellent post, enigma.

[David]

An excellent therapist who'm with I had a great repore, once adviced me to start wearing my watch and purchase a diary. It was during a time - where time no longer existed for me. Unfortunately I can not make any great claims to miraculously finding my inner self during this phase of a timeless existence. It was more a case of clinical depression.

Whilst I now find knowing what time it is helpful and have some tools to help me remind me of appointed dates, my less anxious moments, are those that seamlessly come from nowhere and blend into the next, without knowing at all.

Once Time, Places, People and Things become more than those moments that take no thought at all - I quickly forget how; not to think at all.

[vikmartin]

Hello all of you - I'm Vik, I've only just turned up
Its definitely a goal for me to pay attention whenever I can during the day. The ability comes and goes in waves and I think its a really good idea to have an activity that reminds you - eating is a good idea. Photography is mine. The hardest thing for me is to switch off the voice that wants me to do well and produce something good. I've realised that listening to it doesn't make the result better.
When I remember, I imagine I'm sitting in the back of my head, hearing the muffled thoughts going on at the front but not clearly enough to follow them. Then I remember to come back here. If I manage to pay attention for a period of time I feel loads happier for ages.
I agree definitely with what enigma says - sitting meditating is good practice for some people but I find it easier to link it to an activity to remind myself.

[JonW]

Hi vikmartin,
Welcome to the forum. Please make yourself at home here. You'll find us a friendly bunch.
All good things,
Jon, Hove

[Candour]

It seems we are in a similar boat vikmartin. What you said about stepping back in your head is exactly how I experience mindfulness, my thoughts become objects in my field of awareness when I step back from them. I don't have a regular practice, though I do enjoy sitting meditation when the kids aren't crawling over me and bodyscans when I cant sleep. Luckily I live and work in rural enviroments and nothing brings me authentic moments of presence like nature.