Mindfulness on the Spot
Category: Beginners Guide to Meditation | Mind Trainer Articles | Mindfulness and Awareness | Recent Meditation Posts
Four exercises that help cultivate awareness in a busy life
Brief mindfulness exercises can be beneficial for meditators of all levels. We tend to think of mindfulness as a dedicated practice that requires setting time aside to engage in meditation and meditation only. For many of us, a daily or regular sit is a vital part of the rhythm of life, while for others, it seems there just aren’t enough hours in a day to devote to everything that needs doing, much less meditate.
Whether we’re a “wake-up-and-hit-the-cushion” meditator, an “I sit when I possibly can” meditator, or somewhere in-between, brief mindfulness moments during our day can help us train in being present, whatever the circumstances.
1) Short moments of breathing awareness
At different moments of the day we can try to find time to cultivate awareness of the breath during, for example, 7 cycles of inhale—exhale. While isn’t always practical—if we’re in the middle of a conversation, say, or engaged in something that requires our full attention—there are plenty of other moments when we can turn the attention to the breath. For most of us, 7 breath cycles take a minute or so.
As we pay attention to the breath, we may choose to settle the mind on the movement of the chest and lungs or the belly and simply observe the movements of expansion and contraction that accompany each cycle. We can use external triggers to remind us to be aware of the breath. Depending on our circumstances, we could use cars going by, a colleague’s phone, a dog barking, a siren. We can also set our phone to ping at random or regular moments throughout the day.
This practice keeps the mind flexible and serves as a reminder that we can influence what we pay attention to at any given moment. As it becomes easier and easier to lead the mind to this object or that, it also becomes easier for us to notice unhelpful emotional reactions as they arise and deliberately shift our attention to the breath. Sometimes one minute of conscious breathing is all it takes to transform a difficult situation into a workable one.
2) Washing the dishes
The late Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh published a book in the 1970s called The Miracle of Mindfulness in which he gives many tips on cultivating mindfulness in everyday life. One exercise he returns to repeatedly is washing the dishes. In one excerpt he writes, “While washing the dishes you might be thinking about the tea afterwards, and so try to get them out of the way as quickly as possible in order to sit and drink tea. But that means that you are incapable of living during the time you are washing the dishes. When you are washing the dishes, washing the dishes must be the most important thing in your life. Just as when you’re drinking tea, drinking tea must be the most important thing in your life.”
Of course, this advice can apply to just about anything we do regularly and at least somewhat conscientiously—chopping vegetables, taking a shower, sweeping or vacuuming, and so on. When we begin to pay attention, we may realize that our minds have rarely been fully present with the task at hand. We are usually considering what we should do next, or should have said earlier, or where we will go for vacation, and so on. Maybe while doing the dishes we’re thinking that we’d really like to buy some new dishes. We can turn these moments into practice by taking stock of where the mind has wandered and inviting it back to the present.
Chores like doing the dishes come with ready-made tools for settling the mind. We can pay attention to the feel, sound, and scent of the dishes, soap, and warm water and to our gestures as we proceed. Being present and attentive, noticing when the mind has wandered, and gently bringing it back is mindfulness in the moment.
3) Sitting in open awareness
This is a “simply be” meditation. We set aside 3 to 5 minutes to maintain awareness without a particular object for several minutes. If helpful, we can use a kitchen timer or a phone to keep track of the time. When thoughts arise, we notice them and remain in open awareness. There’s no need to do anything—this is our time to relax the mind. The image is of cutting the rope that is holding together a bundle of wheat. The wheat, unbound, simply falls where it will.
If the situation allows for a proper meditation posture—at home, on a bench, on the beach—that’s a great support for our practice. If not, we can sit in open awareness just about anywhere, including while parked in a car or seated in an office cubicle. Here the essential point is to keep the back as straight as we comfortably can.
This exercise is more about letting go than focusing. We maintain awareness and encourage openness. This is another form of meditation training that allows us to realize how bound up we usually are in our routines, and to experience how the mind delights when we let go, even for a few moments.
4) A minute of gratitude
Gratitude practice is a creative cousin of traditional mindfulness in that we are directing the mind in a certain direction and keeping it there for a full minute or more. We don’t have to think too hard—there’s always plenty to be grateful for, starting with being possessed of a body that sustains a functioning brain that can experience gratitude, and everything that goes into that!
A minute is, of course, far too short to count our many blessings, but this is not meant to be a heavy-handed exercise. Rather, by regularly dedicating a moment to things we can be grateful for, it becomes easier for us to stop dwelling on the things we wish were otherwise. Like more traditional mindfulness meditations, cultivating gratitude gives the mind something to focus on, and, like open awareness practice, it fosters spaciousness. It goes a step further by reminding us of the interconnectedness of our lives and of everything that exists.
If we have the time and the inclination, we can extend the minute into a longer period and include well-wishes in our practice, using everything and everybody that had a hand in our enjoyment of the moment as the basis for our appreciation. In this way, a simple minute of gratitude becomes a powerful tool for opening the heart and connecting.
