WHY YSK- Many people practice mindfulness and meditation as part of their lives, and some would like to but feel like they don’t have time to sit down and meditate properly. Once you’ve gotten used to doing it as a part of your daily activities, it becomes easy to simply take a few breaths and gain some peace from your everyday existence. You don’t need to wait for a time when you can sit and clear your mind completely. It’s a nice bonus, but not necessary for living a mindful life.
Mindfulness for me, now, is to be aware of myself and my surroundings. It started with meditation during a one year chronic pain remedy program, and helped with learning to deal with all the noise that comes up (pain, stress, intrusive thoughts). To not ignore them, but to observe them. Detach myself somewhat and just “look” at it. This helped me to eventually do this during monotonous activities: brushing my teeth, doing dishes, combing cats, vacuuming, even emptying litter boxes. Then to external activities where I am observing the things outside and inside me: waiting in line, sitting on the bus, hiking, drinking tea at a café.
When I exit the state I feel a bit more refreshed. If I need more, and have the ability, I will go and sit in my favourite spot and meditate deeper.
i think the simplest way to look at is that, while you’re doing dishes, you clear your mind and just think: “i’m washing this dish”… instead of letting your mind sort of entertain itself with all the thoughts that want to take your attention away from the dishes… thoughts that might make you anxious or sad or something that dishes obviously wouldn’t… if you’re thinking about that argument you had while you’re doing dishes, you don’t really have your mind on that bowl in your hand… poor bowl… :(
basically just trying to give yourself a break from mentally being “somewhere else”
Strangely enough, it all clicked once you personified the bowl! It is what matters in that small moment, no matter how insignificant it may seem to be.
Personally, if I’m doing something that I find monotonous, I just focus on my breath and my body. You don’t have to find joy in the one thing you’re doing to meditate while doing it. You can shift the joy to just your breath and your body being a gift to you because you woke up today.
If I feel the need, I also allow my mind to do whatever it feels the need to for a little bit, which is usually planning for something that makes me anxious or thinking about something that happened earlier, then bring my thoughts back to just my breath and my body for a few seconds, and refocus on the thoughts that crept in. It’s okay to allow whatever thoughts want to creep up in, and then accept and acknowledge what you want to think about and why.
You can continue doing the dishes and meditate while allowing your mind to focus on the thoughts that wanted to creep in. You don’t have to block it all out. Just acknowledge it and make it part of the experience. Once you’ve acknowledged the other thoughts, you may find you can mix the two together–I’m anxious about this thing coming up, but I also appreciate the warm water running over my hands right now.
