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.
This is right. People tend to think of meditation as a static body posture. But can be done anywhere and anytime. It is not about relaxation, it’s about being conscious of something like our breath or just the shape of a grape and bringing your mind constantly to it when it tries to generate thoughts. That exercise of bring your mind constantly to the thing you want, makes a massive benefit in the psyche. It doesn’t benefit from the amount of time you can keep con con concentration, is about that mentioned exercise.
Meditation while tuning or walking or exchanging on elliptical is amazing thing. It is easier to meditate and it helps you with exercise well.
i’ve been using a simple “box breathing” technique when i start to feel the anxiety begin to creep… it’s really effective for me…
breathing is a four stage process: inhale - hold - exhale - hold (edit: and repeat as necessary)
you force each stage to last 3-4 seconds… it’s hard to hold your lungs empty when you’re stressed, so forcing yourself to do this can sort of forcibly lower your anxiety level… it can be really effective, very quickly…
and as a breathing technique, it sort of qualifies as fundamental meditation as well
The world should have more meditation. Another great time to practice is when lying down for bed.
Edit: I suffer from sleeplessness, and do not use this help me fall asleep. I now recognize that my case may be user-specific, as I do NOT use this time for sleeping or falling asleep. I have other practices that help when that time comes, after meditation.
I disagree regarding lying down for bed. Never teach your body to associate the relaxation of meditation with sleep. Unless you only need it for immediately before you sleep to calm your mind.
I can now have mindfulness while doing activities (not driving ofc). Your body will do what you teach it, and I’ve stopped falling asleep meditating when I removed it from bedtime.
Yes, the world needs more meditation.
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’m sure it’s different for everyone. For me, it’s about recognizing that every day is a gift and I should do what I can to acknowledge the beauty that is around me. My body, my home that shelters me, my family and friends, my city and surrounding state… it’s all beautiful and all I have to do is take a few moments throughout each day to take it in while focusing on my breath.
I meditate while walking or cooking most days. I have a system for walking, where I know how many breaths I normally take while walking and breathing at a slow but steady pace. I start on the left foot and breath in, then switch to exhaling always on the right foot at the right amount of steps. It takes some practice but the whole point of it is to get some exercise and take in the scenery while breathing and focusing on your breath in the background of your mind. I live in a cold area, so when I first learned this I even used it as a method to walk around the house and pick things up that need to be put away since I oculdn['t get outside much.
When I’m cooking I enjoy the process and do it like the article I posted, letting my mind wander if it needs to for a few minutes and then bringing it back to my body and breath for a few seconds, and focusing on the food again. Cooking is something I love to do, so it’s easy to meditate while focusing on the aromas and the colors and just in the background of my brain making sure my breathing is even.
