Getting Unstuck With Mindfulness Practice

Mindfulness is popular and a very old idea. Science is now unpacking the benefits of mindfulness across many life areas. The idea of being present just where you are and just as you are is a liberating notion. And, it is also difficult to do. Minds don't like being in the present. They prefer to dwell in the past and the future. You can see for yourself if that is mostly true of your experience. It sure is for me.

Where was your mind as you took a shower? Was it fully inside the shower experience, or outside rushing ahead into the next thing or dwelling on yesterday?

Where was your mind as you ate dinner? Was it fully present with the tastes, smells, textures, and sensations or eating, the movements of the mouth, the flavors on the tongue?
Where was your mind on the way to work? Or as you went for a walk or worked out at the gym?

Where was your mind during a recent episode of anticipation, or during a spell of pain, difficulty, and hardship?

Minds have a hard time being just where we are.

But coming back to the present can be enormously beneficial. After all, that is where we are anyway. And the present is the only place we can act to impact our lives. Recollections of the past are always happening NOW. Concocting futures that have yet to be are also happening in the NOW. But this is hard to see. And it can be difficult to cultivate mindfulness in life. I know that first hand.

I thought that mindfulness required formal sitting meditation. Yet, I couldn't find a window for that, and when I made time my mind quickly launched into evaluations and judgments, intrusions reminding me that I had things to do or places to be. At times, it launched me into painful and sweet recollections of a past that is long but gone.

And so, I decided that I would instead cultivate mindfulness in my daily interactions with the world. I've applied it to ironing my shirts (an activity that I generally dislike), driving the kids here and there, during meetings, interactions with my spouse, family, and friends, and in moments when I am listening to music, on a run, walking to teach a class, and in times when I am tired and feeling alone. In a way, my practice has become one of living mindfulness. And, I think there is something precious in that -- I found presence and a lightness as I let my experience be my experience.
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