Everyday Mindfulness

Everyday Midnfulness

You can also apply mindfulness to other aspects of everyday life. Even if you just stop now and again and give yourself a few minutes of stillness: sit down in a chair, quietly close your eyes, with your hands resting in your lap, and open your senses. What do you hear, smell, feel? Observe also the incessant internal chatter of the mind. Notice the individual thoughts, without judging whether they are good or bad, whether you should be having them or not. Just observe.

As Henepola Gunaratana, a Sri Lankan Buddhist monk, explains in his book "Mindfulness in Plain English", mindfulness is quite different to how we go about our everyday existence. We don't notice what is really in front of us:

"We see life through a screen of thoughts and concepts, and we mistake those mental objects for reality. We get so caught up in this endless thought-stream that reality flows by unnoticed. We spend our time engrossed in activity, caught up in an eternal flight from pain and unpleasantness. We spend our energies trying to make ourselves feel better, trying to bury our fears. We are endlessly seeking security. Meanwhile, the world of real experience flows by untouched and untasted."

Have yourself a Mindful Merry Christmas.