With the help of these activities you'll be able to stay present throughout your day.
Unlike formal mindfulness meditations, such as the body scan (p46) or mindful
walking exercise (p66) in which you set aside a specific time to focus on a specific technique in isolation, when you practise informal mindfulness, you’re bringing your attention to your mind, body or emotions from moment to moment throughout the course of the day. Becoming aware of your breath when you feel stressed at work, for example, can help dissipate the emotion in situ and bring you greater clarity of mind. Using visual reminders, such as the colour red, to anchor you in the present will lessen the possibility of becoming lost in your thoughts. Both forms of mindfulness are equally important. In fact, they feed each other, as practising in an informal way gives you the chance to practise and integrate the skills you’re developing in longer meditations. The following activities only take 10
minutes or less to complete. Work in a way and at a pace that suits you. You could choose one a day for 23 days or focus on the same theme for a few days and observe how your experiences deepen. It may take time to feel comfortable and confident with these exercises, so view them as a journey of discovery, without expectation or judgement. That way you’re more likely to enjoy – and be present – for each step.
MEET YOURSELF
Spend some time each day alone – even if it’s just five minutes. Turn off the TV, put your mobile on silent and just be with yourself. Allow whatever you’re thinking or feeling to come to the foreground and simply breathe it in. When we first practise mindfulness, it’s often easier to become aware of being in the now if we minimise our distractions.
BEWARE OF TIME TRAVEL
This one may require a little practice. When you’re talking to a friend
and you notice yourself reacting, try to be aware if you’re responding to what is happening in the present, or if something in the past is fuelling your reaction. Perhaps she was an hour late for a movie once and you missed the screening; this time she may just have been 10 minutes late but it’s made you livid. It’s not unusual to hold onto past experiences and react to them in the present. When something irks you, pause, take a breath and tune into your centre and see if you’ve been in the same situation before. From this awareness, you can decide how you want to respond.
GET STRESS AWARE
Observe what it is that makes you riled at the office. A particular person not pulling their weight, excessive talking when you have a deadline to meet, the manager who never notices how much overtime you do. Notice the effect on your body and breathe. It’s much easier to decide how you want to respondwhen you’re feeling calm.
Be present
When speaking to a friend or
colleague, give them your undivided attention. Focus on what they’re saying and not what’s happening around you. Resist the urge to interrupt or give your opinion – listen wholeheartedly. Not only will they feel deeply heard, it also brings you, the listener, a wonderful experience of feeling grounded and fully presen
Keep a JOURNAL
Keeping track of your mindfulness experiences will give you the opportunity to record and reflect on what you’ve experienced during the day. You can use it to keep track of your intentions, to notice any patterns that are emerging and to highlight any areas you want to revisit and work on more deeply.
DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT When you’re out and about, try Have a heart Take your attention to your heart area and ask yourself what you are experiencing emotionally at this moment. Give yourself a minute or two for your feelings to register.
Are there any physical sensations? A racing pulse? A gentle ache? A tingling sense of excitement? You don’t need to try to change anything, just notice. Often we cut off from how we feel to get through the task at hand, but by bringing your emotions more into your awareness you can be a little kinder to yourself throughout the day.. And remember, this is just an exercise in awareness, so be careful not to judge yourselfabout the thoughts that you’re having!
Have a heart
Take your attention to your heart area and ask yourself what you are experiencing emotionally at this moment. Give yourself a minute or two for your feelings to register.
Are there any physical sensations? A racing pulse? A gentle ache? A tingling sense of excitement? You don’t need to try to change anything, just notice. Often we cut off from how we feel to get through the task at hand, but by bringing your emotions more into your awareness you can be a little kinder to yourself throughout the day.
BE A CHILD AGAIN
Set aside an hour or two (or a day
if you’re on holiday) and indulge your inner child. Take her to an art gallery or an afternoon movie, let her eat whatever she fancies or give her permission to run barefoot on the grass/sand with no fitness agenda whatsoever! Ask her what she would really like to do if everything was allowed, and then let her with no judgements and no limitations. Then see how you feel afterwards.
PERFORM A RANDOM ACT OF KINDNESS
Thought to originate from a quote written on a place mat at a restaurant, ‘Perform random acts ofkindness and senseless acts ofbeauty’, doing something unexpected for a friend or even a total stranger, is a wonderful way to wake you both up
to the present moment. It could be as simple as smiling warmly at someone you don’t know or sending flowers to a friend who’s been feeling down. You need to do this without any expectations, but the likelihood is you’ll be flooded with warm feelings when you do.
Find some head space
Periodically throughout the day, stop what you’re doing and consciously become aware of your thoughts. Are you thinking about something that happened in the past? Perhaps you’re
imagining how your friend will respond when you cancel that date? Very often our thoughts are not connected to the present. Acknowledge your thoughts, without judgement, inhale deeply and allow yourself to return to what’s happening right now.
BE YOUR OWN BEST FRIEND
Do you feel better about yourselfwhen you achieve a goal, but criticise yourself
ifyou don’t? Rather than place value judgements on yourself, today see ifyou can cultivate an attitude ofobservation instead, so you become more aware of these inner dialogues. Notice what stories accompany your behaviour. ‘I must do better.’ ‘IfIwas more thoughtful Iwould have acted differently.’ Ifit helps, when you see a judgemental thought arise, label it ‘thinking’, and take your attention to your breath for a couple ofmoments.
Take a sound bath
Spend some time focusing on the sounds around you. A humming fridge, the sound of traffic or noisy
conversation in a café. If you’re in a relatively quiet place, see if you can tune into the sounds outside your building. Then bring your attention closer and focus on any sounds inside the room. If you can, go even deeper and listen to the sound of your own body. A rumbling tummy or the sound of your breath, perhaps. Even if you don’t like what you’re hearing, just allow the sound to exit, and see if that changes how you feel about it.
Monotask!
Forget doing three things at once, choose a single activity and complete it before moving onto the next. Don’t just give it your full attention, but also carry out the job in minute detail. It’s an interesting exercise to do this with something you don’t usually enjoy. If you choose washing the dishes, for example, look carefully at each piece of
crockery you clean. Are there areas you sometimes miss, such as the back of a plate or the outside of the frying pan? This time, give those areas
extra attention and make them sparkle. If you normally let the dishes drain, try drying them, packing them away, then drying beneath the draining rack. Notice how it feels to completely absorb yourself in an activity from the beginning right through to the end.
See red
Vietnamese monk, Thich Naht Hahn, suggests pausing and turning your attention inwards each time you
see a red traffic light. If you extend this to every time you see the colour red, it’s a useful reminder to pause for a moment to deepen your breathing, become aware of any unnecessary tension you’re holding and to come back to the present moment, sensing what is real for you right now.
BE A ROOKIE
Take on a task you’ve never done before. Mentor a new member of staff, learn a piece of
software or offer to help out a colleague who’s feeling under pressure. With a beginner’s mind, you’ll see things with fresh eyes – you really have to be in the moment when you learn something new – and you’re more likely to accept that you don’t have to be perfect.
Feel your feet
When you’re waiting for a train or queuing at a checkout, rather than feel frustrated or anxious, allow your attention to drop into your feet. Feel the point of contact between your
soles and the ground. Imagine your breath travelling from your sacrum down both your legs and out through your feet into the ground. Notice how this simple grounding practice affects your whole body.
BE GRATEFUL
There is a lot oftalk about gratitude journals these days, but instead ofrecalling three things you’re grateful for at the end ofthe day, see ifyou can fully appreciate positive experiences in the moment. Be aware ofyour thoughts, feelings and bodily sensations at the time. Rather than rush into the next activity in your day, take a moment or two to appreciate them fully. Take a deep breath in and allow them to expand until they fill your experience.
GET CLEAR
Setting an intention for the day is a valuable way to give focus to your mindfulness journey. Perhaps you want to work on connecting to your breath when you feel stressed, or maybe you’d like to tune into your senses to help calm a busy mind. By singling out an area to give your attention to, you create a point ofreference to return to throughout the day. To set an intention, sit quietly for a few breaths to create a state ofrestful awareness, then take your attention to the area below your navel and ask yourself ‘What do Ineed for today?’ Trust the first answer that comes to you and make that the focus ofyour day.
Posture play
Without trying to change anything, tune into your body and notice how you are sitting, standing or lying. Are you
leaning on one leg more than the other? Is your neck jutting forwards? Are your shoulders hunched? Notice if you’re holding your breath as well as
your muscles. It’s hard to be fully present in the moment if you’re tensing your body. Simply becoming aware of the tension may allow you to let it go.
ACT AS IF…
As an experiment, the next time you have a task you really don’t feel like
doing, imagine it’s the most important thing you’ve ever been asked to do, perhaps a piece of work that will lead to your dream job. Give it all your attention and care, and notice if this changes your feelings about doing it.
Smile inside
Practise smiling on the inside. Simply imagine you’re smiling and notice the difference it
makes. How does your face feel? How does your heart feel? What do you notice about the area around you? Your experience in the here and now is not fixed, but dependent on your relationship to it. Experiment for yourself and see what you notice.
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