A person once said to me, “I hear about all this research where mindfulness can be healing for stress, anxiety, depression, addiction, chronic pain, etc.., but I have 3 kids and work 50 hours/week, where would I ever find time to sit and practice meditation for my mental health?” While having certain traditional disciplined meditations can be enormously supportive, it can be difficult to cultivate this without guidance. While there are many CDs on the topic, a community is often an important factor that supports us in sustaining this practice.
However, even without the time and place in life to set up some formal practice, from the minute you get up in the day to the moment you lay your head on the pillow there is an opportunity to engage mindfulness as a way of life, opening you up to greater focus, calm, and peace.
Here is an excerpt from the upcoming Mindful Solutions for Success and Stress Reduction at Work Audio CD.
Here are some tips on how to weave mindfulness into your workday and life:
- As you open your eyes in the morning, instead of jolting out of bed, try and see if you can make time for a STOP practice (Stop, Take a breath, Observe thoughts, feelings, emotions, and Proceed). This tends to start the day off differently with more calm and present moment awareness setting the stage for you to be more steady during challenging moments through the day.
- As you get in the shower, notice if your mind is already at work thinking, planning, and rehearsing all the things that may happen that day. When you become aware of this, gently bring your mind back to the question, what is my purpose right now, what is most important. The answer is getting clean in the shower or waking up. So bring your attention back to your senses, smelling the soap, feeling the sensation of the water on your body, listening to the sound of it in the shower. Becoming more present.
