Mindfulness in the Midst of Your Beautiful Aliveness

A mindful practice in the midst of your beautiful aliveness

How much time do you spend in the present moment? Did you know that it is beneficial for your brain to practice mindfulness each day.  It serves as a balance to all the turbulent busyness.  When you practice mindfulness regularly you are training your brain and nervous system to consciously relax, pause, gently breath in and out and recognize your abilities to respond to Life circumstances rather than react. 

Attending mindfully and kindly to yourself, during your day, in the midst of attending to everyone and everything else requires creativity.  

One of my meditation teachers talks about the importance of the three Ps in meditation practice.  Patience, persistence and playfulness.  Just think what a difference it could make to your day …… if you consciously set the intention of cultivating patience, as a placeholder to which you could connect over and over again through out your day to bring you back to the present moment. What I love about a mindfulness practice is that, once you learn the skills, it is portable and accessible in any moment. 

The Buddha taught that it is important  to practice mindfulness in different postures.  Sitting, standing, lying down and walking.  I practice often when standing in line at a check out or check in counter.  It not only benefits me, it also benefits all of us standing in line with me!  I call this ‘waiting with patience meditation’.  The cues for when to practice this mindfulness practice you will already know.  I begin to notice the frustration and irritation that arises;  then the numerous thoughts of needing to get somewhere I am not; or chastising the clerk or people in front of me for being too slow.  All of this energy causes tension and restlessness in the body and a whole ball of dukkha (suffering) has landed right here in my body, heart and mind.  How to transform and harness this reactive energy into being responsive to Life circumstances.  

Using the skills I have honed from my mindfulness practice over the years, I firstly choose to change my mind! I reframe the experience as a great opportunity to practice patience in waiting!   I come back to my body standing in line.  I focus on the sensory touch points of the soles of my feet connecting with the floor, and the weight of my body being supported by Earth and sky.   I notice the flow and rhythm of my breath that is supporting me in every moment.  I may experience gratitude for my life.  I may even look around and see the 10,000 sorrows and the 10,000 joys in people’s faces around me and feel compassion for the clerk doing a difficult job under the pressure of a busy afternoon.   I may even use some words from my Metta practice and say them gently to myself and then send then towards all the other human beings in this situation.  Choosing to mindfully connect and not separate, in situations of conflict/dukkha is a skill that can be learned and applied in many aspects of  life.

So when you are next waiting in line, take a break from the busyness of life and take some mindful moments for yourself standing, breathing and practicing patience in the midst of your beautiful aliveness.