Mindfulness Basics - It's Easy to Begin

Mindfulness is about being in touch and then staying with the present moment and being open to experiences as they come. It can give us a sense of being more alive, of waking up to our lives. Sometimes I don’t even realize I’m sleeping (metaphorically!), and then I bring in some mindfulness, and realize that there’s a new richness to reality. Interested? Here’s are some mindfulness basics to get started.

Here are some traditional principles of mindfulness, then some ideas for starting a practice:

3 Principles of Mindfulness:

Awareness – It’s pretty easy to get caught up in patterns of behavior or thought and not really know what’s happening. You jump to conclusions and you stop really interacting honestly with the world. You’re just interacting with what you’re projecting around you. But the alternative is mindfulness. You can take a look around you, both externally and internally, and bring some greater awareness to the situation.

Being in the Present Moment - It’s pretty easy to be here, but not be here . You might be at that meeting, but you’re checking your email on your blackberry and twittering about diaper brands. You might be “in” your relationship, but really you are struggling with your visions for marriage with this person. I’ve heard that some people tend to go towards the past in their distraction, and some people tend to go towards the future. The alternative, which is harder, but more

Acceptance of the Current Moment – A lot of our struggles come from saying that the current moment isn’t okay. And in a way, it’s not. There is war and famine, genocide and daily oppression. But that’s what we’re working with. That’s the situation. And fighting against reality only deprives you of energy to bring active compassion to the situation. I’m not saying “the current moment is perfect,” but I am saying that the current moment is what we’ve got.

How to begin a practice:

If you’re just beginning, you can build up the amount of time that you are sitting. You can start by setting aside just a few minutes, then slowly build up. You can do it! It’s just sitting, right? You can try bringing in mindfulness meditation to everyday activities. Can you be mindful as you… brush your teeth?
Drive?
Text message (not while driving!)
Wash dishes?

One of the best things to do is set aside time for mindfulness meditation, which might sound intimidating, but it’s just sitting with yourself, kinda the same way you always are, but bringing the principles above to your most important relationship, your relationship with yourself. You can try setting aside time in the mornings or just before bed to just sit and be mindful of your thoughts. 30 minutes is a great length of time to practice just being mindful. As each thought comes, you don’t necessarily follow that “train” of thinking, you just notice that’s what you’re thinking. Without judgment, remember? You are just noticing, saying “aha!” (and don’t judge yourself judging yourself. It’s too complicated, and you are spending all that energy beating yourself up instead of actually becoming accepting and gentle towards yourself.

Sitting and practicing in bursts is great, and the advantage of sitting is similar to lifting weights. Sitting and practicing mindfulness can help develop our “muscles.” Eventually the idea is that it becomes easier and it starts to bleed into our everyday existence. But bringing mindfulness into our daily life is the point – mindful conversation, mindful buying, mindful parenting, the possibilities are literally limitless.

I hope you've enjoyed reading about some mindfulness basics.
Click here for the main mindfulness page.

Related tools and resources (stay tuned for more):
One tool for mindfulness that doesn't involve formal meditation is making a slight change in how you do your day to day activities.

Another is hacking a particular pedagogical tool to bring attention to certain moments.

One bridge between productivity work and mindfulness practice is time tracking.