5 Easy Ways to Practice Mindfulness in Everyday Life
Mindfulness was never meant to be practiced sitting on a cushion 24 hours a day.
Even monks in a monastery tend to personal business and go about their chores.
Hence the famous Zen saying:
“Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water.”
Even if your aim is to reduce stress, anxiety, or depression or just improve your focus and thus your productivity, scientifically verified benefits of mindfulness, the same axiom applies.
Mindfulness can be a part of your every moment.
And the more you incorporate mindfulness into the moments of your life, the more peaceful, relaxed, and spacious you’ll feel. I know this from my own experience as a long-time meditator and mindfulness teacher.
Here’s how to wake mindfulness up in everyday life.
Use the Senses
The senses are the channels through which we receive input almost continuously.
As soon as we perceive something, we usually start to think about it. We tend to label it, consciously or subconsciously, as a “like” or “dislike.” At times, we get swallowed and thrown about by the emotional waves a perception can suddenly trigger.
All of that is called distraction—meaning we’re distracted from the present moment. We relate to our thoughts and emotions about the moment, and are not engaged in the actual direct experience of now itself.
When you use your senses to be more mindful, you turn what was once a distraction into a powerful vehicle that can deepen and strengthen awareness instead.
Let’s explore how to use the senses one by one.
Whichever sense you engage, remember to relax and place your attention lightly upon the sense object.
Your goal is relaxed awareness. You’re not trying to wring mindfulness out of each moment—that would only make you tense.
Let’s start with sound.
1. Sound
Be aware of the sounds in your environment as they touch your ear.
Don’t focus on a specific sound, analyze what you hear, or think about whether you like or dislike it.
If your mind wanders into those kinds of thoughts or any others (and it will), as soon as you notice, bring your attention back to the sounds around you.
This approach works equally well with birds chirping, a noisy lawnmower, and the din of rush hour traffic.
2. Physical Sensation
Rest your attention lightly on one area of the body—your chest for example. Notice any sensations as they arise, change, and disappear.
Or slowly scan you body from head to foot and observe whatever make themselves known as you do. Don’t stop and fixate on a single one. Continue to scan slowly and then begin again.
Alternatively, you could feel the sensation of your buttocks pressing against a chair, your feet on the floor, or a piece of clothing touching your skin.
The awareness of physical sensations can heighten your experience of exercise, sex, and showers too.
3. Form
If your eyes are constantly glued to a screen, you’ve perfected the practice of form but in a less than ideal way.
Mindfulness means conscious awareness balanced with a relaxed sense of ease. It’s not a form of tight over-concentration.
Choose an object in your environment and lightly rest your attention upon it. It could be a flower, the sky, or a file cabinet—something you can see without straining your eyes.
Don’t examine the object in fine detail. Don’t penetrate it with your eyes. Just rest your attention on the form lightly with bare awareness.
Whenever you mind goes often on a tangent, gently bring it back to the form.
4. Smell
Tune into the faculty of smell when you enter a bakery, traverse the perfume aisle in a department store, or step into a flower shop.
The aroma of your morning coffee is an invitation to mindfulness as well.
Consciously breathe in the aroma without trying to figure out the coffee blend. If your mind drifts to the day ahead, bring it back to the aroma emitting from your cup.
Intermix another sense by feeling the warmth of the cup as you hold in your hands or the heat of its steam nearing your face.
Cooking, with its many aromas, could become a wildly mindful affair.
5. Taste
People rush through meals. They talk to others or carry on an internal conversation with themselves. They make their to-do list or check their phones.
They might notice an exceptional taste experience for a moment, but then they’re on to something else.
Instead you could give your full attention to every bite you eat
Here’s a complete tutorial on the art of mindfully eating a tangerine:
“What does it mean to eat a tangerine with awareness? When you are eating the tangerine, you are aware that you are eating the tangerine. You fully experience its lovely fragrance and sweet taste. When you peel the tangerine, you know that you are peeling the tangerine; when you remove a slice and put it in your mouth, you know that you are removing a slice and putting it in your mouth; when you experience the lovely fragrance and sweet taste of the tangerine, you are aware that you are experiencing the lovely fragrance and sweet taste of the tangerine. The tangerine Nandabala offered me had nine sections. I ate each morsel in awareness and saw how precious and wonderful it was.”—Thich Nhat Hanh in Old Path, White Clouds
Delightful, don’t you think?
Simple Tips on Sense-Based Mindfulness
Here are three ways you can use sense-based mindfulness:
Take one-minute breaks during the day and use a sense or two as described above. Sprinkle these mindfulness breaks across the day—one every hour or two. Use a gentle alarm on your watch or a timer on your device to remind you to pause and be mindful.
Or keep your senses wide open from the moment you wake up. Practice continuously throughout the day. That’s a big ask, but experiment and see what you discover. You can still use a digital timer each hour to see if you’ve become distracted.
Use sense objects like sounds or a form as a focus in seated sessions of mindfulness meditation too. Everyday mindfulness isn’t a replacement for formal sessions of mindfulness meditation. Formal practice builds the habit of mindfulness more effectively.
Whatever your approach, whenever you become distracted, bring your mind back to the sense you’ve selected as your focus. That’s how you build the strength and stability of mindfulness.
“How we pay attention to the present moment largely determines the character of our experience, and therefore, the quality of our lives.” — Sam Harris
Concluding Thoughts
You’ve been given 1440 minutes each day.
Once you subtract time devoted to sleep, do you want to use your remaining minutes in a distracted fashion or as mindfully as you can?
When you live in distraction, you’re more likely to feel stressed, strained, and spent.
When you live mindfully, you’re more likely to find relaxation, insight, and a lightness of being bubbling up.
It’s up to you. Which would you prefer?
Thank you for your presence, I know your time is precious! Don’t forget to sign up for Wild Arisings, my twice monthly letters from the heart filled with insights, inspiration, and ideas to help you connect with and live from your truest self.
You might also like to check out my Self-Care Shop. May you be happy, well, and safe – always. With love, Sandra
