Beyond Just Meditation

Learning to Speak The Language of Mindfulness

December 3rd, 2017

In meditation we learn the art of mindfulness – how to engage in the present moment by using our senses to interact with the world around us. We can think of practicing sitting meditation as learning the foundation to bring mindfulness into other areas of our lives.

There are many opportunities to incorporate mindfulness into our daily experience, below I discuss bringing a mindful quality to eating and walking.

Eating – When having a meal, we can devote our full attention to the food we are eating and the activity of eating itself. To support a mindful meal, it helps to turn off our screens, slow down our pace, and bring a curious nature to the sensory aspects of our experience. Upon directing our attention to our food, we can experiment with feeling the physical sensations associated with eating: being aware of the texture, experiencing the flavors, or smelling the aromas of our meal.

Walking – A great way to practice mindfulness is simply walking for the sake of walking. During a mindful walk we can bring with us the intention of accentuating our senses: with each new step, the ground under our feet can be felt, the aromas entering our nasal passage can be smelt, or we can simply feel the delight of a nice breeze passing over our body. If possible, waking without a set destination can further promote mindfulness. And even when we have a target location, we can be fully in the present moment by feeling the physical sensations along the way.

Mindfulness can be considered as a new a way to interact and communicate with the world around us, where practicing meditation is learning the foundation, and bringing mindfulness into our lives is speaking its language. The more we speak the language, the more engaged we become with the stories that dance all around us, instead of the stories the mind may be telling.