Living Mindfully: 10 Ideas to Support Your Meditation Practice
I have no idea whether Jesse Newton was into meditation or living mindfully prior to “the incident”, but if he wasn’t, he probably wishes he was.
You may be wondering who the heck Jesse Newton is, so let me explain! Several years ago, I read about Jesse in a story about a self-cleaning device gone wrong that quickly went viral.
The epic story began with Jesse saying:
“So, last week, something pretty tragic happened in our household. It’s taken me until now to wrap my head around it and find the words to describe the horror. It started off simple enough – something that’s probably happened to most of you.”
I will fill you in on the rest of it in a bit, but as I said in the opening paragraph, living mindfully would have probably helped him deal with the situation he faced better!
Before we get to how his story unfolded, let’s first discuss living mindfully more in-depth.
While a whole book could be written on ways to support your meditation practice…
…Andy Puddicombe, author of The Headspace Guide to Meditation and Mindfulness: How Mindfulness Can Change Your Life in Ten Minutes a Day, dedicates a chapter to briefly review some of the most important ones.
And as we further discuss the 10 that he lists, you will notice a common theme that runs through them all and that is one of awareness of both ourselves and others.
As Puddicombe says:
“It’s about developing a gentle curiosity: watching, noticing and observing what’s happening in every aspect of your life—how you act, how you speak, and how you think. But remember, it’s not about trying to be someone else, it’s about finding a sense of ease with you as you are, right now.” 1
Living Mindfully: 10 Ideas to Support Your Meditation Practice
Let’s now take a look at the 10 suggestions that Puddicombe has for living mindfully:
(1) Perspective: Making a Choice on How You See Your Life
How we view our lives does not really impact the effectiveness of our meditation practice. However, it can be useful to at least acknowledge the general theme of our life, that way we can be more aware of those times when we slip into patterns of negative thought. And by being aware it can help us bring about meaningful change.
Puddicombe explains further and provides a great example:
“It’s also useful to notice how your perspective can shift—how one day you can get on a crowded train and not be too bothered about it, and yet on another occasion it appears to push every button you have.” 1
This is a perfect example that shows it isn’t so much what’s going on outside of us, but rather what is going on within our minds that causes us the most difficulties – which luckily is something we can change.
(2) Communication: How You Relate to Others
As Puddicombe advises:
“If you want to find a greater sense of happiness through the practice of meditation, taking out your frustrations on others is unlikely to encourage a calm and clear mind.” 1
Instead, the idea is to communicate more skillfully and sensitively with others to get yourself some headspace. This could mean utilizing a little restraint, empathy or perspective with those you come in contact with – or possibly all three.
(3) Appreciation: Taking Time to Smell the Roses
This one gets to a concept we have discussed many times on this blog and that is simply taking time every day to show an attitude of gratitude. By being appreciative of what we have in our lives we will find that we don’t get caught up in many of those distracting and unproductive thoughts.
(4) Kindness: Being Kind to Both Yourself and Others
Being kind to others is somewhat of a win-win, it makes us feel good and it makes others feel good. And not only that, but it also makes for a very calm and peaceful mind. But remember, while it is important to be kind to others, it is also important to be kind to ourselves!
As Puddicombe explains:
“Fortunately, meditation has a strange way of bringing out the kindness in people—and practicing kindness in everyday life will simply feed back into your meditation. Kindness makes the mind softer, more malleable and easier to work within your practice. It creates a mindset that is less judgmental and more accepting. Clearly this has profound implications for our relationships with others.” 1
(5) Compassion: Putting Yourself in Other People’s Shoes
Compassion is something that already exists in all of us. Sometimes it comes out spontaneously, while other times it may take a conscious effort on our part to bring it out. However, similar to empathy, if we can just be mindful to put ourselves in the other person’s shoes it helps to create and experience a shared sense of understanding.
(6) Balance: Having a Sense of Equanimity
Life is full of ups and downs. At times it is calm and serene, while at others it can be overwhelming. But what is true is these fluctuations are a normal and inevitable part of life. However, forgetting this fact can lead to our being knocked off-kilter by those waves of strong emotions.
However, as Puddicombe points out:
“By training the mind through meditation, it’s possible to develop a more balanced approach, so that you experience a greater sense of equanimity in life. This shouldn’t be confused with a boring existence where you float along in life like some emotionless gray blob. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. Having greater awareness of your emotions means that, if anything, your experience of them will be heightened. It’s just that being less caught up in them, you will no longer feel as though you’re at their mercy.” 1
(7) Acceptance: Why Resistance is Futile
No matter who we are life can be difficult and challenging at times. Sometimes we forget this which causes us to become frustrated and disappointed when things don’t work out. Similar to compassion, the key is to figure out what we need to let go of rather than what we have to begin doing.
So, when we do notice those moments of resistance that pop up throughout the day, we can become more aware of what keeps acceptance from naturally occurring. This can help us better view those thoughts and feelings that occur when we meditate with greater ease.
(8) Composure: How to Let Go of Impatience
If you are anything like me, there are times throughout your busy day when a sense of impatience becomes inevitable. It is during those times that you may begin tapping your finger, biting your nails, or find your jaw tightening.
However, according to Puddicombe:
“But by noticing the impatience a genuine sense of curiosity, the very nature of it begins to change. Somehow the momentum slows down and its grip is released.” 1
(9) Dedication: The Importance of Sticking with It
Engaging in meditation brings about a paradigm shift in terms of how we relate to our thoughts and feelings. This occurs due to the fact that we are repeating the exercise over and over by practicing meditation on a regular basis, no matter how we feel.
By practicing meditation little and often it helps bring about a sense of awareness in our meditation which will spread to the rest of our lives. Being more mindful every day will have a positive impact on the time we spend doing our meditation practice.
(10) Presence: How to Live Life Skillfully
The final suggestion for living mindfully to support our meditation practice has to with what Pubbicombe calls “living life skillfully”,
“Living skillfully can mean having the presence of mind to restrain yourself when you think you might say or do something you’ll later regret. It can also mean having the strength and stability of awareness to respond sensitively to difficult situations rather than reacting impulsively. So living skillfully requires a certain amount of discriminating wisdom.” 1
Back to Jesse…
…and the incident involving his self-cleaning device gone wrong. Many of you may be familiar with a device called a “Roomba”. If you are not, it is one of those vacuum cleaning robots that vacuums your house by gliding around furniture, into corners, over area rugs, etc. – you get the idea. The cool thing is that it’s pretty quiet which is why many people let it run at night to wake up to a clean house.
Sounds pretty good right?
It is…unless there is a fresh pile of dog poop on the floor!
Yup! As Newton said: “Do not, under any circumstances, let your Roomba run over dog poop… Because if that happens, it will spread the dog poop over every conceivable surface within its reach, resulting in a home that closely resembles a Jackson Pollock poop painting.”
I’ll stop the story there and if you want to read more about it, you can check it out here. I have to say, it is pretty damn funny and I actually laughed out loud a couple of times.
If you are wondering how living mindfully could have helped Jesse deal with this “pooptastrophe”, look no further than #7 above – Acceptance: Why Resistance is Futile.
Sometimes, poop happens, and we just have to accept it and move on!
Until next time, keep living mindfully, keep your dog away from your Roomba and as always…PYMFP!
–Rick
P.S. Check out this great article by our friends at Porch.com – Positive Environment at Home: Tips from the Experts
Use it Or Lose It
The 10 ideas we gave for living mindfully are:
(1) Perspective: Making a Choice on How You See Your Life
(2) Communication: How You Relate to Others
(3) Appreciation: Taking Time to Smell the Roses
(4) Kindness: Being Kind to Both Yourself and Others
(5) Compassion: Putting Yourself in Other People’s Shoes
(6) Balance: Having a Sense of Equanimity
(7) Acceptance: Why Resistance is Futile
(8) Composure: How to Let Go of Impatience
(9) Dedication: The Importance of Sticking with It
(10) Presence: How to Live Life Skillfully
When to Use It
Use these ideas every day when it makes the most sense for you.
What Do You Think?
What do you think of these ideas for living mindfully, do any of them resonate more than the others? Please share your thoughts in the comments below!
If you enjoyed this post, it would mean the world to us if you shared it with people you care about via any of the social media platforms below!
Popular Previous Posts:
3 Questions That Will Help You Connect with Others
12 Mindset Quotes To Make You Think Differently
The Focusing Question: How to Use It to Find Your One Thing
Expect to Win, But Do These 2 Things First!
References
1 The Headspace Guide to Meditation and Mindfulness: How Mindfulness Can Change Your Life in Ten Minutes a Day by Andy Puddicombe
I do try to do a form of meditation on a regular basis. I too find it very helpful. As well, if you have a grateful attitude, it puts you in a happy mindset and it is pretty hard to let things annoy you. Thanks Rick.
Hi Eileen, Thanks for the comment. There is no doubt about it – if you have a good mindset and are good internally it is hard for external things to get to you. Best, Rick
Hi Rick. This article seemed a bit obtuse to me, since I’m not into meditation. Yes, I sit and reflect and think, but this does not constitute meditation to me. When someone says meditation, i think of bald guys in chiffon robes setting cross legged on the floor every so often clanging a gong. But I did get a chuckle out of item (7) – “Resistance is Futile”. You are quoting the Borg.
I came close, but cannot equal, the Roomba incident. Joan left me in charge of dinner (very bad decision), so I’m taking a bowl of noodles and meatballs from the counter to the table…..when of course I dropped it. Splash! All over the floor and rug. No Roomba….so I use an upright vacuum with a hose attachment and suck up the meatballs first (they made quite an interesting sound while going thru the hose), and then the sauce and noodles. When my wife returned, I told her what happened……and she went totally batcrap crazy. “You did what? You cannot vacuum up food with a dry vac. Use the Shop vac”. The upright vacuum went to the repair shop for disassemble and cleaning. The proprietor did not charge us, said this was the best story he heard in years.
Both these stories are going into my book.
Hi Dave, your reflection and thinking practice may not be meditation in the truest sense, yet it still is a type of mindfulness as you are aware/mindful and aware of what you are thinking/doing. Wow that is a GREAT story!!! Thanks for the comment and the laugh! Best, Rick