You want this new skill of mindfulness to be here for you when you need it so that you can respond skillfully to difficult times and to lead a richer, fuller life. How can you do this? One way to begin is by practicing deliberately paying attention to your experiences while carrying out routine activities in your everyday life in the same way that you did with the raisin.
Mindfulness is Always an Option
One way to practice being mindful is to choose some routine activity that you do every day, and decide each time you do it, you will bring a gentle moment-to-moment awareness to the task or activity as best you can. Bringing awareness to these activities of daily living can help you recognize when you are operating on automatic pilot, and provides you with an instant alternative, namely an opportunity to know what you are doing while you are actually doing it. The aim is not to be hyperattentive or to bring greater strain or self-judgment to these routine activities. Actually, you might find that bringing mindful awareness reduces effort and makes the chosen activity easier.
Some examples of possible activities include:
- Washing the dishes
- Loading the dishwasher
- Taking out the garbage
- Brushing your teeth
- Taking a shower
- Taking a bath
- Doing the laundry
- Driving your car
- Leaving the house
- Entering the house
- Going upstairs
- Going downstairs
- Answering the phone
- Turning on your computer
Living Mindfully
Here are two examples of an everyday activity completed either on automatic pilot or mindfully. Please take a moment and watch both videos, starting with the automatic pilot version, followed by the mindful version. What is interesting is that the activity is identical, but that the state of mind that we bring to it is different, and so is the experience.
Washing the Dishes
On Automatic Pilot
Mindfully
Brushing Your Teeth
On Automatic Pilot
Mindfully
Mindfulness is an Ally
Again, practicing mindfulness is another option rather than being in automatic pilot. Mindfulness offers an alternative to mulling over the past and worrying about the future, which we saw some of in the first video. Shifting attention to what we see, feel, hear, smell, and taste is one way to move out of “automatic pilot”. By strengthening your mindfulness skills during everyday activities, the skills will become more available to you during more challenging times.
Later in the program, we will help you bring the skill of mindfulness to more challenging emotions, sensations, and thoughts. But because those more challenging experiences can often launch us into automatic pilot without us even realizing it, it can be helpful to “start small” and practice mindfulness in these daily activities. Committing to these practices in everyday life can help you with more challenging times that may have caused stress or put you at risk for depression in the past.