The Practice of Mindfulness
One of the difficulties that I often hear about being more mindful is that the practice of meditation is time consuming. I agree. I have a busy life and it is difficult to add more into the time that I have, without making some decisions about how I choose to live my life. But that is one of the ways of being mindful. It is easy to get so caught up in my life that I just react to the circumstances without making a decision about how I spend my time.
When I am attempting to live more mindfully, I am challenged to make choices about how I spend my time and whether I really want to give my time to this activity or that activity. I sometimes "waste" time on things that I do not consider to be important or helpful, so mindfulness reminds me to try to pay closer attention to it.
I try to get some mindfulness practice in during the early morning hours, before my day starts. it is still quieter in my home and I got into the habit of getting up a little earlier so that I can begin my day with some practice of being mindful, which supports my awareness during the day as well. I confess I am not always perfect in this practice, but it is the most practical way I have found to develop a regular mindfulness practice.
John Weaver, Psy.D.
