Apart from the formal techniques, such as mindful breathing, mindful yoga, body scan and loving kindness meditation, mindfulness-based stress reduction may also be practiced informally in many different ways. While the formal practices may be essential for establishing a regular practice, it is really the informal practices that establish mindfulness firmly in one’s life and truly transform habits and attitudes.
Some possible informal practices are:
- Eating mindfully
- STOP method
- In the shower
- Driving a car
- Resting
- Mindful conversation – listening
Mindful Eating
Eating mindfully can be a great practice. It helps one enjoy the food more but also aids one in avoiding negative eating patterns, such as eating out of boredom, stress or unhappiness. Eating mindfully may lead to many astonishing realizations. For one thing, we don’t usually pay a lot of attention to the food we eat while we are eating it. Just watch yourself during a meal and notice how the mind wanders and how little it is really focused on the taste of the food and the sensations of eating. Although good food and the pleasures of eating are very important to most people, there is actually little conscious enjoyment of it.
Eating an orange with mindfulness could mean the following: Place an orange in your palm. Look at it, smell it, and contemplate the sun, rain, work and care that went into producing, harvesting and trading it. Then peel it slowly and put a slice in your mouth, tasting its juice and then slowly chew it. Continue like this, savoring its sweetness, flavor and the process of chewing.
STOP – a Short Mindfulness Practice
This is a small and simple exercise in mindfulness that can be used any time throughout the day. STOP is an acronym made up of four words: “Stop” your outer or inner activity, “Take” a breath, “Observe” your mind, body or feelings and “Proceed” in harmony with your true intention. This simple act of mindful check-in allows one to break out of unconscious behavior (auto-pilot) and focus on the present moment.
Mindfully Taking a Shower
People practicing mindfulness sometimes realize how little aware we tend to be during most routine activities, such as doing the dishes, driving or taking a shower. Taking a shower can actually be a very pleasant experience: Feeling the warm water on the skin, sensing how the muscles relax and noticing the smoothness and smell of soap or shampoo can be a deeply enjoyable, relaxing experience. Also notice whenever the mind fills with hurry, thoughts about work, breakfast or getting the kids to school on time, and then return to the sensations of taking a shower. If you are taking a shower, are you really taking a shower or thinking about something else?
Mindful Driving
Mindful driving can be practiced by consciously noticing the actions involved in starting a car: opening the door, sitting down, putting on the seat belt and so on. While driving, it is advisable to simply concentrate on driving carefully and notice and release any wandering thoughts, such as work problems, to-do list, etcetera. Red lights can be used to relax the body, become aware of any tensions and breathe mindfully.
Mindful Rest
This can be practiced in any body posture. However, lying down or sitting comfortably may be the best positions. Start by taking a few deep breaths, allowing the whole body to relax. The essential thing to do is not to do anything at all. Resting means switching from doing mode to simply being. Often, we may confuse distraction with rest. Reading, watching TV, surfing the Internet or playing a computer game aren’t rest; they are simply activities that help us get our mind off certain things and distract us from our problems. They are usually not very restful. Mindful resting means simply resting, without doing anything else. Progressive muscle relaxation or yoga relaxation (shavasana) are good relaxation practices that work with mindfulness. Listening to relaxing, soothing music usually helps with letting go.
Mindful Conversation
Mindful conversation means to be really listening to your counterpart during a conversation. There’s a big difference between hearing what someone else is saying and actually listening. Listening is much more active and requires one to stop preplanning one’s own next comment and continuously waiting for a gap in the conversation to fit in one’s reply. Rather than caring about making a good point, one should try to hear what the other person has to say – and even more, how he or she is feeling right now.
Notice where you are gazing and remind yourself to look at the other person, noticing their facial expressions, body language and so on. You may have a sudden revelation of how little we often perceive of the other person during a conversation and how interesting and enjoyable mindful listening can be.
Resources
Find lots of useful MBSR resources such as further links, audio instructions, online programs and weekly sitting groups on Bob Stahl's and Elisha Goldstein's MBSR workbook website. You can also read more about how mindfulness helps reduce stress and how effective mindfulness meditation reduces stress in comparison to relaxation training. You might also be interested in an article about formal practices in Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction.
Martin Bohn - As a certified yoga teacher, I enjoy freelancing for various yoga magazines in different countries. In my main profession, I work as a ...
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