Using Mindfulness For Daily Life

When you're in middle of a task and feel stressed, stop. Take three deep breaths, then carefully watch yourself until identify what is bothering you. Find everything you can. Are you expecting something bad to happen? Is an argument from this morning still going on just below surface of your consciousness? Are you worried about something? Is some part of your body in pain? Note everything you find.

Now deal with these thieves-of-concentration one by one. Make phone call that's on your mind, take an aspirin if you need to, and apologise to someone if necessary. Take things from your mind and put them on a list for tomorrow (in writing). If all you can do is acknowledge that there's nothing you can do right now - do that. After doing this mindfulness exercise, you'll feel less stressed, and you'll be able to concentrate more effectively on tasks at hand. Try it now.

Make it a ritual. For example, each time you get into your car, quietly do your three deep breaths. Having a regular "trigger" like this to remind you will keep you from procrastinating so often that you eventually forget to meditate altogether (isn't this typical when we don't make a habit out of things we want to do?).

Want it to be a deeper experience? There's nothing wrong with just enjoying relaxation created by three deep breaths, but you can go further, if you wish. Longer meditation will help, of course, but that isn't only way.

If, when you have more time, you learn mindfulness, how to relax more fully, or better ways to let go of distractions in your mind, you can more effectively use that forty-five-seconds. You may even be able to get to that "alpha" state (brain wave frequecy of 8 to 12 hertz) during your short meditation.

Don't worry if some say this isn't "real" meditation. We walk before we run, and not everything has to be difficult to be of value. Why not do a forty-five-second meditation right now?