Dear Friends,
We’ve covered a lot of ground these past few days, so let’s take a moment to recap.
- We started by talking about intention – setting an intention for the year, the day, a meditation practice, a chore – and we also looked at closing the day, practice, etc. with a dedication.
- We reviewed a few different mindfulness practices:
- Mindful of breathing (How do you know that you’re breathing?)
- Body scan
- Choiceless awareness (What’s obvious?)
- Walking meditation – both the formal practice, and a broader form that can be used in daily life
- We looked at forming habits with the cue, routine, reward cycle, and considered how we could find a cue for a mindfulness routine, and then notice the reward to reinforce that cue for next time.
- We also discussed noticing joy can become a habit, where we can stop, notice, appreciate, and share.
- We’ve discussed a couple of ways to bring mindfulness into daily activities
- A brief, ordinary, self-initiated task that happens several times a day – for me, taking a sip of tea
- A longer, 3 to 5 minute activity that happens maybe a couple times in a day – for me, feeding the dogs
- Take a moment to review your activities (you can still send them to me if you want them to show up in the rest of the emails this week…)
Andrea Fella has a handout that summarizes the exercises that she has suggested, so you might find that a useful thing to review too:
http://media.audiodharma.org/documents/Daily_Life_Practice_General_Handout.pdf
So take some time today to appreciate your efforts, and then recommit to your intention to practice. Remember that word: practice – if things haven’t gone as planned (or even if they have), it’s just practice! Or maybe use the word “play” or “curiosity” or the phrase “I wonder…”
I came across this image on the Spirit Rock Facebook page the other day – it reminded me of what we have been practicing and why…
With best wishes,
Andrea