Anything you do or experience could supply you with an opportunity to practise mindfulness.  But you might prefer to commence with a few of your customary activities – the ones you could be performing now on automatic pilot while you daydream, space out, or obsess. 

The fact is, even the most mundane tasks can prove pleasurable when you do them with wholehearted care and attention.  Here’s a list of common activities with a few suggestions for instilling them with mindfulness:

Washing the dishes: If you put aside your judgments, which might insist you ought be doing something more meaningful or creative with your time, and instead just wash the dishes – or sweep the floor or scrub the bathtub – you might find that you actually enjoy the activity. 

Experience the contours of the plates and bowls as you clean them.  Observe the smell and the slipperiness of the soap, the sounds of the utensils, the gratifying feeling of getting rid of the old food and leaving the dishes clean and available for use.

Working at your computer: As you become absorbed in the data blinking across your screen, you could find yourself losing touch with your body and your surroundings. 

Break every so often to follow your breathing and observe how you’re sitting.  If you’re commencing to strain and crane your head forward, gently straighten your spine and loosen up your body.

Driving your car: What could possibly be more stressful than navigating an car through dense traffic?  In addition to the ceaseless stop and go, you need to be cognisant of possible problems in every direction, any one of which could pose a threat to your safety. 

All the same, you add to the stress of driving when you rush to get to your destination faster than you realistically can and then become angry and impatient in the process.

As an antidote to the stress, you can practise mindfulness whilst you drive.  Take a couple of deep breaths before you commence and return to your breathing over and over again as you consciously release tension and stress. 

Experience the steering wheel in your hands, the pressure of your feet against the foot pedals, the weight of your body against the seat.  Notice any propensity to criticise other drivers, to space out, to become angry or impatient. 

Pay attention to how the music or talk shows you hear affect your humour as you drive.  When you awaken and pay attention, you might be surprised to realise that you and the people close to you are actually piloting these two-thousand-pound chunks of plastic and steel with precious, vulnerable beings inside. 

And you might feel more disposed to drive heedfully and safely as a result.

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