Mindfulness in the Mundane

I strongly believe that mindfulness holds the key to real enjoyment. It’s been clinically proven time after time that mindfulness-based meditation is beneficial for both mental health and physical health. Mindfulness meditation is the process of focussing the attention onto the present, and in particular onto the breath.

I’ve personally found it very powerful in various different situations. I do meditate, but find the biggest benefit from applying its techniques to situations other than sitting cross-legged listening to the sound of my breath. Mindfulness can be applied to the most exciting, and the most mundane of tasks, and bring about a sense of joy and peace that I find unrivalled. And the beauty is, it’s really easy to do!

It’s hard being inside for most of the day and having to put our adventures temporarily on hold. In the current situation, I think it’s completely understandable that we’re all dealing with varying levels of anxiety, boredom, frustration and fear. I have found nurturing mindfulness, and coming back to the present, has been instrumental in stopping all of these emotions from spiralling out of control, and actually bringing joy into my new life on lockdown. Don’t worry, I’ll tell you how it’s done.

I wrote a little bit about mindfulness in my Mindful Exploring blog, which can still be applied if you’re currently allowed out to exercise. I also wrote about its benefits in Mastering the Endurance Mindset, which can be applied to our current situation too.

The good news about finding mindfulness in the mundane is that it’s really, really easy to do, and the benefits are totally disproportionate for the minimal effort required to do it.

So if you’re finding anxiety slipping in, or if you just want to break out of the boredom, try these tips and see if it brings a smile to your face.

Mundande Tasks

We go through our days on auto-pilot, with our mind often concentrating on something completely different to the task we’re currently performing. How often are you putting the kettle on while also deciding what to wear that day, or folding your laundry while replaying the conversation you had with your boss. In our busy lives it’s tempting to think that these mundane tasks allow precious extra time for the thinking mind to get all its thinking done, but multitasking like this actually lowers our IQ, and hinders the brain’s performance. The preciousness is in the mundane tasks themselves, in the ability to use them as a pause, and indeed to find snippets of joy in rediscovering them all over again.

Next time you’re making dinner, try this. Turn the radio, TV or Netflix off. Take a breath to centre yourself and signify that you’re beginning this experiment. Now slow down and really focus on everything you’re doing. Taking the vegetables out of the fridge - what do they look like? What’s their texture like? Do they have any curious defects or wobbly bits? Now chopping them - how does that movement feel, and what can you smell as you do it. Concentrate on that sound the onions make when frying, or the smell your dinner makes in the oven. Really focus in on exactly what you’re doing in that moment, and all the beautiful tiny bits of information being sent to all your senses. Allow yourself the time to be curious about each one, soak it up, and smile.

Even if you’re just taking a microwave meal out of the oven, notice the pop when you pierce the film lid, and the ping when the microwave chimes. It feels really silly writing it now, but trust me, you’ll feel a lot calmer as a result, and I’ll be surprised if it doesn’t bring a smile to your face!

When you’re hanging your laundry up, or folding it and putting it away, look how that creases there, or the beautiful colour in that jumper. Consider how soft that scarf is to touch, and the way those shoes lean against each other on the rack.

Mindful Eating

Good food is an important part of staying healthy, but it can also be really enjoyable too. However so often we wolf our food down in front of the TV without really thinking about what we’re eating. This not only leads us to overeat, and eat the wrong sort of things, but to miss out on those moments of really enjoying your meal.

So after you’ve prepared your food mindfully (!) try this. Turn off all other distractions - TV, radio - move your phone away. If possible, try it at least once on your own without the possibility of distraction from someone else too! Once you’ve had the experience, you can always go back to eating with other people. Before you begin tucking in, take a breath, land there, acknowledge you’re going to do this differently. Take a solid moment to appreciate the way your food looks, and how it smells. Really notice how your senses are stimulated. Then when you take your first bite, chew it slowly, really taking note of the textures and tastes. Try eating your whole meal, or as much of it as you need, slowly and deliberately, while really paying attention to all the subtleties that you’d never noticed before. This will also slow down your eating and have you pay attention to what your body really needs to be fuelled.

Self-care

We each do varying amounts of things in our daily routine to look after our physical and mental health. But how many of these are you doing on auto-pilot? When you brush your teeth, where is your mind really? When you shower, do you even notice what your soap smells like? So much of what we do is driven by routine rather than being there for enjoyment, and that’s understandable! We do them every day, they become second nature. But can you try to enjoy them too, experiment with re-discovering their pleasure, and use them as a pause in your day to calm your tired brain?

Next time you're brushing your hair, really focus on how it feels running through your hands, or putting your make up on - look at your eyes in the mirror, I mean really look! Did you know your Irises look like that? How does it feel to brush the mascara over your lashes? When you’re getting dressed, really focus on how it feels to pull a sock over your toes! Wiggle them for all I care, just be there, put those socks on and notice what you’re doing, what you can see, how it feels. If you work out or run for fitness, rather than treating it as something you have to do, can you focus in on the way your body moves, how that feels, what you can see around you rather than running through your to-do list? When you’re washing you’re hair, really smell your shampoo, and take a moment to feel your fingertips on your scalp. This is deep, nourishing, mindful self-care - doing it not just because you have to but actually being present for it too.

Conversations

We’re all busy and stressed. It can seem like there isn’t enough time to really listen to a conversation without wanting to cut it short to rush off and finish the million other things you have on your list. Make a judgement call. Can you actually be present for this conversation? Can you give it your full attention? Can you listen, not interject but really listen to what the other person has to say, and approach the conversation with kind curiosity? You’ll both get more out of the conversation, and perhaps you won’t be able to conduct every discussion in your day like this, but you’ll get a lot more out of those you do.

Try not to multitask or let your mind drag you away to the next thing until you’ve finished this one. That’s essentially all mindfulness it, being truly present to what is happening in the current moment, even if, or especially if, it seems like a boring or challenging thing to do. It can seem like there are so many unknowns, so much pressure to be productive and happy during this time, but really all we have in our control is the way we react in this moment, and most of the time this moment is perfect. In this moment, if we can be fully aware of what is in front of us, we can nurture calm and find tiny pockets of joy. And the more you do it, the easier it gets, and just like forming a habit, you will find yourself more able to slip into focusing on the present. It would be unrealistic to suggest that our entire day might be spent like this, but even just finding little moments in the mundane can go a long way to creating calm that seeps into the rest of our day, and turns worry to wonder, frustration to focus and craziness to calm.

Mindfulness in the Mundane

Mundande Tasks

Mindful Eating

Self-care

Conversations

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