Mindfulness in daily life
Meditation is not something that we just do for 20 or 40 minutes every morning and then forget about.
Meditation involves a principle of awareness that you can practice in every moment of your life.
While the time that we spend on the cushion most definitely has an effect on the quality of our emotional and mental life in the rest of the day, making an effort to practice mindfulness during so-called “ordinary” activities such as working, driving, doing housework, and spending time with our friends and families is a very powerful practice.
Living mindfully is incredibly enriching. It helps prevent the arising of unpleasant states of mind such as stress and depression, and it also helps us to live with freedom, dignity, and with respect for ourselves and others.
Living with mindfulness is another way of talking about ethics, of talking about how best we can live our lives.
This section of the site will develop into an extensive guide to applying the principles of meditation to your daily activities.
We’ve started with a section on bringing Metta (lovingkindness) into your everyday life, and more information on mindfulness. Soon, we’ll add other tools to help you live with more awareness.
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Comments
Comment from wayne a marshall
Time: December 28, 2007, 7:01 pm
i would like to try a new way of thinking in all things
Comment from mikal wailer
Time: November 3, 2008, 7:33 am
i would be glad if you could teach me what you are suppose to think of while meditating.
Comment from Bodhipaksa
Time: November 3, 2008, 1:16 pm
Hi Mikal,
we have some extensive guides to meditation on our site. I’d suggest starting with the mindfulness of breathing practice and move on to the development of lovingkindness meditation.
All the best,
Bodhipaksa
Comment from Kathaleen
Time: February 20, 2009, 11:49 am
I would like a meditation for anxiety and panic attacks, to relieve them.
Comment from Bodhipaksa
Time: February 20, 2009, 12:53 pm
Hi Kathaleen,
Panic attacks are not something that I know much about, but I’ll see if I can find a meditation teacher who has some experience in that area.
All the best,
Bodhipaksa
Comment from ed mccarren
Time: April 16, 2009, 2:54 pm
hi ive suffered from depression all my life looking for answers in meditation got any suggestions?
Comment from Bodhipaksa
Time: April 16, 2009, 5:41 pm
Hi Ed.
We have a whole section on depression. Hopefully something there will be helpful.
Comment from Dh. Chandrabodhi
Time: August 17, 2009, 2:17 am
A very detailed and helpful article. I would like to keep in touch about more such articles.
Comment from vaibhav
Time: March 2, 2010, 6:44 am
we will become like animals if we stop our imagination and only feel sensations of our body.its not good to get lost in whirpools of mind but how will we being humans invent new things
Comment from Bodhipaksa
Time: March 2, 2010, 6:50 am
Hi Vaibhav,
I don’t think anyone’s suggesting that we permanently move into a state of “only feeling sensations in the body.” It’s very useful to do this for periods of time in order to quiet the mind, but there’s a value in thinking as well. And actually, what I’ve found is that by getting out of those “whirlpools of thought,” genuine creativity arises. When the mind is cluttered with unnecessary thinking there’s no room for creative thoughts to arise.
All the best,
Bodhipaksa
Comment from buddhacam
Time: March 5, 2010, 6:33 am
Vaibhav – I’ve founsd it useful to distinguish between ‘thinking’ and ‘having thoughts’. Thinking is the process which we are more in control of; when we are ‘having thoughts’ we are pushed from one place to another. Meditation allows us to think – and, therefore, if we wish, to allow genuine creativity to develop.
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