Experienced practitioners of mindfulness (or whatever else you want to call it), speak of it being effortless. You're not meant to think about it, just to be aware of what you're doing and the consequences of your actions, and to be aware of your feelings.
These experienced practitioners are either liars, had better teachers than you, or have forgotten how difficult their practices were at the beginning. Any meditative practice is difficult to do well. That said, it's not that difficult to do poorly, and people seem to get better almost automatically if they keep at it. The difficult part is keeping at it in the apparent absence of any sort of progress to reinforce the behaviour. I remember hearing a story once about someone who was visiting a buddhist monastery, and saw a group meditation exercise where the monk running the exercise was ringing a bell every 5 seconds. He asked the monk about how hard it must be to maintain focus with the bell reinging so often, and the monk responded that the bell is a reminder to return to the intended focus for the meditation. Asking then if the frequency didn't seem a bit high, the monk explained that holding one's focus on a single thing for an entire 5 seconds is extraordinarily difficult, even for a well-trained monk.
I am not so much aware of any of these things. I get distracted extraordinarily easy. I don't generally pause to consider my feelings. When I do realise I was feeling something potentially harmful to myself, it's hours or days later. "Gee, I probably could have handled that better if I'd been mindful of my emotions." So, not helpful.
I've read quite a few books on mindfulness and related topics, and they always seem like a really good idea at the time. Except that they require me to put these things into practice, and I can never seem to remember to actually do it at the time. I don't know, does anyone have a good way to work around this? I'm curious to know.
I'd recommend avoiding abstractions as subjects of mindfulness (at least at first, maybe after a few years of practice you might decide to tackle them), and also starting with things that are relatively low-stakes. Also to make sure the practice happens regularly, just attach it to something else that happens regularly. As an example, maybe you could be mindful of the sensations in your legs and feet as you walk from your car to your desk at work at the beginning of your shift. I suggest this one because it has the nice side-benefit where, as you get into your practice, and either enjoy its benefits, or simply enjoy the practice itself, it's not hard to increase the amount of time you spend doing it by simply parking farther from the door. On top of that you don't have to burn all that much extra time in order to work it into your routine (I mean what are you actually doing with your mind during that walk?).
These experienced practitioners are either liars, had better teachers than you, or have forgotten how difficult their practices were at the beginning. Any meditative practice is difficult to do well. That said, it's not that difficult to do poorly, and people seem to get better almost automatically if they keep at it. The difficult part is keeping at it in the apparent absence of any sort of progress to reinforce the behaviour. I remember hearing a story once about someone who was visiting a buddhist monastery, and saw a group meditation exercise where the monk running the exercise was ringing a bell every 5 seconds. He asked the monk about how hard it must be to maintain focus with the bell reinging so often, and the monk responded that the bell is a reminder to return to the intended focus for the meditation. Asking then if the frequency didn't seem a bit high, the monk explained that holding one's focus on a single thing for an entire 5 seconds is extraordinarily difficult, even for a well-trained monk.
I am not so much aware of any of these things. I get distracted extraordinarily easy. I don't generally pause to consider my feelings. When I do realise I was feeling something potentially harmful to myself, it's hours or days later. "Gee, I probably could have handled that better if I'd been mindful of my emotions." So, not helpful.
I've read quite a few books on mindfulness and related topics, and they always seem like a really good idea at the time. Except that they require me to put these things into practice, and I can never seem to remember to actually do it at the time. I don't know, does anyone have a good way to work around this? I'm curious to know.
I'd recommend avoiding abstractions as subjects of mindfulness (at least at first, maybe after a few years of practice you might decide to tackle them), and also starting with things that are relatively low-stakes. Also to make sure the practice happens regularly, just attach it to something else that happens regularly. As an example, maybe you could be mindful of the sensations in your legs and feet as you walk from your car to your desk at work at the beginning of your shift. I suggest this one because it has the nice side-benefit where, as you get into your practice, and either enjoy its benefits, or simply enjoy the practice itself, it's not hard to increase the amount of time you spend doing it by simply parking farther from the door. On top of that you don't have to burn all that much extra time in order to work it into your routine (I mean what are you actually doing with your mind during that walk?).
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