Mindfulness: Encyclopedia II - Mindfulness - Examples from meditation and daily life

Mindfulness - Examples from meditation and daily life

The simplest, but also fundamental, example of mindfulness is to mentally give a verbal label to each inbreath and outbreath during sitting meditation. So, each time one breathes in, one thinks (e.g.) "rising", and each time one breathes out, one thinks "falling". In this type of meditation, the breath serves as a tether that the practitioner uses to bring his or her awareness back to the present moment. By residing more frequently in the present moment, practitioners believe that they are less influenced by the endless stream of thoughts, memories and wishes that characterize "mindless" existence.

Another example, this time not confined to sitting meditation: during a given day, one commits to mentally giving a verbal label to the position of the body whenever the position of the body changes. So, when one is sitting, one thinks to oneself "sitting", without actually saying it out loud but just imagining saying it. Then, when one gets up, one thinks "standing up", then after having gotten up one internally verbalizes "standing". If one starts walking, then one thinks "walking", and at the end of the day if one lies down then one thinks "lying down".

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Examples from meditation and daily life", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki