Mindful in a mindless age
Last week I finished a book called Modern Mindfulness: How to Be More Relaxed, Focused, and Kind While Living in a Fast, Digital, Always-On World by Rohan Gunatillak. We often talk in counseling about learning to be more mindful, of being in the "here and now," instead of letting your thinking drift all over the place, ruminating about the past or obsessing about the future, which tend to bring up all those nasty emotions that brought you into counseling.
However, the mention of 'mindfulness' turns off a lot of people, who likely imagine sitting in impossible yoga poses for long periods of time while burning incense and chanting to the spirits of the wind or some other silly thing. Or as Gunatillak calls it, "hippie meditation".
Instead, Gunatillak provides an updated version of mindfulness skills that you can integrate into your modern life, using tools like your cellphone, email inbox, and other typical distractions in more positive ways. Mindfulness on the subway? Yes, he says. Mindfulness doesn't mean you have to do complicated activities or invest half your day into it. I find my most mindful times are when I go out in my boat and just enjoy being there, noting the sensations as the boat bounces around, the smells of the bay, the sun dancing off the water. Just feeling good about the experience, being in the moment and forgetting about everything else for a little while. I've worked with a number of my clients on doing simple activities like scheduling 'stress breaks' on their phones, to remind them to do a quick check of their body's tension levels and take a few deep breaths. That too is simple mindfulness. And it works.
Mindfulness can also be as easy as watching a guided meditation video on YouTube or reclining in the Lazy Boy with your headphones on while playing the latest relaxation app on your phone.
I recommend the book as being worth a read (remember if you don't want to buy it, they still have those places call public libraries where you can borrow it at no cost). He also has an app called "buddhify" that you can get for $5 and learn his techniques. May be worth the price of a caffeine-filled ice coffee...and it definitely won't keep you awake all night.
