Practice mindfulness exercises - transform your lifeI am presenting in this article the technique of mindfulness that will completely transform the way you live your life. If practiced sincerely each moment that you live will come alive; you will be in touch with the wonder and mystery of life as you go about your day-to-day chores. Thich Nhat Hanh, the Vietnamese Zen Buddhist master, describes these mindfulness exercises as being conscious of each breath, each movement, and every thought and feeling, everything that has any relation to ourselves. This is exactly opposite to how almost all of us live our day-to-day lives. We remain distracted caught up in memories of the past, or dreaming or worrying about the future. We are never present in the moment, in the Here and Now, which is the only place where we can experience life, where we can truly live. Thich Nhat Hanh's statement above carries an enormous depth of meaning and I will be explaining the meaning and describing how we can practice the same in future issues of this newsletter. Do not underestimate the value of his advice. These are techniques to grow spiritually and expand our consciousness. But these methods, if sincerely practiced, will lead to a reduction of our habit of taking excessive thought, we will be able to put aside the mind with its conceptualizations and truly experience life. Do not also be discouraged if you find that mindfulness does not come easily to you. You are attempting to reverse the habits of a lifetime – perhaps even many lifetimes. It will not be easy. And this difficulty is faced by all, since almost none of lead – or attempt to lead – our lives in the Here and Now, mindfully. Practicing these mindfulness exercisesThese mindfulness exercises can be practiced as we go about our daily chores. Consider the act of washing dishes. We can wash dishes in two different ways. One is to wash the dishes with the aim of getting clean dishes. This is what most of us do in our work-a-day utilitarian world. The other method is to wash dishes for the sake of washing dishes.Using the first method we may wash dishes mechanically as it is a simple chore. Our minds may be thinking of the cup of tea that we are going to have afterwards or any one of a number of different things. Washing dishes as though it is a nuisance means that we are not washing dishes to wash the dishes. In fact it means that we are not truly alive in the moment of washing dishes. We are unable to appreciate and participate in the miracle of life because our minds are otherwise occupied. And this means that even after doing the dishes and while drinking the tea we will be unable to drink the tea mindfully. Again our minds will be thinking of a hundred different things and we will not be one with the experience of drinking tea. We are letting our lives slip away moment by moment and we are not even aware of it. The essence of these mindfulness training exercisesPractice this method of washing dishes for the sake of washing dishes as you go about your day-to-day life. Be aware of your breath, the movement of your hands, the sensation of touch as you hold each dish, the sensation of your legs rooted in the ground as you stand. Observe your thought without reacting using your breath to anchor yourself. This is the way to truly live our lives, to participate in the mystery of life.The above is a short description of just one of the methods of mindfulness described by Thich Nhat Hanh in his classic book – The Miracle of Mindfulness . Thich Nhat Hanh writes with simplicity and with clarity and as you read his books you come in contact with the thoughts of an awakened master. I have been practicing these methods myself although not as sincerely as I would wish. My experience is that while practicing mindfulness exercises I am more centered and less prone to anxiety, anger and other painful feelings. This is a method of relaxation as you will be free of the pushes and pulls of the ego while you are practicing mindfulness. You will be interested to know that these simple mindfulness meditations, if practiced by all, may save mankind and our beautiful planet from self-destructing. This is the view of enlightened masters like Eckhart Tolle and Thich Nhat Hanh. I will be explaining this and more in future articles. For more on this subject please visit this page and learn more about Mindfulness exercises Achieving the thoughtless state or prolonging the gap between thoughts is the goal of meditation. Learn more about right views on this page on The Noble 8 Fold Path For al complete list and links to all the articles please visit this page on Buddhism
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