Mindfulness Challenge 3

​Habit Releaser - Valuing the television

Mindfulness Challenge 2 - Habit Releaser.

Mindfulness challenge 5

Habit releaser: A visit to the movies.

Routine activities we normally miss.

Choose one of the following and each day for the next month, see if you can remember to pay attention while you are doing it. You do not have to slow it down, or even enjoy it. Simply do what you normally do, but see if you can be fully alive to it as you do so.

• Brushing your teeth
  
• Walking from one room to another at home or work
  
• Drinking tea, coffee, juice
  
• Taking out the rubbish
  
• Loading the washing machine or tumble dryer.

Try this as an experiment with the same activity each day for a week, then pick another for the next week. See what you notice. The idea is not to make you feel different, but simply to allow a few more moments in the day when you are 'awake'.

eg. Brushing your teeth: where is your mind when you are brushing your teeth? Pay careful attention to all the sensations - the toothbrush, the flavour of the toothpaste, moisture building up in the mouth etc.

Habit releaser: Going for a walk.

Mindfulness Challenge 1

Walking is one of the finest exercises and brilliant stress reliever and mood booster. A good walk can put the world in perspective and soothe your frayed nerves. If you really want to feel alive, go for a walk in the wind or rain!

Over the next month, I suggest you arrange to go for at least one fifteen to thirty minute walk (or longer, if you wish) each week. You don't have to go anywhere special. A walk around your neighbourhood, taken in an open frame of mind, can be just as interesting as a hike through the mountains.

There's no need to feel that you have to rush anywhere; the aim is to walk as mindfully as you can, focusing your awareness on your feet as they land on the ground, and feeling the fluid movements of all the muscles and tendons in your feet and legs. You might even notice that your whole body moves as you walk, not just your legs. Pay attention to all the sights, sounds, smells. If you're in a city you'll still see and hear a surprising number of birds and animals flapping and scurrying about. Notice how they react when they realise that you've seen them.

See if it is possible to be open to all your senses; smell the scent of flowers, the aroma of freshly cut grass, the mustiness of winter leaves or, perhaps, the smell of exhaust fumes and fast food; see if you can feel the breeze on your face or the rain on your head or hands; listen to the air as it moves; see how the patterns of light and shade can shift unexpectedly. Every moment of every season has a host of sensory delights - regardless of where you live.

Try stopping and looking upwards too. If  you are in a city, you'll be surprised by how many beautiful architectural features are just above natural eye level. You might also see tufts of grass or even trees growing out of roofs and guttering. If you are in a park or in the countryside, you'll see all manner of things from birds' nests hidden in trees and bushes.

Mindfulness challenge 4.

​Watching TV can be a particularly potent habit, so you can easily take it for granted and stop valuing it. It's all to easy to come home from work, sit down, turn on the TV and watch it. And watch it. And watch it....You may feel that there are more interesting things to do, but somehow you just can't bring yourself to do them. You may then start criticising yourself for watching. You may tell yourself how bad you are for slumping comatose in front of the TV when you could be doing something worthwhile. Can you make the TV more valuable, and respect it more than you do?

​One day this week, see about getting a TV schedule, or looking it up on line, to see what programmes you'd really like to watch; ones that are interesting or enjoyable or both. On your designated day, only watch the programmes that you have actually chosen to watch and consciously switch off the TV for the times in between. You could read a book or a newspaper, phone a friend or relative, or perhaps catch up with a few minutes of gardening. (you could even do some meditation!!)

​Remember consciously to switch off the television as soon as the chosen programme has finished, turning it on again later if there is something else that you want to watch. At the end off the evening, record in a notebook how it went; not only whether it felt good or bad, but what you noticed. What thoughts, feelings, body sensations and impulses were around? Remember that the intention is to help dissolve old habits that have often grown up slowly over many years, so don't expect miracles. But if, as a result by the end of the week, you notice a freer way of living your life, you may be taking the first step to discovering something new; that you don't have to change much of what you do from day to day, but instead learn to do the same things differently; to surround your tasks with the fresh air of awareness and choice.

Over the next few weeks, carry out this habit releaser. This is designed to help you start the process of loosening up your habits by adding a little randomness to your life.

​Changing chairs.

​This month, see if you can notice which chairs you normally sit on at home, in a café or bar or at work (during meetings, for example). Make a deliberate choice to try another chair, or alter the position of the chair you use. It is extraordinary how much we are creatures of habit, and how we take comfort from such sameness. There is nothing wrong with this at all, but it can feed a sense of 'taking things for granted' that allows the automatic pilot to thrive. You can easily stop noticing the sights, sounds, smells of everything around you and even the feel of a chair supporting you can become over-familiar. Notice how your perspective can change just by changing chairs.

Ask a friend or family member to go with you to the movies - but this time, with a difference. Go at a set time (say 7pm) and choose whatever film takes your fancy onlywhen you get there. Often, what makes us happiest in life is the unexpected - the chance encounter or the unpredicted event. Movies are great for all these.

Most of us only go to see a film when there's something specific we want to watch. If you turn up at a set time and then choose what to see, you may discover that the experience will be totally different. You might end up watching (and loving) a film you'd never normally have considered. This act alone opens your eyes and enhances awareness and choice.

Before you go, notice any thoughts that may arise such as, 'I haven't got time for pleasure', or 'What if there is nothing on that I'll enjoy? You could call these Practice Interfering Thoughts (PITs) - they undermine your enthusiasm for taking action. They are the real 'PITs' of daily life, discouraging your intention to do something that might nourish your life in important ways. Once you're inside the cinema, just forget about all this and be consumed by the film.