Blogging the Here and Now
Posted: July 7, 2009 Filed under: Uncategorized 3 CommentsHi and welcome to an experiment in blogging about mindfulness.
Mindfulness has been a topic I’ve loved for many years, and I hope to use this blog as a collection and integration point for thoughts, research, open questions, and personal experiences about mindfulness.
Ideally the posts you’ll find here won’t just be about my exploration of this subject, though there will be plenty of that. With any luck there will be more than a few contributors, but for now you’re stuck with me.
Just to give you a taste of what I intend to touch on, here is a list of potential topics:
- What is mindfulness?
- What is it good for? How is it used?
- Mindfulness in everyday life
- Who are the big players in the field and what are they saying?
- Mindfulness and psychology
- Mindfulness as a Western phenomenon (from its roots in the East)
- Mindfulness in relation to meditation
- Religious and cultural traditions that incorporate mindfulness (Buddhism, Sufism, yoga, etc.)
There will be much more, and please don’t hesitate to suggest topics.
Thanks, and stop by often!
Here and Nowness 
Glad to see this! Bookmarked it.
Beginning to re-acquaint myself with the concept of mindfulness – having drifted off some years ago 😉
How is it used in everyday life? This may seem silly, but trying an experiment: I endeavored to be ‘mindful’ about cleaning my bathroom. The dust kitties were not only running around, they were asking to be fed! 😉 – just like in meditation, I kept drifting away – other things are ever so much more interesting 😦 – but then I decided to *think* about what was happening each time I completed a portion of the task – How nice and shiny the fixtures looked without ‘stuff’ on them, how sparkling the glass shelves were, how healthy I felt having a clean room, how pleasant it was to see the black and white floor tile unobscured by a film of dust, how serene the space was, once everything had been put in its place, how clean it smelled. It was an interesting experience, not cleaning because I ‘had’ to, but towards something else, enjoying each step along the way.
I’m about to take a week long course/meditation retreat on Mindfulness in Teaching. Thanks for the postings.
Thanks for the comment and enjoy the retreat.
I agree that mindfulness is much like meditation and Jon Kabat-Zinn talks about this sort of activity as informal practice. I do agree that seeing the accomplishments of your work is rewarding, and I think it’s part of mindfulness. But I also think you need to be present with the work that you’re doing while you’re ding it. The wiping off of the grime, as an action in itself, is just as important as having a grime-free shelf. And yes it is boring, but just like formal meditation, it’s a hurdle your jumpy mind puts in front of you. Just a thought.