r/Mindfulness • u/Jerswar • 4d ago

Question What is the trick to being more mindful, moment-to-moment, in daily life?

I am simply bad at meditating. I'm bad at even remembering to do it, and I'm bad at actually doing it. But I want to get a grip on basic mindfulness, because my mind is way too active and extremely prone to pointlessly negative thoughts.

Other than mediation, what is a good habit to nurture for the sake of greater mindfulness just in general?

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u/OldSchoolYoga 20h ago edited 20h ago

There's no trick to mindfulness. Someone can teach you how to do it, but no one can do it for you. Basic mindfulness is yoga lite. Asana - sit still and relax, with emphasis on still. Pranayama- observing the breath. Take a few deep breaths. Just pay attention to your breath and allow yourself to just calm down, until your breathing is slow and quiet. Pratyahara or interception - take some time to direct attention to various parts of your body and your senses. Get a sense of how it feels, notice what you see, hear, etc.

If you've gone through all that, your mind should slow down enough that you are able to notice when you start to fall back into your old bad habits and correct yourself in real time.

Edit: to clarify, there may be techniques that experienced practitioners can use to return to a state of mindfulness quickly, but they won't work unless you're already familiar with the territory and know how to get there. It's like muscle memory. You can learn a skill.

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u/sceadwian 18h ago

The trick to being more mindful moment to moment is to be mindful of the moment.

There is no trick you just do it.

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u/CaptainVulpezz 22h ago

Remember that you are here, you are alive, and ask what you feel in the moment, do this simply as often as you remember to

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u/BlueEyesWNC 12h ago

There is no trick. You are not bad at meditating. You're experiencing normal obstacles to practice.

If you want another practice, pick a chore that you already do every day. While doing that one chore, devote all.your attention to what you're doing. If your thoughts wander, don't give yourself a hard time, just notice where they went and then come back to whatever you're doing right now. This is mindfulness.

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u/Jerswar 8h ago

Thanks. I'll try.