Habit rules our lives. This way of living also leads to a reactive way of living. When we move into mindful living, conscious living, we find that there are more tools available to us to create peace, joy and fulfillment. It also allows us to “see” possibilities that we were continually missing when we are in habitual, reactive mode.
This is a 2 minute practice. I recommend you do it 3 times a day. Immediately upon waking, at lunch time and before you begin your evening activities. It is a preparation for activity. It centers and awakens you and brings you into the present moment. It lowers stress levels and spreads inner peace. It can be done in the bathroom, a parked car, an office or anywhere you don’t need to be focused. Just 2 minutes.
Close your eyes. Bring your attention inside. Feel you are NOW. Allow your awareness to rest on the incoming and outgoing breath. Do not change the breath. Allow it to be exactly as it is. No control. Complete surrender to the breath in this moment, exactly as it is. Just be aware of breath coming in and going out.
Allow your gentle awareness to rest on the incoming and outgoing breath. Your mind will start to wander. This is almost 100% certain. It is natural for the mind to create thoughts and wander. When you realize that you are off thinking, that realization is your mind awakening to the present moment. That is you becoming Self-aware. When you realize you are off thinking the mind is moving into the NOW. The purpose of this 2 minute practice is being in the NOW, in the present moment, without judgment. So when your mind wanders off thinking about something and you become aware you are doing that, you are returning to present moment awareness. Accept that it is the nature of the mind to wander off and it is the nature of the mind to realize it is doing that. Then, as you realize this, you return to present moment awareness.
Stay in surrender, allowing and accepting. When you wish that something else was happening you are in resistance and that is the opposite of what we are seeking. Stay in the awareness of letting go. Let all you have to accomplish, work on or take care of retreat from your mind and see those thoughts as the mind wandering away – part of the practice. Whenever you realize you have wandered away from the awareness resting on the breath, gently bring the awareness back to the breath. This is a gentle, ease-filled practice. No resistance, no pushing away, no aversion, no grasping, no attachment to outcomes. Easeful, effortless, surrender, allowing and accepting.
