Fully Engaged: Using the Practicing Mind in Daily Life

When you’re feeling bored or impatient, that’s a good indication that you are not fully present in the activity. You may be physically present, but mentally you are someplace else. Just as you do in your meditation practice, work at pulling your

Learning to center your attention on the process of what you are doing instead of what you are trying to achieve, using the goal as a rudder instead of a reminder of what is left to be done, learning to work without judging your process: these are all simple shifts in perspective that completely transform the experience of going through your day.

But as your self-awareness increases through your meditative practice, and as your connection to the observer within you grows, you will start to notice how you respond to confrontational situations as they are happening rather than in review.

experience an impatient thought as something separate that you can choose not to participate in instead of as something you are the puppet of, you have achieved the power of a conscious choice maker.

A daily practice of meditation, of thought awareness training, grows our innate ability to be aware of what our mind is doing, and through strengthening our will, it grows our ability to use our mind’s energy to serve us in ways we can’t even imagine.

We need a step-by-step plan customized to our personality to help us deflect the emotional content of a confrontational situation, a comforting place we can retreat to internally, where we can have a moment to take a virtual breath and exercise our power of choice.

Your mind will create thoughts with or without your permission. It can be your master or your servant. Awareness offers you the opportunity to make that choice.

you use the DOC principle: you Do, you Observe, and you Correct over and over again, constantly refining your actions.

As awareness of your thoughts increases, the opportunity to choose how you experience this moment also increases.