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How to Meditate in Everyday Life
You don’t necessarily have to set aside special time for meditation—you can also meditate while you walk, garden, eat, or even while you work. Meditation can be used for healing, in writing and artwork, while dancing or drumming, or in prayer. Here are a few ways to integrate meditation into your everyday routine.
Meditation While Walking
Walking meditation is performed by matching your breaths to your steps, producing slower, more thoughtful movements.
- Begin by walking at a normal, relaxed pace. Simply observe your breath, and don’t yet match your breath to your strides.
- Now match your breathing with your steps. Make it a comfortable match: it may be four steps for each inhale and four steps for each exhale. Maybe your inhale will require fewer steps than your exhale. The goal is to be consistent. Maintain this pattern throughout your walk.
- Feel your feet as they make contact with the ground. This will help ground you to the Earth. This is your connecting point to the Earth’s surface at that very moment.
Meditation While Gardening
Gardening and meditating are parallel activities: in both, you plant a seed and allow it to grow. Too much fertilizer, water, or sunlight can hinder a plant’s growth; the same is true for the human mind and body. As you dig in your garden, plant roots for both yourself and the flowers that will blossom in and on the Earth. Take the time to look at what you are creating. One of your flowers can even become a focal point for your meditation.
Meditation While Eating
Mindful eating reduces stress and tension, allowing the body to digest food more easily. You may find it easier to remain mindful of your eating if you eat alone or in silence. The following exercise may help you slow down and be in the present moment with your food.
Mindful-Eating Meditation
- Before eating, acknowledge the gift of food before you. You may do so in the form of prayer or thanksgiving, or in another way. If you’re sharing the meal with others, reflect on their company. Be grateful for the food on and friendship around the table.
- Direct your focus away from the food and onto your hand that is feeding you. Rejoice in its ability to bring the food to your mouth.
- With each bite, place your awareness on the food itself—its texture and taste. Observe your reaction to the food. Note any connections between the taste buds on your tongue and other parts of your body. How does the food make you feel?
- If your mind wanders to other concerns, gently bring it back to the moment. Focus on each bite.
Meditation While Working
Work can consume much physical and mental energy. As you push yourself through the day with little acknowledgement of your mind or body, it is easy to remain mindless, rather than mindful, of your actions. Here are some exercises to improve mindfulness during work, whether at the office or at home:
Meditation Nap
Take a meditation nap—close your eyes, take several deep and cleansing breaths, and direct your focus to something other than your work tasks. It may help to visualize your
favorite spot or concentrate on a word that brings you peace. Just five minutes of inner
focus will rejuvenate and relax you and may even make you more productive.
Awareness of the Body
When you sit in a meeting, on a call, or just at your desk, be aware of your breathing, your posture, the energy in your body, and your body’s response to those around you. Try to move through your day with awareness.
Awareness of Thoughts
This awareness exercise can help you to gauge your need for meditation throughout your working day.
- For just one minute, count the number of thoughts that pass through your mind.
- Multiply this number by 60. That’s how many thoughts you juggle in one hour.
- Now multiply this number by the number of hours you are awake each day.
You’ll likely find that the number you get in step 3 is much higher than you expected. Though you can’t stop thoughts from entering your head entirely, meditating may help you slow the pace. If you feel overwhelmed by your thoughts, try the Still Your Mind exercise in First Meditation Exercises.
Meditation Through Creating
Creativity—through art, music, crafts, and so on—is one way to allow your inner voice to be heard. Some individuals find the acts of sketching, knitting, writing, dancing, and drumming, among others, to be both expressive and meditative. To perform these well, you must be in the present moment and focus exclusively on the creative endeavor.
Writing Haiku
Haiku is a traditional Japanese poetry form that consists of three lines: the first and third lines contain five syllables, or beats, and the middle line has seven syllables. For example:
Leaves burst from their buds
Painting color on bare limbs
Spring has sprung, rejoice!
Writing haiku can be a form of meditation. In creating haiku, the writer must engage the mind in verbal thought to produce three short lines, removing any mental chatter or racing thoughts in order to allow creative thoughts to emerge. Try your own hand at writing haiku using the following process:
- Find a quiet place, preferably in a natural setting.
- Use a pen or pencil to write on paper, in a notebook, or in a journal. (Leave your laptop at home.)
- Start by taking three deep, cleansing breaths. Try to clear your mind and let go of your worries of the day.
- Focus on the moment. Open your senses to your surroundings. What do you see, smell, feel, taste, or touch? Observe the season and the weather.
- Consider how this sensory experience makes you feel.
- Allow a single image to emerge that expresses both the external surroundings and your internal feelings. Take your time. Allow this image to appear organically, and do not try to force it.
- Write your thoughts in a 5-7-5 haiku format.
- If you can, finish with a surprise or twist at the end of the haiku.
Meditation Through Reading
When reading for meditation purposes, find books that offer topics conducive to deep reflection and that can be read in small, digestible bites (perhaps a page or two at a time). Meditative reading is best done when you’re least likely to be interrupted. You may find it helpful to read each section or passage twice. Read it first with your heart and then with your mind. Read it, reflect on it, and consider its significance in your life. Return to these same passages at a later time—they may hold different meanings to you then.
Suggestions for Meditative Reading
Books for meditative reading can include ancient spiritual texts, modern novels, nonfiction, and books designed specifically for meditation. For a start, try some of the following:
- The Bhagavad-Gita
- Tao Te Ching – Lao Zi
- Fables – Aesop
- The Bible
- The Qur’an
- Haiku – Basho
- Siddhartha – Hermann Hesse
- The Prophet – Khalil Gibran
- Invisible Cities – Italo Calvino
- The Alchemist – Paulo Coelho
- Inner Simplicity: 100 Ways to Regain Peace and Nourish Your Soul – Elaine St. James
- Now! The Art of Being Truly Present – Jean Smith
Meditation Through Visualizing
Visualization, or guided imagery, is a form of meditation. Athletes often use visualization as part of their training and preparation: they close their eyes and focus on a specific skill, move, or event—for instance, picturing a perfect dive with a knifelike entrance into the water, or seeing the track and running each step mentally.
Visualization can be a powerful tool: by picturing what you want to achieve, you can actually help yourself achieve it—whether in sports, everyday life, or even healing the body. Studies have shown that sick patients who make positive visualizations about recovering and healing often have faster recovery periods than those who do not visualize.
Visualization Exercise
Try the following exercise to give yourself practice with visualization:
- Begin in a comfortable meditation posture.
- Close your eyes if you prefer.
- Observe your breathing.
- Acknowledge each inhale bringing energy to your body and each exhale releasing energy to others.
- Be mindful of your breathing for several minutes.
- Think of a favorite “something” from your childhood, whether a place, a book, a toy, a person, or a pet.
- Bring a vision of that “something” into your mind space. See it in its entirety. You can rotate it or look at it from various angles. Touch it with your mind’s hand. Smell it with your mind’s nose. Spend some time with it in this safe space.
- Now redirect your focus onto your body. What are you feeling as you envision this childhood object? Note it and acknowledge it.
- Take three deep, cleansing breaths. Return to the present.
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