How I befriended Mindfulness

I first heard the term Mindfulness from a dear friend. It was a few years ago. A bunch of us were getting together at home. She spoke to us at length about it and demonstrated how to meditate. You sit in a calm place, breathe in and breathe out slowly, watch your breath, just observe your thoughts, acknowledge the wandering thoughts and bring back your focus to your breath. Do this for 10 minutes daily was her wise counsel. I didn't pay heed. Silently shrugged it off. “Being in the moment” was unfathomable to me.

Later I was reading one of Yuval Noah Harari’s books. I am a big fan of his writing. He attributes his ability to write the book to the Vipassana program - a meditation course - that he had attended. At around the same time, a niece of mine spoke to me about this program. She had registered to attend. I contemplated registering for it. Apparently people come down from all over the world to take this program and there is significant positive feedback 'bout it. Its a 10-day in-house program. You check-in at the venue - a retreat in the edge of the city, into the woods. You lead a simple life there - light food, meditation, rest, exercise etc if I understood right. The only catch is, you don't talk. Absolutely no talking during the tenure of the program. Nil conversations. Phone off. You may be sharing your accommodation with another participant, but no talking still. This was a no go for me. Couldn't imagine going without talking for 10-days at length. Heard from her later, it was a transformative experience for her. Over a period of time, have heard of significant merits to learning and practicing meditation. Not that I started learning. Was just filled with awe. No action.

Come 2020 and the in-famous lockdown, a virtual live mindfulness course came up at work. It was a series of daily sessions. I jumped at it and enrolled immediately, only to drop off right at the start of the program. I could not prioritise the daily sessions. Later a colleague in HR took a session on anxiety management for my team. She included a guided deep breathing exercise - a 5-min breathe-in, hold, breathe-out exercise - in the end of the session. Liked the experience.

Fast forward two months into lockdown, I ran out of physical books to read. Note - am mostly old school when it comes to book reading. I like the smell of paper, like the luxury of holding a book to my eyes before dozing off at the end of the day. With no physical books to read, I had to switch to digital versions on the kindle app on phone. Reluctantly I made the switch. The first book I wanted to read cost the same amount as the monthly subscription for “kindle unlimited". I didn't check upfront what books were available under this subscription and just signed up for it. It made money-sense. I would anyway be needing books to read for the rest of the lockdown period. So, a monthly subscription seemed logical. 

I finished the first fiction I wanted to read. Then I was hunting for the next book to read. All titles I had in the back of my mind, turned out to be not free within the unlimited subscription. Then I was scrolling through the available options under “kindle unlimited”. Was looking for top-rated and popular books. Stumbled upon this one - 10-Minute Mindfulness: 71 Habits for Living in the Present Moment by Barrie Davenport and S. J. Scott. It had good reviews and was a topic that had gained prominence in my mind by now. Picked it up for reading.

Am quite pleased with it. It demystified mindfulness . I used to think this is something totally abstract and hard to practice. But, after reading the book, I realise we may already be following some of the mindfulness practices in one way or the other. Authors list 71 daily 10-minute minute mindfulness practices with a detailed narrative on how to do it and an action plan on how to implement each of the practices. You may start following some and gradually increase the number of practices until they become second-nature. It isn’t possible to practice all 71 though. You can pick and choose what you want to follow and go on to be a more mindful person. 

I liked a number of practices the authors recommend in the book - wake up early, make your bed mindfully, practice morning meditation, mindful work-out routine, de-clutter one space ( a 10-min daily routine), yoga - perform surya namaskar, be totally present - be it with family, friends or at work with colleagues, practice transition breathing to come out of any preoccupied thoughts/ anxiety in the mind before getting into anything else, define top 3 goals for the day, visualise and achieve them, reduce distractions at work - clean desk, remove physical and digital clutter, clean desktop - close unused applications, tabs, icons, switch off all notifications, get into flow state, focus on excellence rather than rushing, batch your tasks - group similar activities as one batch, stand, stretch and get moving once every 20-25 mins, show appreciation, cultivate humility, have a dose of laughter, mealtime with family, mindful parenting, gratitude journaling, review your day at the end of the day and make a plan for tomorrow et al.

And thus, now mindfulness is no alien to me. Have started practicing some of the habits. Hope I would keep at it. If the term mindfulness throws a number of questions in your mind, consider reading that book.