So my first week of mindfulness practice ends today and only seven more weeks of the course to go. I must admit like most issues requiring discipline I have found this a challenge. So far I have enjoyed the delights of chocolate, examined the intricacies of a raisin and undertaken routine tasks in a mindful manner.As the week has progressed the two daily meditations on awareness of body and breath have been fairly easy to fit in my day as only eight minutes long. Somehow though they seem to be ending more quickly and leaving me wanting more.
So what are the tangible benefits of this approach to life, and what does the future hold on the programme?
Firstly there does seem to be a growing awareness of the "moment" and engaging with "now" rather than the past or future. A simple example being when a meeting started looking difficult as the IT was not present I found myself rushing down a corridor and getting in a real sweat about it. I found myself aware of this rushing and then just slowly returning to a sensible pace and feeling a lot better for it. I guess I intervened and prevented a situation escalating.
There also seem to be benfits in the awareness of the thoughts that can intrude and require attention (and therefore energy) when they are really rather pointless rehearsals or speculation about future events.So what is next on the course? I enter week two anticipating rather more lenghty meditation sessions, in fact I think they are about three times longer.
I will report back on the end of the second week.
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