How to do mindfulness and meditation

In fact, there is no need to prepare special equipment or gather a whole period of time. The core of mindfulness and meditation for ordinary people is never the form. It is to learn to anchor attention on the true perception of the moment, and not to judge one's own state as "good/bad".

I used to feel that I had to set up a quiet room and lay out a yoga mat to practice. Until last year, I was constantly busy with projects. I tried not to check work messages for 10 minutes every day while squeezing on the subway. Instead, I focused on the cool feeling of the handrails in my hands and the vibration of my heels as the train swayed. When my thoughts drifted to the to-do list, I gently pulled it back. During that time, I didn’t feel as anxious as before when I was busy with projects.

Nowadays, there are many voices saying that fragmented mindfulness is not a real practice at all. Only by sitting quietly for more than 40 minutes at a fixed time every day and trying to achieve a state of clearing the mind can it be truly effective. This statement is actually based on the fact that most practitioners who are deeply involved in the Vipassana system will follow the meditation requirements of a fixed duration, believing that only enough immersion time can touch unnoticed emotional stuck points in the subconscious and achieve deeper self-sorting. But for most ordinary people who just want to relieve daily anxiety and improve concentration, there is no need to be kidnapped by this standard. I have a friend who is an Internet operator. He used to force himself to sit for 30 minutes before going to bed every day. As soon as he closed his eyes, his mind was filled with activities for the next day. The more he sat, the more he sat. The more irritable I became, the more I suffered from insomnia all night. Later, when I changed my plan and became irritable, I would stop and stare at the glass in my hand for one minute, feel the temperature of the water on the wall of the glass, and watch the water droplets hanging on the wall of the glass slowly slide down. On the contrary, I could calm down my mood very quickly, and my efficiency was much higher than before.

At this point, some people may ask, if I run around uncontrollably as soon as I practice my brain, do I have no talent at all to practice this? In fact, there is no "practice error" at all. The moment when you notice that your mind wanders is the core of mindfulness practice - it is like learning to ride a bicycle. Shaking it a little does not mean you are not good at riding. The action of reaching out to turn the handlebars back to the right path is the real exercise of balance. When your mind wanders, pull it back, and then pull it back again. The more times you notice your mind wandering, the faster and faster it will become, and the time spent being carried away by irrelevant thoughts will become shorter and shorter. This is progress.

If you want to try a more formal form of meditation, that’s okay. Wear loose and comfortable clothes and find a small corner where you won’t be disturbed by sudden knocks or text messages. You can sit on a chair or cross-legged on the sofa. You don’t have to force yourself to cross your legs to do double lotus. It hurts. You can't sit still without grinning. At the beginning, you can follow the well-known guide audio and just focus on your breathing. You don't need to deliberately adjust the breathing speed. Just feel the cool touch of your nose when you inhale and the slight warmth on the tip of your nose when you exhale.

Of course, not everyone is suitable for practicing mindfulness meditation on their own. For those with severe anxiety, PTSD, or other serious mental disorders, if they do not have a professional counselor to guide them, and they rush to practice inward awareness, they may trigger repressed traumatic memories and cause an acute emotional breakdown. In this case, it is better to seek professional help instead of practicing blindly on your own.

I have been practicing for almost three years now, and what I use most is mindfulness when eating and cooking. When I chew rice, I feel the sweetness of the rice. When cutting vegetables, I feel the crispness of the knife blade against the ingredients. I don't always think about the work I didn't do just now or the meal I have to deal with tomorrow. To put it bluntly, mindfulness is not a mysterious practice. It just puts a small brake on your mind that is always regretting the past and worrying about the future.