Tag: new year resolutions

2 More Mindful Resolutions

I forgot to include those two in my New Year’s list:

To resume attending weekly sangha meeting at Insight Meditation Center. This will help me keep up my practice. The Buddha said one needs 3 things to stay on the path: Buddha (teacher), Dharma (teachings), Sangha (community). While online communities can help, they cannot replace a live sangha, and making face to face connections with other practitioners of mindfulness.

To draw from the dharma source often, every day if possible. By source, I mean reading the Buddha’s (Middle) Discourses. I like to pick a topic that is relevant to my mental state for that day. So much of contemporary mental health is watered down dharma, that it is missing many of the important subtleties of the often unacknowledged foundational wisdom. Cognitive behavioral therapy is a good example of such reductive method for mind afflictions.

7 Mindful Resolutions for the New Year

On this New Year’s Eve, I really only have one intention for the coming year: to lead my life as mindfully as possible, trusting that everything else will take care of itself. While simple to declare, such good intention is not so easy to follow. That much I know. One needs to get down to the specifics, and translate it into concrete guidelines for daily living.

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Here is a list of 7 mindful habits I would like to adhere by, starting tomorrow:

  1. Put my phone and computer away as much as possible. I have found those two items to be the single greatest impediments to my mindfulness practice. I have been spending way too much time idly surfing Facebook and news sites. If I can instead turn to mindful contemplation to deal with boredom, tiredness, anxiety, or other unpleasant states, I will be very happy!
  2. Carve time for sitting mindfulness practice every day. At least 30 minutes (45 minutes is even better) in a single, either at home right upon waking up or in the train during my commute to work.
  3. Stop multitasking. Remembering Sylvia Boorstein’s father’s line: “When I walk, I walk”. Multitasking is a hard habit to break, just like checking the phone. In particular, I want to change my morning routine. Instead of starting with drinking my cup of coffee while checking the news on my phone, I intend to become fully present for the task at hand: mindfully sipping from my cup, and taking in the full aroma of my favorite brew. To help, I will need to keep the phone in another room, so I do not get tempted.
  4. Infuse my morning yoga routine with more mindfulness. Shoulder surgery prompted me to resume yoga earlier this year. This stint of yoga has already brought many physical benefits, including regained range of motion in my injured shoulder and greater flexibility. My resolution is to continue but with more attention to the breath and the movements of the body through the different poses.
  5. Bring mindfulness to personal hygiene tasks. Washing my face, brushing my teeth, going to the bathroom, getting dressed are all opportunities to practice mindfulness of daily activities. Instead, I often rush through and resent having to engage in these mundane chores.
  6. Turn walking moments into a meditation. Between walking indoor, whether at or at the office, and walking to and from the train during my commute, I spend two to three hours a day walking. That’s hours that can be spent doing walking meditation. I already do this to some extent, but I want to make it a more consistent practice.
  7. Practice loving kindness. Responding to a prickly coworker with equanimity and grace. Seeing that person as a teacher, and also leaving him behind once no longer in sight. Same with others who are hard to love. ‘May you be at peace, may you be at ease, may you be well . . .’