The whole point of mindfulness isn’t to have relaxing or interesting experiences during meditation.  The point of mindfulness is to bring the qualities we cultivate during practice into every aspect of our lives.

Fortunately, there’s quite a bit of spontaneous carry-over.  I find that as a result of meditating in stillness for at least 25 minutes every day, plus a couple of retreats a year, the practice is definitely working for me.  Remember we define “the mindfulness practice is working” as: Decreased Suffering, Increased Fulfillment, Improved Behavior, Wisdom/Insight, and Increased Ability to Serve Joyfully and Effectively. 

In addition to the carry-over that occurs naturally, there’s some other things we can do to increase our ability to bring our meditation off the cushion or chair and into our life.  One very simple ritual I do at the end of almost every period of solo formal practice is:

1. I thank/congratulate myself for taking the time to do the practice, saying to myself something like the following “That was good work, John.  That was a good use of your time.”  2: I “dedicate the merit”, by making the following intention: “If there was any merit earned through the period of mindfulness practice I just did, may it be dedicated to all sentient beings everywhere.  May all sentient beings be happy.” 3: I put my hands together and touch my forehead, lips, and heart, asking “Moving forward, may my thoughts, words, and actions be guided by wisdom, kindness, compassion and love.” 

In addition to formal practice in stillness, Shinzen suggests a number of ways that folks can cultivate practice in life.  He has a Youtube video from a few years ago where he talks about this. He changes his terminology and techniques, so for reference this is how he’s currently defining the following terms:

Formal practice: Practice lasting at least 10 minutes where essentially all one’s attention is applied towards implementing the mindfulness technique.

Informal practice: Mindfulness practice that does not meet the above criteria.

The following are his terms for a couple types of Informal Practice:

Microhit: You apply all your attention to implementing a mindfulness technique, but do so for a period less than 10 minutes (i.e. a few seconds to several minutes.)

Background Practice: As you go about whatever activity you’re doing in your life, you allocate some of your attention to implementing a mindfulness technique in the background, while the majority of your attention is applied to whatever life situation you’re in.

Shinzen has also recently started a program specifically designed to help people implement mindfulness in their daily life.  I was one of the featured guests on the program a few months ago, and he’s given me permission to post on my site the archive recording of our interaction. 

The mnemonic Shinzen uses to structure daily practice in life is ASIA:

Analyze: Consider the day to come, with the various activities you’ll be engaged in.

Strategize: Choose mindfulness strategies that might be appropriate for those activities.

Inspire/Implement: Make the intention to do mindfulness practice in life, and do them to the best of your ability.

Assess: At the end of the day look back at how you did with your practice in life.

You can listen to the recording to hear Shinzen’s suggestions on how I can bring mindfulness into my day, with an emphasis on intentionally bringing mindfulness to my family life.

 P.S. As an aside, and I list this somewhat as a disclaimer: the only technique Shinzen recommends for driving- is paying full attention to driving the car.  He treats this as formal practice- giving his full attention to the sights, sounds, and tactile sensations that are pertinent to driving.  I’ve heard him boast: “I’ve never gotten a ticket!”