Mundane Meditation - for when you think your life, and your brain, are too busy to meditate

Mundane meditation is such a boring title for one of my favorite things. I love meditation, but I’m not a full-time yogi with unlimited hours to practice meditation and yoga and I would guess that you aren’t either. I am what some would call a householder yogi. I practice yoga and meditation but my day-to-day is steeped in the activities of daily human living.

I happily spend fun time playing with my kid. I run a business. I love being hands-on with my clients. I have a home that needs tending like everyone else - somehow we keep needing to be fed everyday and we need to clean up from the eating. And since I live with a 2 year old there is a certain amount of time that just goes into picking. up. all. the. things. 

And this, THIS,  is where mundane meditation comes in. It is my version of mindfulness. It is single-tasking. It is brain-training. It is making what I’m doing my whole focus. When I don’t choose to make time for long stretches of seated meditation, this mundane meditation is what keeps me centered. And although it sounds boring, I like it so much that I keep coming back to this practice again and again as my genuine self-care. (Self care has been over-emphasized, under-emphasized, given a bad-rap, and made very trendy all at once. Let’s talk more about genuine self-care soon).

Have you ever felt like your brain is just too busy? Those moments when you are walking around the grocery store catching up on a podcast and forgetting what you meant to buy for dinner. Or NOT having fun playing with your kids because you are playing while you are also responding to work emails or catching up on your text threads from friends? Or if you are like me- I’m a (recovering) worrier - and if you are a worrier too, perhaps you are folding laundry while also solving future potential problems that haven’t even happened yet. Or winning a fight with your partner that could have, but didn’t actually happen, this morning.

In mundane meditation you take a moment of your everyday life and you stop letting your beautiful wild brain run the show with its obsession about the past and the future and you simply pay attention to whatever it is that you are currently doing. 

Making your morning coffee? Smell the grounds. Savor the warmth. Listen to the water pouring over the grounds and into your cup.

Reading a book? Put your phone and any notification devices far enough away that you don’t hear them. Feel the seat beneath your hips and your back. Let your shoulders release and notice the weight of your pages or reader as you uninterruptedly finish a whole page, paragraph, or chapter. 

Playing with your kid? Know that all the “to-do’s” will be there when you come back, but just for this moment immerse yourself in the sights, sounds, smells, textures of your kid and their toys or activity. 

Folding the laundry? Feel the texture of each piece of clothing and the feel of the crease beneath your fingers.

These are your moments of meditation throughout the day. Will it add up to a 45 minute seated practice? Probably not. And that’s not the point.

This is my permission to you.

For 10 minutes today don’t rehash anything that’s already happened. Don’t plan for what is coming next.  Don’t solve the world’s problems. 

Just fold the laundry.