Today’s Mindfulness Monday post is going to focus on bringing mindful awareness to a daily task. After all, what could be an easier way to build mindfulness into your daily routine than to practice mindfully completing a task that you would do anyway?
Often times during the day we find ourselves being pulled in a million different directions. Whether we are attempting to multi-task or find our thoughts wandering from our current activity, we can easily become disengaged from our lives or begin to feel overwhelmed. To help balance this out, we can practice one-mindfulness, or having a single focus.
The first step is to choose a task. The options are endless, but some examples include: washing dishes, doing some cleaning, gardening, making a cup of coffee or cooking. As you perform whichever task you choose, imagine that it is your first time doing this task. Try to bring awareness to every aspect of the task, rather than allowing yourself to slip into autopilot. Try to notice if your mind starts to wander from the task at any point and, if so, try to shift your attention back to the present task. The goal is to maintain your focus on this one task until it is completed. After you practice mindfully completing a task, take some time to reflect on how the experience was for you.
Try to make a deliberate effort to bring moment-to-moment awareness to at least one task each day. This is a great way to practice mindfulness and improve your ability to be more mindful.
Let me know in the comments if this is enjoyable and helpful to you. Remember to check back for more mindfulness exercises on future Mondays!
