Day 29 - Life as Meditation

As our 30 days together winds down, maybe you're realizing mindfulness is much more than a practice, it is a way of being, an inner orientation, an awareness to be present to life's joys and sorrows. With each post, I've offered you a bunch of options for practicing mindfulness, but know that life itself presents countless opportunities each day. This moment, the next moment, and every moment is a doorway to discovering the mystery of this thing we call Life. Where is this journey taking you?

Pretty much any daily activity can be a mindfulness practice. Did you take a shower today? When I shower, I'm mostly thinking about what lies ahead in the day. What do I need to do at work? Do I need to think ahead to dinner? What's on the evening calendar? But what if instead, I brought mindfulness into my morning routine? It might look something like this.

How does my body feel this morning? How does the warm water feel against my skin? Maybe I'd linger for a minute to enjoy the experience. I could be thankful for hot water, a home I love, and the benefit of modern plumbing. I might turn my attention to water and be mindful of the way it cleanses, refreshes and nourishes me. I would finish by using the physical sensation to simply be in my body before jumping into the rest of the day.

I invite you to do the same. Wash the dishes mindfully. Eat breakfast mindfully. Live mindfully.

Practice Options

• Listen to this Ted Talk on how to turn a morning cup of coffee into a gratitude practice.

• Check out this tea meditation by Matt Valentine. Feel free to adapt it to coffee, wine, or chocolate.

  • Make your tea You should do everything- from each step of preparing your tea, to sitting down, to drinking your tea, to finishing, and cleaning up- in mindfulness. No matter how you choose to prepare your tea, what tea you drink, where you drink your tea, do so carefully with a complete awareness of the present moment. Give yourself completely to the entire process of preparing and drinking your tea. Once your tea is made, find a nice quiet place for you to sit and drink it. Once you've sat down, take a moment before starting to "simply sit" with your tea. Notice the aroma of the tea, admire the look and color of the tea, and imagine the delicate balance that had to be kept for the tea to go from being a leaf on a tree (likely from another country) to becoming the delightful cup of tea in front of you.
    

  • Give thanks Before you begin drinking, take a moment to give thanks for the cup of tea in front of you. Contemplate for a moment on the fact that people all around the world don't even have clean drinking water, yet you can sit and enjoy an amazing cup of warm tea whenever you so choose. Appreciate the cup of tea and everything that had to happen, and the careful balance that had to be maintained, for you to experience this amazing cup of tea. Express your gratitude for all those things which helped make your cup of tea a reality, and for a moment expand that thought to yourself and the knowledge that you also depend on infinite living and non-living things to exist as you are now in this moment just as the tea does. Sit with those feelings for a minute or two before beginning.
    

  • Drink your tea This is the main event. Your tea has been prepared, you've expressed your appreciation, and now it's time to drink. All you have to do is drink your tea fully with mindfulness. Take it slow, only drinking very small sips at a time. You should be taking your time and really savoring every sip. Specifically, while you drink, your object of concentration can be various things. I often focus my mindfulness on the raising of my arm, and then of the sip, swallowing, then lowering of the arms, and lastly take a few nice deep breaths before taking another sip. This should be cycled throughout the length of the meditation. And as usual, any thoughts, feelings, or sensations that arise while doing each individual activity simply gets gently acknowledged and I proceed to go back to my object of meditation. Fully commit to the act of drinking your tea, whether you're with someone else or alone. Be fully awake for the practice of drinking your tea, understanding that this moment and this tea will never exist again.
    

  • Give thanks (again) Once you're done (again, the length of your meditation is up to you, it could be 10 minutes and it could be one hour), give thanks once again like you did in the beginning. It's important to finish the practice like we started, helping put the tea, and the meditation, in perspective.
    

• Make your favorite beverage and share it with family and friends. This is my diy chai recipe. (Making it yourself is way better than anything you can buy.)

Ingredients

1.5-inch piece of fresh ginger, cut into coins

2 teaspoons black peppercorns

1 teaspoon whole cloves

1 teaspoon whole cardamom seeds

4 cinnamon sticks

8 cups water

3 bags of black tea (or tea of choice)

honey or maple syrup (optional)

almond milk or other preferred milk

Directions

Combine the ginger, black peppercorns, cloves, cinnamon sticks, cardamom and water in a medium sized saucepan.

Bring to a boil over a high heat and then turn down to medium-low. Simmer gently, uncovered, for 15 - 20 minutes.

Remove from heat and steep the tea bags in for 5 minutes in concentrate. Remove the tea bags.

Strain the spices from the chai concentrate and store in a glass pitcher or jar.

Retrieve cinnamon sticks from the strainer and add to the jar of chai concentrate.

Mix in the honey, maple syrup, or other sweetener to taste (or add later to individual servings)

When you are ready to enjoy, pour the chai concentrate into a mug and combine with milk, with a ratio of about 3/4 chai to 1/4 milk.

Pour the mixture into a small saucepan and heat on medium-low, removing from heat right before it comes to a boil.

Add sweetener if desired.

Store the remaining concentrate in the refrigerator. For iced chai, skip reheating, add sweetener or milk to taste, and pour over ice.