Crowding Mindfulness into Our Day

The gardener cut down the 7-foot tall greenery of the Jerusalem artichokes last week. The 3' x 3' patch was beyond crowded. This week she harvested 3 grocery bags full of the sweet tubers that are bumpier than potatoes.

I give small bagfuls to the carpenter and to 2 neighbors. Now it's time to get creative with recipes. Last night, hash browns; today, mashed. Tomorrow, soup. Then there's eating them raw in a salad with their water chestnut-like crunch.

This week, i finished teaching 2 classes of Introduction to Insight Meditation. I'm delighted to see how mindfulness has rooted itself in people's lives, whether or not they've managed to establish a formal meditation practice.

Over the course of 7 or 8 weeks, we practiced
mindfulness of walking (perhaps with the dog),
mindfulness of standing (in line at the grocery store or at the kitchen sink),
mindfulness of lying down (a body scan while awake in the middle of the night),
mindfulness of driving (by practicing loving-kindness toward other drivers),
mindfulness of eating (probably a snack), and
mindfulness of a daily activity, such as showering or walking through a doorway.

By crowding our days with mindfulness, the mind calms down and doesn't leave much space for worry and anxiety, and not much space for obsessing.

I love giving away bagfuls of mindfulness :)

Photo from ifood.tv