One question, courtesy of the Waking Up Meditation App, has been particularly helpful to me lately: Check your attitude in this moment? More often than not, when this question comes up during one of the daily guided meditations, I realise that I’m in a state of waiting, or wanting. Waiting for my meditation task to be over, or wanting to be somewhere different. I actually forget that I like meditation, that it’s more than just something to tick off my to-do list. For some reason, I completely forget that I want to be meditating. But when I realise this, I shift back into being more grateful and present.
So, this question has become a valuable mindfulness tool for me during other daily tasks as well. I often drift into this default operating mode of restlessly wanting to get things done. You could make the argument that it’s fine to go into that mode if you’re doing something that you really don’t like doing, like say, side planks. But how tragic is it to slip into that stance when you’re actually doing something that you want to be doing. Like walking, for example. Walking (or running) is really the best part of my day, but when it becomes this compulsory thing that I must tick off my to-do list, then it becomes this one-dimensional activity that loses all its magic. Writing fiction can be like that too. It’s hard to fill the blank page, and that frustration sometimes makes me forget that writing is magical. But just asking myself, What’s your attitude here?, shifts me out of that restless default operating mode and into a state that is less hostile and more at peace. It’s become a helpful little mindfulness tool.