Family

9 Tips for a Mindful Home

Karen Maezen Miller, author of Momma Zen, gives a few quick instructions for intentional living.

Photo by Liza Matthews

Wake with the sun

There is no purer light than what we see when we open our eyes first thing in the morning.

Sit

Mindfulness without meditation is just a word.

Make your bed

The state of your bed is the state of your head. Enfold your day in dignity.

Empty the hampers

Do the laundry without resentment or commentary and have an intimate encounter with the very fabric of life.

Wash your bowl

Rinse away self-importance and clean up your own mess. If you leave it undone, it will get sticky.

Set a timer

If you’re distracted by the weight of what’s undone, set a kitchen timer and, like a monk in a monastery, devote yourself wholeheartedly to the task at hand until the bell rings.

Rake the leaves

Rake, weed, or sweep. You’ll never finish for good, but you’ll learn the point of pointlessness.

Eat when hungry

Align your inexhaustible desires with the one true appetite.

Let the darkness come

Set a curfew on the internet and TV and discover the natural balance between daylight and darkness, work and rest.

Sleep when tired

Nothing more to it.

Comments

mindfulness while doing two activities like washing and talking

Submitted by norma on Sat, 12/18/2010 - 11:43.
Greetings, Thank you for the informative and a short post though I don't mind the longer once. I am reading this website for the first time and I am glad to announce that i have come to the right place. I very badly suffer from absent mindedness. Most of my time goes in day dreaming, worrying and in anxiety of the future and it is same for me from my childhood. I was looking for something which can improve my presence of mind and I have landed in the right place. I read few posts on this website on mindfulness, they are wonderful if i can inculcate them in my life. But a doubt is eating my head. Most of the posts are discussing mindfulness pertaining to one individual while engaged in one activity. Quite contrary we rarely do our work alone, either we are with our friends or family or bunch folks while eating cooking etc. In these situations how can we practice mindfulness, when we are munching and talking or washing and talking. If i want to be aware of the activity and my body i have to keep quite, it is again quite impossible. Please clear my doubt. Thank you, Norma