Mindfulness practice develops and requires fascination
Mindful awareness exercises are boring.
We feel more at home making sense of our experiences than we do observing the details that comprise them.
Which is easier to focus on for a minute?
One gobbles up time. The other feels like the mental equivalent of holding a plank pose.
Let’s be honest. Deciding to notice ordinary sensory details is like deciding whether to watch paint dry or to start the next episode of Bad Sisters.
Just as propping your body up on your elbows for sixty seconds develops your core strength, briefly exploring real-time perceptions leads to feeling more curious and alive.
Both need to become habitual to make a significant difference.
Avoiding boredom comes easily, fascination takes practice
The essence of mindfulness practice is intentionally attending to what’s happening with a reasonable degree of composure.
This isn't difficult because it requires big chunks of time. It only takes a few seconds to notice a sight, sound, or sensation.
What makes this difficult is setting aside the impulse to figure something out, evaluate yourself, or mentally review your to-do list for a few seconds.
Pausing our internal narratives makes us feel restless — the opposite of the cover photo of every mindfulness magazine.
Easing into fascination
One of the most effective ways to briefly forgo the story in your mind is to find something in your body or the environment that changes as you observe it.
trees swaying in the breeze
the play of light on a ceiling, wall, or floor
mechanical or human sounds in the distance
conversations in a language you don’t speak
hunger increasing or subsiding
Take five seconds to find something that’s changing right now. If you’re surrounded by silence and stillness, notice an exhale or the beating of your heart.
What you notice doesn’t need to lead to an entertaining story. Make a secret hobby of letting your attention be absorbed by things that aren’t part of a narrative.
Recycle your reactions
To accelerate your ability to be wowed by the mundane, practice noticing your body’s reactions to various sights, sounds, sensations, and thoughts.
You can recycle your reaction to any perception by observing your body’s response to it.
Where do you sense the body reacting?
Is it subtle, moderate, or strong? Maybe there’s no observable reaction.
Is the feeling pleasant, unpleasant, or complicated?
Does it seem physical, emotional, or both?
Does it change in some way? Spread, shrink, intensify, fade away…
Take a few seconds to literally feel your body’s reactions.
Looking out a window feels like this.
Tasting the first bite of lunch feels like this.
Swallowing the last bite feels like this.
Listening to a song I love feels like this.
Hearing my phone ring or vibrate feels like this.
Worrying feels like this.
Being bored feels like this.
If you’re willing to be fascinated by boredom — even briefly — you’re setting the stage for relief that’s impossible to imagine.
In order to be sustainable, your mindfulness practice needs to become fascinating.
It won’t become fascinating unless you decide to habitually notice details that don’t demand your attention. Observing your body’s reactions to whatever you notice gives you a big boost.
Your efforts will pay off more quickly than you think.
Daron
