Limitless mindfulness

I'm not sure if we've just has national mindfulness week, but it sure felt like it from where I was sitting. First I read an article describing it as the plat du jour which was hotly followed by radio interviews about corporate mindfulness, advocating – among other things – paying attention to one thing at a time. I quickly applied the lesson and was inspired to mindful driving – best not done, I found, while listening to said same program. I drove straight past my destination.

Every now and then someone comes along who can dress up age-old ideas and apply them to new situations. Remember Eckhardt Tolle who caught out imaginations in the 1990s with the Power of Now? He advocated keeping thoughts in the present, slowing life down, connecting with nature and – like corporate mindfulness – warned against multi-tasking.

No doubt all the mindfulness roads lead back to forms of (prayer and) meditation, which I've practised on and off in some guise or other for decades. These days I draw on Buddhist practice and am attracted to the New Kadampa Tradition because it's accessible and easy to integrate into the everyday. 

As far as I'm concerned the more people practising mindfulness the better but it takes practice learning how to focus (I just tried to post this blog on someone else's site). It's also a fine line deciding where to focus your mind. Just this morning I saw a man mindfully texting while not mindfully picking up his dogs' poo. Needless to say, there are limitless opportunities for mindfulness in modern-day life.