Often we think of meditation as something quite formal, with lighted candles, a quiet room and burning incense. This is actually a very important part of the practice but out there in the crazy world is where the real practice begins. It is possible to incorporate mini-meditations in our daily lives. We all know the feeling of having tons of mails to reply to, just being overloaded with work and being dragged away from this moment (often noticeable by the fact that our shoulders have reached the height of our ears). When this happens, we can just let go of the keyboard for a second, close our eyes and try become aware of what is happening right now; in our thoughts, mind and body. All of this preferably in the chair we were getting all worked up in just a second ago. Just looking at it and becoming aware of it, without judgement, but rather an attitude of curiosity. Then open your eyes again and continue with what you were doing and see if it made a change. You can repeat this as many times as you like during the day. By doing this we create little pauses, little holes in our automatic pilot behavior of continuously being in a threadmill. We might become aware that there is actually a lot more space inbetween the e-mails and tasks, things are not as claustrophobic as they seem and that in this crazy hectic life we can experience the same clarity and space we experience on our cushion.
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