Mindfulness: An Eight-Week Plan for Finding Peace in a Frantic World (31 page)

It’s important to be realistic. Each of us needs a positive reason to carry on meditating. But the word “positive” does not capture the full potential of what is available to us. If you’ve got this far into the program, then you probably already know why you wish to continue, but it is, nonetheless, important to ask,
really ask
, why it might be important, based on your experience of mindfulness, to continue cultivating it.

A good way of doing this is to close your eyes and imagine dropping a stone down a deep well. The stone represents the question:
What is it that is most important to me in my life that this practice could help with?

Sense the stone dropping down into and beneath the surface of the water. There’s no rush to find answers. If one answer comes, let the stone fall further—see if other answers come. When you hear some answers—even if they’re only tentative—take some time to reflect, then write them on a postcard or piece of paper and keep it somewhere safe, ready to be looked at should you ever become despondent about the practice. You may find several answers to the question. Perhaps:

 

• for my parents
  
 

 

• for my children
  
 

 

• to safeguard my happiness
  
 

 

• to remain calm and energized
  
 

 

• to remain freer from anger, bitterness and cynicism
  
 

The aim of allowing the question to be asked is to show you how sustaining your practice will help you to reclaim your life
in a profound way, day by day, and moment my moment, rather than seeing it as yet another thing to “do” or “get done” for some negative or prescriptive reason. Most of us do not need another “should” or “ought” to add to the already long list of things we have to do each day. So, writing your own answers on a card and keeping it safe ensures that you have something that reminds you of the
positive discoveries
that you have made in the practice of mindfulness that encourage you to explore further. There will be many times in the future when your commitment to practice falls away or wears thin. At such times, you can easily become despondent or angry with yourself. When this happens, it is good to have your original motivations readily at hand.

It is time for you to decide which practice or combination of practices you think is sustainable for
you
in the long term. You should be realistic and remember that your choice is not set in stone. You can change it from day to day, from week to week or from year to year, to match the demands being made upon you and what it is you want to explore through your practice. Sometimes, you may feel the need for reconnecting with the body in the Body Scan (see p.
97
), while at other times, you might choose deliberately to bring a worry or problem right into the center of your practice, using the Exploring Difficulty meditation from Week Five (see p. 172). The choice is yours. You now have the skills to decide for yourself.

How long should you meditate for? The practice itself will teach you. Recall that meditation was first developed when
humans lived in and off the fields. Indeed, one of the words that we translate into English as “meditation” actually means “cultivation” in the original Pali language. It originally referred to cultivation of crops in the fields and flowers in the garden. So how long should the cultivation of the mindfulness garden take each day? It is best to go into the garden and see for yourself. Sometimes ten minutes in the garden of meditation practice will be needful, but you may find, once there, that your cultivation will slip effortlessly into twenty or thirty minutes. There is no minimum or maximum time. Clock time is different from meditation time. You could simply experiment with what feels right and with whatever gives you the best chance to renew and nourish yourself. Every minute counts.

Most people find that it is most helpful to combine some regular (every day) formal practice with mindfulness in the world. There is something about the “everyday-ness” of the practice that is important. By every day we mean that a majority of days each week will find you taking yourself away to be by yourself for a period, no matter how short.

Remember the advice of yoga teachers: the most difficult move in yoga is the move on to your mat. Similarly, the most difficult aspect of formal mindfulness practice is getting on to your chair or stool or cushion. So, if you find you have missed it for a while, why not come and sit for one minute?

Just one minute.

Listen to your mind’s reaction.
What? Just one minute! That’d be no good. There’s absolutely no point in doing anything unless I can do it properly.
Listen to the tone of voice that has appeared in your mind. Is it helpful or is it hindering
your best intentions with its hectoring perfectionism?

Come. Just come—for one minute. There’s no need to try and stop the hindering voice. Carry it with you as you come and give yourself the rich blessing of one precious minute of sitting—one moment in which to remind your mind and body that there is a different, wiser, quieter voice to be heard.

And that is enough for today.

Whichever practices you decide upon, many find that making space in the day for the Breathing Space is a great blessing. It’s always there for you in moments of stress or unhappiness. It’s the perfect way of checking in with yourself during the day. In many ways, the main meditation practice that you eventually decide upon is there to support your Breathing Spaces. It’s your parachute. Many people on our courses say that it’s the most important thing they’ve ever learned.

Practice as if your life depended on it, as in many ways, it surely does. For then you will be able to live the life you have—and live it as if it truly mattered.

Sometimes poetry captures the soul of an idea more than anything else. This poem, by Roger Keyes, was inspired by the paintings of Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai (1760–1849). Hokusai’s message in his paintings—captured in this poem—sums up the message of this book and its invitation. We offer it to you as food for the journey.

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