Mindfulness Meditation (For Everyday Life)

In your meditation practice, especially when you are
not using a tape for guidance, see if you can detect
the very first impulse to quit, and any others that may
follow, growing in strength. As you recognize each
impulse, breathe with it for a few moments, and ask
yourself, "Who has had enough?" Try looking into
what is behind the impulse. Is it fatigue, boredom,
pain, impatience; or is it just time to stop? Whatever
the case, rather than automatically leaping up or
moving on, try lingering with whatever arises out of
this inquiry, breathing with it for a few moments or
even longer, and allowing the moving out of your
meditation posture to be as much an object of
moment-to-moment awareness as any other moment
in the meditation.
Practicing like this can increase mindfulness in many
different situations that involve closing or ending
something and moving on to something else. It can
be as simple and brief as being in touch with closing
a door, or as complicated and painful as when an era
in your life comes to an end. So much automaticity
can creep into closing a door, because it's so
unimportant in the overall scheme of things (unless
the baby is sleeping). But it is precisely because it is
relatively unimportant that closing the door mindfully
activates and deepens our sensitivity, our capacity to
be in touch with all of our moments, and smooths out