S.J. Scott - 10-Minute Mindfulness: 71 Habits for Living in the Present Moment

10-Minute Mindfulness

71 Habits for Living in the Present Moment

Barrie Davenport

L iveBoldandBloom.com

Steve S.J. Scott

www.DevelopGoodHabits.com

10-Minute Mindfulness 2017 by Oldtown Publishing LLC

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the author. Reviewers may quote brief passages in reviews.

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Contents

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PART I: INTRODUCTION

You drag yourself out of bed after slapping the snooze button for a third time, already twenty minutes behind schedule.

As you check the clock, your brain pumps out a quick shot of oh-crap-Im-late adrenaline, and you hit the ground running.

The TV blares in the background with another day of bad news and political discord, tainting the morning with despair before you make it to the shower.

As your brain tries to process the morning news, you remember all you have going on today: A few meetings. A project due. A doctors appointment. Carpool duty for the kids.

And, oh yeah the clash you had with your boss yesterday. Your mind loops through the conversation a few times, and you feel angry all over again.

You step out of the shower to hear your phone dinging with emails and texts. Your heart rate speeds up, and low-level anxiety buzzes through your body like a double-espresso aftershock.

Showered, dressed, and already agitated, you make your way to the kitchen to grab a quick breakfast to go, while your kids bicker over the last doughnut and your spouse is freaking out about lost car keys.

By the time you make it to work, or to the carpool line, or wherever you go to begin your day, your mind is frazzled and distracted. Your inner world roils like the first tremors before a volcanic eruption.

When youre so pumped full of adrenaline and anxiety, your body and mind become addicted to the drama, negativity, and distractions of daily life. This addiction keeps you stuck in a pattern of knee-jerk reactions to thoughts and events, rather than allowing you to consciously create what you want from the day.

By evening, youre too burned out to enjoy family time, hobbies, or relaxation. Instead, you crave something mind-numbing, like a few hours of TV or surfing the net, before you fall into bed.

Can you identify with this scenario?

It may not exactly describe your daily life or morning routine, but youve likely experienced some version of it before. Distraction. Stress. Worry. Agitation. Negative thinking. Emotional exhaustion. Physical exhaustion. All of these play a much bigger role in our lives than we care to admit.

More often than not, our days dont begin peacefully and joyfully. In fact, we feel far from calm, centered, and present, and it takes a toll on our happiness and mental health.

The Trap of Unconscious Living

This scenario we just described comes from a vicious cycle of reactivity, distraction, and stress that can be best described as unconscious living.

Most of us are unconscious of the ways our lifestyle choices, habits, and thoughts create unhappiness and anxiety.

We are unconscious of our true values, life priorities, and our deeper longings for a more balanced way of life.

We are also unconscious of the vast peace and contentment available in the present moment because we are so preoccupied with past regrets and worries about the future.

Says British philosopher, writer, and speaker Alan Watts :

We are living in a culture entirely hypnotized by the illusion of time, in which the so-called present moment is felt as nothing but an infinitesimal hairline between an all-powerfully causative past and an absorbingly important future. We have no present. Our consciousness is almost completely preoccupied with memory and expectation. We do not realize that there never was, is, nor will be any other experience than present experience. We are therefore out of touch with reality. We confuse the world as talked about, described, and measured with the world which actually is. We are sick with a fascination for the useful tools of names and numbers, of symbols, signs, conceptions and ideas.

If you see yourself as unconscious and out of touch with reality (and most of us are), theres nothing wrong with you. Unconsciousness isnt a character flaw or mental defect. It isnt something you were born with.

In fact, you may have noticed that small children dont suffer from unconsciousness. They are thoroughly and completely engaged in the present moment, whether its good or bad.

They delight in the simplicity of a flower. They can fall asleep on the floor when they are tired or scream like a banshee in public when something upsets them. For a child, there are few filters between the moment and the response.

Unconsciousness is a learned behavior we develop over time. But its also a byproduct of the way our brains react to perceived threats and how we respond to the societal, cultural, and technological input we receive (in massive volumes) every day.

As we discussed in our book, Declutter Your Mind , The human nervous system has been evolving for 600 million years, but it still responds the same as our early human ancestors who faced life-threatening situations many times a day and simply needed to survive.

As a result, we are wired for a negativity biasa tendency to react to negative stimuli more intensely than positive experiences. This is true even when we dont face the same life-threatening scenarios. Our life-threatening situations come in the form of rumination, regret, and worry.

Modern technology has poured fuel on the flames of our anxieties. With access to 24/7 news, advertising, and information, were exposed to a profusion of phantom boogeymen to fret about.

Am I attractive enough?

Smart enough?

Wealthy enough?

Happy enough?

Are my children safe?

Will the economy tank?

Am I eating the right diet?