Snapshot of Wherever You Go, There You Are:
Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life
by Jon Kabat-Zinn
===
Introduction
Are you so busy looking toward the future or living in the past that you forget to live in the present moment? If you’re
willing and open to embracing mindfulness and meditation practice, you’ll learn a new way of observing yourself and
others with kindness and in a nonjudgmental way. You’ll start to see things for what they are, and this awareness will
guide you through everyday problems.
This Snapshot breaks mindfulness and meditation down into three parts that will make it easy to understand and
learn how to practice effectively:
1.The bloom of the present moment: Learn how and why you should experiment with mindfulness as part of
your daily life.
2.The heart of practice: Discover helpful methods and basic aspects of formal meditation and how to practice
mindfulness.
3.In the spirit of mindfulness: Explore different perspectives and ways to apply mindfulness.
===
The Bloom of the Present Moment
Mindfulness an ancient Buddhist practice. It’s about understanding who you are and what your place in the world is.
By learning to nonjudgmentally live in the present moment, you’ll open yourself up to fully experiencing life as it un-
folds. Mindfulness can help you overcome your fears and get in touch with your true self. Having a strong sense of
awareness will not only help you understand your path in life but give you better control over it.
Mindfulness is simple to practice but it requires a lot of discipline. You will have to be committed and willing to
work in order to sustain it and reap its benefits. Mindfulness puts you in touch with aspects of life that are often
overlooked, and it will help you better understand your feelings. This is liberating and empowering because it will
open channels within you that will lead to a greater awareness of self. Actions that are driven without awareness may
take you to places you don’t want to go, but meditation can help you focus your own energies so that they can act as
a guide. Meditation is about observing yourself, but doing so without judgment. You are simply there to reach a
deeper level of self-understanding and learn from it.
Are you running around like crazy all the time? What would happen if you simply stopped and enjoyed the present
moment? This is where meditation comes in. It’s all about pausing things and being present in each moment of life.
Stopping life, even just for a minute, to practice mindfulness will allow you to gain some clarity and perspective that
will be a valuable guide going forward. Take a moment to just observe, breathe, and let go. Don’t try to change any-
thing but simply realize where you are. Accepting the present moment will allow you to let go of the past and be open
for the future, without getting ahead of yourself and learning to cherish every moment.
Acceptance doesn’t tell you what to do, but it opens your mind up to figuring that out. You might be tempted to
jump out of mindfulness if you aren’t satisfied with what you’re seeing out of the desire to change it. In this case, use
an anchor to help your mind stay focused on observing, not acting. Focusing on your breath can help you stay in
tune with the moment. You are constantly breathing in and out but rarely notice it. Think about each breath coming
in and out of your body and it will help bring your mind back to stillness.
A lot of people feel that it’s impossible to meditate when first getting started, but meditation is as simple as
breathing or relaxing. People often confuse it with reaching a special state of being — but it’s not about feeling a cer-
tain way. Rather, it’s about finding understanding within yourself. It’s not even necessarily about clearing your mind.
The purpose of meditation is to observe what your mind is doing and let it be what it is without trying to change it.
When people say they can’t do meditation, it’s because they haven’t fully committed to it and let go of the expec-
tations of what they think should happen. Patience is key when it comes to growing your meditation practice. Flowers
don’t bloom overnight and neither will this. It takes time and dedication.
Another thing people often struggle with when it comes to meditation and mindfulness is not judging. The mind is
always comparing experiences to others. This stems from the fear that you’re not good enough or that you’re the
only one who doesn’t know something. The judging mind can easily creep in when you’re working on practicing still-
ness but it weighs down the mind. It’s key to observe good and bad thoughts, even judgmental ones, without judg-
ing them or trying to change them. Judgment is in the mind’s nature but it can keep you from seeing things clearly.
It’s important to have a vision and understanding of why you are doing meditation in the first place. If you don’t, it
will be easy to put off. If you want to make it part of your life for the long term, then you need to see the value that
mindfulness and meditation will have in your life. This is the only thing that will keep your motivation up, allow you
to surrender fully to the present moment, and apply the teachings in your daily life.
You can use any moment as an opportunity to practice mindfulness. If angry feelings come up during the day,
observe them and how you express them. How is the anger coming out in your voice, your movements, and what ef-
fect is it having on others? Approaching anger with awareness will allow you to examine it, give you clarity on the
situation, and then enable you to express it in a positive way or let it go.
Think about how you are now and how you want to be. Meditation and mindfulness about development through
mental training and can help you grow as a person. It does this by forcing you to come face to face with each mo-
ment of your life, including the dark ones, and observing it without judgment. Life is a journey, so where are you
going? Meditation will help you realized that the path is unfolding in the present moment right in front of you. You
don’t need to know where you are going but you can learn something about where you are now if you’re willing to lis-
ten.
Awareness isn’t the same thing as thinking. It’s about watching your thoughts and learning from them. Imagine
that your thoughts are a waterfall. Awareness is the cave hidden behind it. Your thoughts are likely to change through
practicing awareness and mindfulness, but not because you are forcing them to change. The change will occur as a
result of your relationship with your thoughts changing.
By incorporating meditation and mindfulness into your life, you’ll be able to be at home wherever you are. You
don’t need any outside force to make you happy. You already have everything you need inside, you just need to be
open to listening to it.
===
The Heart of Practice
Mindfulness and meditation can be practiced anywhere and in any posture. However, whichever posture you choose
needs to involve stable energy. Posture itself makes a statement. If you’re slouching, then it shows low energy and a
lack of clarity. If you’re overly rigid and straight, that can symbolize tension and trying too hard.
There are many postures and poses that can be used when practicing meditation, but sitting is one of the most
popular. That’s because when people sit to meditate, the body automatically adjusts to a more dignified position.
Have you ever noticed that you sit up straighter than you would normally when you sit with the intention to meditate?
Sitting this way opens you up to accepting the moment.
When practicing meditation, it’s important to be mindful of what your body and brain are telling you. Are you feel-
ing tired or bored? Then, perhaps, your body is telling you that it’s had enough for today. Instead of jumping out of
the practice, linger on those feelings for a little bit and slowly transition out of it. Practicing this movement from one
stage to another can be applied to other aspects of your life. For example, when you’re waking up in the morning,
don’t jump straight out of bed. Give your mind and body time to transition from being asleep to awake and observe
it without judgment.
How long you practice meditation depends on many factors, but it’s advised to try to commit to 45 minutes each
day. This may seem like a lot of time but that’s intentional. This amount of time will allow you to settle into the still-
ness and reach deeper levels of the mind while challenging you to stay focussed when boredom, anxiety, or impa-
tience set in. However, there’s no one-size-fits-all time amount that will work for everyone, so flexibility is essential.
When it comes to meditation, effort matters more than time, and a five-minute practice can be just as impactful if
done properly. It’s all about intention. If you’re planning a 45-mile hike you don’t complete it all at once. You start by
taking one step at a time. It’s the same with meditation. Even just taking a minute out of each day to pause and re-
flect makes a difference because it is a step toward mindfulness.
Rest assured that there’s no one right way to practice meditation and you will find yours. When you are hiking, you
don’t rely on someone else to tell you where to put your feet with each step. You simply do it and trust yourself. The
same principle applies to meditation. Trust in the moment and see where it takes you. This will free up your mind to
enjoy its surroundings and live in the moment.
Meditation often takes cues from nature. Mountain meditation involves sitting strong like a mountain and em-
bodying stillness and stability. Throughout the seasons, mountains weather snow, sun, fog, and more, yet they re-
main present and unmoved. This is symbolic of life’s changes. Trees are another great example of stillness. With
standing meditation, embody trees with their roots dug deep into the ground and standing tall.
Some people find that walking meditation suits them better, and it can be just as beneficial as holding a single
position. The key elements of practicing meditation in this way are to combine the awareness of walking with breath-
ing and to walk with no destination other than being present in the current moment. Even though you’re moving,
walking meditation is about the stillness of mind.
Lying down is another a good way to practice meditation as this position makes it easier for your muscles to relax.
Once this happens, the mind can follow. A useful way to meditate in this position is to do a body scan. Focus on
each area of your body and breathe out from those places, relaxing that region with your breath. Turn your focus to
your feet as you breathe in and out. Next, move to your ankles and visualize their relaxation. Continue with each part
of your body until you’ve completed the scan.
Hatha yoga is also a popular method used to practice mindfulness and awareness, combining stretching, holding
postures, and breathing. Pay attention to how you handle everyday stress when you are regularly practicing medi-
tation and yoga and how you handle it at times when you aren’t. Do you feel a difference? Try to be aware of the im-
pact mindfulness is having on your behavior.
Changing yourself can change the world. By embracing love and kindness, you are benefiting yourself and others.
Use loving-kindness meditation to find acceptance in your own heart and of your own self. Center yourself in a medi-
tation posture and invite feelings of kindness and love in. Breathe it in as if you were starving and this was food.
Once you’ve accepted love and kindness for yourself, you can direct it outward as well. It’s a realization of intercon-
nectedness and understanding. It’s not about trying to change things, but understanding what is present on a deeper
level and pushing against the boundary of ignorance.
===
In the Spirit of Mindfulness
Ancient humans used to sit by fires to let their mind unwind from the day and experience stillness. Since people’s
lives are no longer dictated by the light of day, it sometimes is much harder to find this time.
Understanding the harmony of nature is something that humans generally have a difficult time with. People accept
that things happen, but don’t acknowledge the role they played in making it happen. For example, logging cleared big
chunks of rainforests in the South Philippines and when a typhoon struck in the early 1990s, the land was no longer
able to hold the water without the trees. The water then rushed into the lowlands, killing thousands of people. Har-
mony with nature is a balance that’s often only noticed in retrospect despite being all around and within. Think about
your body. It functions pretty well most days, but it’s only on days when you have a headache or some other kind of
ailment that you pay attention to what it’s doing. A greater sense of awareness will bring you more in tune with nature
and yourself.
One of the easiest ways to make time to practice mindfulness and meditation is to simply get up earlier. It will re-
quire discipline to get out of bed, but the real challenge will be not trying to cram more into your day. Instead, enjoy
the stillness of the morning. Grounding yourself in the morning builds a foundation of mindfulness and calm that
will set you up to accept anything that comes along that day. Even five minutes of practice in the morning can be
beneficial. Think of it not as forcing yourself to get up, but rather as making a commitment to mindfulness.
You can’t escape your problems. That’s because you can’t escape yourself, but you can make changes by focusing
inward. You have everything you need to be successful in meditation and life wherever you are. It’s within you. It’s
crucial to slow things down and be present in the moment. Think about the food you are eating. Are you even tasting
it? Use everyday occurrences, such as eating, to help practice mindfulness.
What is your purpose on this planet? If you’re not sure, keep asking yourself this question. Imagine that the uni-
verse is your employer. What’s your job? Thinking about this can have an impact on how you see what you do and
how you do it. The world is an interconnected place but sometimes it’s hard to see how each action is affecting the
bigger picture. For example, honey is important to bees but they don’t see how vitally important their everyday ac-
tions are to cross-pollinating flowers. This interconnectedness isn’t always obvious, so you have to be perceptive to
what your place in it is.
Try to cause as little harm as possible to both yourself and others. Remember this principle if you’re being hard on
yourself or find yourself talking behind someone’s back. The willingness to harm stems from fear so making the
commitment to cause as little harm as possible requires understanding your fears and acknowledging them. Things
don’t just happen, you have control. By being fully present, you’ll be able to approach future moments with greater
clarity, understanding, and acceptance. If you’re in a relationship and don’t acknowledge your feelings of anger, they
will likely build up over time and possibly turn into feelings of resentment. By being aware of these feelings early on
and acknowledging them, you have the power to change what happens next.
Who are you? What are you doing? Asking yourself these types of questions will help you stay in touch with your-
self. This kind of exercise isn’t about finding the answers, but bringing awareness to yourself and listening to what
asking the questions evokes. Mindfulness is about understanding yourself and not trying to be more or less than you
are.
You can also employ mindfulness when it comes to parenting. Pay close attention to what children are doing, their
body language, what they are saying, and how they carry themselves. Generally, children have a much more mindful
existence because their brains haven’t been bogged down by adult thoughts and worries yet. View children as your
teachers.
In the Spirit of Mindfulness
Ancient humans used to sit by fires to let their mind unwind from the day and experience stillness. Since people’s lives are no longer dictated by the light of day, it sometimes is much harder to find this time.
Understanding the harmony of nature is something that humans generally have a difficult time with. People accept that things happen, but don’t acknowledge the role they played in making it happen. For example, logging cleared big chunks of rainforests in the South Philippines and when a typhoon struck in the early 1990s, the land was no longer able to hold the water without the trees. The water then rushed into the lowlands, killing thousands of people. Harmony with nature is a balance that’s often only noticed in retrospect despite being all around and within. Think about your body. It functions pretty well most days, but it’s only on days when you have a headache or some other kind of ailment that you pay attention to what it’s doing. A greater sense of awareness will bring you more in tune with nature and yourself.
One of the easiest ways to make time to practice mindfulness and meditation is to simply get up earlier. It will require discipline to get out of bed, but the real challenge will be not trying to cram more into your day. Instead, enjoy the stillness of the morning. Grounding yourself in the morning builds a foundation of mindfulness and calm that will set you up to accept anything that comes along that day. Even five minutes of practice in the morning can be beneficial. Think of it not as forcing yourself to get up, but rather as making a commitment to mindfulness.
You can’t escape your problems. That’s because you can’t escape yourself, but you can make changes by focusing inward. You have everything you need to be successful in meditation and life wherever you are. It’s within you. It’s crucial to slow things down and be present in the moment. Think about the food you are eating. Are you even tasting it? Use everyday occurrences, such as eating, to help practice mindfulness.
What is your purpose on this planet? If you’re not sure, keep asking yourself this question. Imagine that the universe is your employer. What’s your job? Thinking about this can have an impact on how you see what you do and how you do it. The world is an interconnected place but sometimes it’s hard to see how each action is affecting the bigger picture. For example, honey is important to bees but they don’t see how vitally important their everyday actions are to cross-pollinating flowers. This interconnectedness isn’t always obvious, so you have to be perceptive to what your place in it is.
Try to cause as little harm as possible to both yourself and others. Remember this principle if you’re being hard on yourself or find yourself talking behind someone’s back. The willingness to harm stems from fear so making the commitment to cause as little harm as possible requires understanding your fears and acknowledging them. Things don’t just happen, you have control. By being fully present, you’ll be able to approach future moments with greater clarity, understanding, and acceptance. If you’re in a relationship and don’t acknowledge your feelings of anger, they will likely build up over time and possibly turn into feelings of resentment. By being aware of these feelings early on and acknowledging them, you have the power to change what happens next.
Who are you? What are you doing? Asking yourself these types of questions will help you stay in touch with yourself. This kind of exercise isn’t about finding the answers, but bringing awareness to yourself and listening to what asking the questions evokes. Mindfulness is about understanding yourself and not trying to be more or less than you are.
You can also employ mindfulness when it comes to parenting. Pay close attention to what children are doing, their body language, what they are saying, and how they carry themselves. Generally, children have a much more mindful existence because their brains haven’t been bogged down by adult thoughts and worries yet. View children as your
teachers.
Previous ChapterNext Chapter
===
Conclusion
Meditation isn’t about finding enlightenment, but about paying attention to the present moment. When you think
you’ve gotten somewhere or are worried that you aren’t getting where you’re supposed to, stop and ask yourself
where you are supposed to be. Remind yourself that meditation isn’t about getting anywhere, but simply being where
you already are. In a way, meditation is a mirror through which you can look at your own journey of development and
growth.
If you find yourself struggling with mindfulness and meditation, breaking it down and thinking about it in these
three areas will make it easier to put into practice:
1.The bloom of the present moment: Learn how and why you should experiment with mindfulness as part of
your daily life.
2.The heart of practice: Discover helpful methods and basic aspects of formal meditation and how to practice
mindfulness.
3.In the spirit of mindfulness: Explore different perspectives and ways to apply mindfulness.
Conclusion
Meditation isn’t about finding enlightenment, but about paying attention to the present moment. When you think you’ve gotten somewhere or are worried that you aren’t getting where you’re supposed to, stop and ask yourself where you are supposed to be. Remind yourself that meditation isn’t about getting anywhere, but simply being where you already are. In a way, meditation is a mirror through which you can look at your own journey of development and growth.
If you find yourself struggling with mindfulness and meditation, breaking it down and thinking about it in these three areas will make it easier to put into practice:
The bloom of the present moment: Learn how and why you should experiment with mindfulness as part of your daily life.
The heart of practice: Discover helpful methods and basic aspects of formal meditation and how to practice mindfulness.
In the spirit of mindfulness: Explore different perspectives and ways to apply mindfulness.
Previous ChapterNext Chapter
===
