Many people will say that their life is so busy there is no way to take 15 -30 minutes daily for meditation. Fortunately, meditation can be incorporated into any activity using full awareness. So a person can go about their normal day and only change the way they do things. I will give examples of how to incorporate specific meditation methods into your day.

Walking Meditation

Walking meditation is a very common form of meditation. It involves walking with all your attention placed on the awareness on your feet. When you step, feel the weight transfer from the balls of your feet to your heels. Feel the sensation of your pants moving across your legs as you walk. Also, take in the sights and sounds around you. I tend to focus on birds. I will listen to their songs and see how many different types of birds I can spot. If a thought about the past and future arises, bring your attention back to the present moment.

Most people set aside time to do a walking meditation outside, but it can be done inside. Walking from one meeting to the next can be a walking meditation. Walking from the couch to the refrigerator can be a walking meditation. In fact having several one or two-minute walking meditation sessions in a day can have a profound effect.

Driving Meditation

While driving is an excellent time to be aware. It will reduce the possibility of being in an accident and getting lost. To turn driving into a meditation turn the radio off and focus only on the sensations created by the car. Take time to feel the wheel in your hands. Listen to the sound of the engine. Notice all the cars on the road. Feel the bumps in the road vibrate up from the tires. If other people are in the car with you explain what you are doing so, they can stay quiet. Remember if a stray thought arises, let it go gently and return to being acutely aware while driving.

Remember a person does not have to turn their entire car trip into meditation. You can designate a 15 to 30 minute period after leaving work or your home. If one does this, the designated part of their commute to meditation, they will have a better separation between work and home. Many people carry their work problems home and their home problems to work. The bleeding of work and home problems leads to round the clock suffering. If a person can compartmentalize home and work both will serve as a sanctuary. A person will be more focused on home when at home and work when at work. Both your work life and home life will improve.

Cleaning Meditation

Most people hate to clean, but you have to do it.  If you are going to clean, clean with full awareness. Feel all the sensations while cleaning, the water going through the sponge, smell the soap or cleaner, really see the grease dissolve. Again when thoughts come up that do not pertain to cleaning, gently let them go. Totally focus all attention on the task at hand.

I find it is common that people use dishwashing as meditation. If you have a family, usually the dishwashing happens at the end of the day. Most of the family is winding down, and the person doing the dishes is left alone in the kitchen. Washing the dishes, pots, and pans from dinner will usually take 30 minutes. This activity is almost tailor made for meditation.

Conclusion

These exercises will train you to recognize and control your thoughts. This ability will become refined enough for a person do know and control thoughts throughout the day. Capacity to control thoughts will allow a person to reduce the detrimental behavior. Being able to stop negative thoughts will also reduce your stress level. In general meditating will improve your overall quality of life.

Another realization is that you are not in control of your thoughts. No matter how hard you try thoughts will come up and you will choose to disengage them. Therefore, you are bigger than your mind, and your thoughts are not an integral part of you.

After reading this, I hope that you see how easy your life can include meditation. Attempting to add just one of these activities into your day could have a tremendously positive affect. After a few weeks of doing this, you will see a few thoughts repeatedly recur and interrupt your meditation. Most of those thoughts will be negative. There will be another article on this website about shadow work. Shadow work teaches a person how to process these thoughts.