Informal Mindfulness Integration
Weave moment-to-moment awareness into the fabric of everyday life
Informal mindfulness practice is the systematic extension of meditative awareness into every aspect of daily life. It means paying attention on purpose, in the present moment, non-judgmentally, while doing whatever you are doing: eating, walking, driving, talking, working, even taking out the garbage. The essence is always the same inquiry: 'Am I here now? Am I awake? Am I in my body?'
Kabat-Zinn emphasizes that informal practice takes no time at all because it does not require carving out a separate period for meditation. It requires only remembering. Yet it is at least as valuable as formal practice. The catch is that informal practice gradually loses its power to stabilize the mind if it is not combined with regular formal practice. The two are complementary and synergistic: formal practice builds the depth of awareness, informal practice extends it across the full domain of daily experience.
The MBSR curriculum structures informal practice through eight weeks of progressive awareness assignments, each building on the last: from mindful eating to pleasant event awareness, to unpleasant event awareness, to stress reaction observation, to reactive pattern recognition, to mindful consumption, to waking and sleeping awareness, and finally to the recognition that the practice extends indefinitely into the rest of your life.
- Informal practice takes no time at all; it requires only remembering to be present
- Awareness is not the same as thinking about what you are doing; it means directly perceiving while doing
- Informal practice without formal practice gradually loses its stabilizing power
- Every aspect of daily life is potential practice territory; there is no moment that cannot be held in awareness
- The real meditation practice is how you live your life from moment to moment, whatever you are doing
- Anchor in Breathing Throughout the DayTouch base with your breathing at multiple points throughout the day. Feel the belly go through one or two risings and fallings. This grounds you in the present moment and in your body. Do this before meals, during commutes, when waiting, before meetings, and especially at the first signs of stress.Pro tipSet a gentle reminder on your phone or computer to check in with your breathing every hour. After a few weeks, the check-in becomes automatic.
- Bring Awareness to Routine ActivitiesChoose one routine activity each day and do it with full attention: brushing teeth, showering, cooking, washing dishes, driving, walking up stairs. The practice is to know that you are doing what you are doing while you are doing it, not just conceptually but through direct bodily experience.Pro tipGoing up the stairs and knowing that you are going up the stairs is different from going up the stairs while mentally composing an email. Mindfulness means being with the experience of climbing, feeling feet on steps, muscles working, breath changing.
- Track Pleasant and Unpleasant EventsFor one week, be aware of one pleasant event per day while it is happening. Record the details: what happened, what you felt in your body, what thoughts and emotions arose. The following week, do the same with one unpleasant or stressful event per day. Look for underlying patterns in what makes experiences pleasant or unpleasant.Pro tipMost people discover that pleasant events are far more frequent than they realized but normally pass unnoticed because attention is captured by problems and worries. Simply noticing pleasant moments changes the quality of your day.
- Observe Stress Reactions in Real TimeDuring weeks four and five, bring awareness to moments of stress reactivity as they arise. Notice when you fall into automatic pilot, feel stuck, close off emotionally, or numb out. Do not try to fix anything; just hold the observations in awareness with kindness. Track one difficult communication per day and examine what you wanted, what the other person wanted, and what actually transpired.Pro tipNotice whether you sometimes take things personally when they really are not personal. This single observation can prevent a large percentage of unnecessary emotional reactions.
- Extend to Consumption and RelationshipsBring awareness to what you choose to eat, where it comes from, how much you eat, your reactions to eating it, and how you feel afterward. Extend this to all forms of 'consumption': what you take in through eyes, ears, nose, what news you absorb, what media you consume. Be particularly aware of other people and the quality of your relationships. Experiment with silently generating lovingkindness toward others.Pro tipYou can try one minute of mindfulness in every hour as its own formal-informal hybrid practice. This single habit can transform the quality of your entire day.
Peter, a former MBSR participant, wrote to Kabat-Zinn: 'I could write a book on how my anxieties have become controllable since I have taken the stress reduction program. Moment to moment has been a real key for me, and every day I get more confident in my abilities to cope with stress.'
MBSR suggests trying to be mindful for one minute in every hour as its own form of practice. This means twelve to sixteen minutes of awareness distributed throughout the waking day, requiring no special conditions, no equipment, and no time set aside.
The informal practice assignments in MBSR evolved from Kabat-Zinn's recognition that many patients could maintain formal meditation practice but struggled to carry awareness into their daily interactions and habits. The progressive structure of the weekly assignments was designed to systematically expand the domain of awareness from internal experience (pleasant and unpleasant events) to interpersonal dynamics (stress reactions, difficult communications) to lifestyle patterns (food, sleep, time use) to a comprehensive way of being.