ABSTRACT
Chapter 4 explores ways that mindful awareness can be cultivated outside of formal meditation practices such as have been introduced in previous chapters. This type of mindfulness practice is often called “informal practice” and extends the work into areas such as eating, bathing, and other common daily activities. We also look at some of the experiences that are typically encountered in the early stages of building a mindfulness practice such as “monkey mind” as well as the cumulative and progressive nature of an ongoing mindfulness practice (the effects and benefits tend to grow over time with repetition). We also introduce the concept of the Silent Retreat as a way of intensifying and deepening personal practice. Experiential exercises include: Mindful Eating Exercise #2 (eating an entire meal in a mindful state of awareness), Mindful Bathing, A Four Hour Silent Mini-Retreat, and the first formal version of Open Monitoring Meditation (OMM), as well as strategies for bringing more awareness to the use of technology and reducing multi-tasking behavior.
