Meditate. Be more mindful. Sit still and watch your thoughts pass you by. It’s all the rage and misses the mark.

Let’s start with a few definitions from our good friends at Merriam-Webster. Mindfulness is the practice of maintaining a nonjudgmental state of heightened or complete awareness of one’s thoughts, emotions, or experiences on a moment-to-moment basis. Meditation, or more specifically meditating, is either to engage in contemplation or reflection OR to focus one’s thoughts on.

I don’t know about you, but those two definitions are very different to me. Mindfulness is about awareness and meditation is about focus. Both serve intensely amazing purposes, and both are incorrectly used interchangeably without proper signaling that they are, in fact, very different. There are dozens of apps, Calm, Headspace, and Waking Up, just to name a few of the more popular ones, that focus on the act of meditating.

We often hear all of these very tangible benefits associated with meditating, but we fail to meditate. Why? Because it’s really hard. Not only is it really challenging, but the value isn’t always readily apparent. If you don’t notice yourself changing through meditation, then you quit. Just like any practice, meditating takes an incredible amount of discipline to get to a state where you see real impact. And apparently, it’s expensive (see prices of apps, above).

Mindfulness

The problem with meditation and meditating, from my humble perspective, is that it’s just one form of a mindfulness exercise or activity. Mindfulness is really where we get the bang for our buck. Mindfulness is a much easier state of existence to be in because you can do it in your every day tasks.

While there are different forms of meditation, such as sitting and walking meditation, there are infinite forms of mindfulness. My favorite personal mindfulness practice is throwing the frisbee for my dog, Maia. She catches it, almost every time, and brings it back and drops it. I pick it up and throw it. We do this for about 10 minutes until she gets tired and wants to go in.

How is that exhibiting mindfulness you might ask? My definition of mindfulness involves being aware of a repetitive task that you are doing. You can see how meditating is an act of mindfulness, but so is throwing a frisbee. So is washing the dishes. Taking a shower. Brushing your teeth. The thing about mindfulness is that it is accessible, at any given moment, in any context.

Your mind is full

The reason that we often fail to access the power of mindfulness is that our mind is already full. Not only is our mind full, but it’s overflowing with information. Our phones are constantly reminding us (even though we should turn that off) that we are needed, wanted, and busy. This triggers a lot of dopamine, which fuels us to want to keep receiving these notifications. It’s a vicious cycle and battle that’s hard to win unless you’re prepared to start single tasking.

Further, our minds are flooded with to-dos. Because we live and work in a world that is filled with countless things to do, our minds are constantly making things up new to-dos. Order that widget on Amazon. Wash clothes. Fold laundry. Wash dishes. Vacuum. Take car in for oil change. Buy dog food. Respond to that email. Write that blog post. Call mom.

If you wanted, you could easily find endless things to do. And even though technology allegedly has made a lot of this easier, in reality, technology has just created more ways to get lost in things to do. We are not more productive than we were, as individuals, 20 years ago. That’s because we can’t pay attention to anything without something else getting in the way.

If you really wanted to ease your mind of some of these burdens, you should try to automate as much as humanly possible. Technology doesn’t make it easy to automate things, because if it did, we wouldn’t have to use it all the time. And because most technology companies make a most of their money through ads, they need us to be in front of screens as often as possible.

Blinded by the blue light

Blue light is what runs our phones, tablets, and computers. Blue light is also the sun. The sun is on (depending on where you live) for about 12-18 hours a day. When the sun turns off (goes down), we should not continue to emulate the sun. It leads to nasty things like macular degeneration and interrupts our sleep, a lot. But, the old tech companies haven’t figured out how to create displays (except e-Ink, thank you Amazon) that do not run on blue light. So, when the sun is down and we are using our electronic devices, our bodies believe that the sun is up.

Our bodies have biological clocks. These clocks signal to us when we should be awake and when we should sleep. Unless your genetic line evolved in the very north or very south of the world, there’s a good chance you follow a pretty standard circadian rhythm (aka the sun rhythm). All of this is to say that our devices are messing everything up.

If we think about the pillars of health: nutrition, exercise, sleep, and mindfulness, our devices are hurting at least two of those four! You wouldn’t let anything control 50% of your health, so why let your phone? Of course, one could argue that mindfulness is not a pillar of health, but I would challenge that assumption with a simple question: can one truly be healthy if one is anxious or depressed? Anxiety and depression, our two most common mental health issues, have only a little bit to do with nutrition, exercise, and sleep, and have a lot to do with a lack of mindful activities, a calm mind, and a present mind.

So, consider turning off your phone, your TV, your tablet, and your mind. Turn the volume all the way down, and see what happens. If washing the dishes puts you at peace, wash those dishes. If a traditional sitting meditation is your jam, sit away. Whatever you do, take care of yourself because no one else will.

A mindful pyramid

Forced meditation, through sensory deprivation therapy (aka floating), is at the top of the Mindful Pyramid. Finding a float tank can be challenging in non-industrialized and low-population areas, and the practice can become addicting. It’s the top of the mindful pyramid, though, as it forces a person to face nothing but her thoughts.

Seated meditation, with walking meditation close behind, is the next block in the mindful pyramid. You and I can both cultivate our seated meditation. Just sit still, close your eyes, and practice detachment. Or no, sit still, focus on your breath, counting slowly from one to ten, in and out. Wait, that’s not right. Start at the top of your head and scan your body all the way down to your toes; embrace the pain and discomfort, acknowledge it, say hello, and move on. Never mind. Sit still, and in your mind (or quietly aloud), chant a mantra, over and over, and focus on your words.

As you can see, the second block of the mindful pyramid can get complicated. The above describes but just a few of the many ways that one can perform a seated meditation. It takes experimentation and practice. Is it worth it? I have yet to meet someone who is an “accomplished” (it’s not really a competition, but hey, we do live in the United States) meditator who thinks it’s worthless. Brain scans alone indicate that there is immense value in seated, standing, and walking meditation for lengths of time. But, we often fail to start at the second block on a pyramid.

The bottom block

Start with a mindful activity. That’s it. Just start paying attention to one thing. Turn off your phone, turn off the TV. Let your dogs outside. Tell your children to go to their rooms. Be kind to your partner and let him know you are starting a new practice. Take something that sparks joy inside you, and do it, without distraction. That’s the first block in the mindful pyramid. If it works, stop. If not, try to go up a block or two. Your mind is more powerful than you can ever imagine.