Everyday Mindfulness in Consumptive Times
We live in the era of the consumer.
Good citizens are those who pursue the modern dictum to acquire more. After all, the one who dies with the most toys wins, right? This unquestioned assumption is beginning to fray a bit at the edges. Our habitual over consumption has lead to escalating obesity, personal and national indebtedness and mental and physical dis-ease. How can we reclaim ease in these consumptive times?
To reclaim the time, energy and other resources that we may be giving away to the consumptive culture we have to look closely at the habits that maintain the consumptive trance. Habits, healthy or unhealthy, develop from repeating the same behavior over time. The behavioral choices we make are in response to our feelings and thoughts. When we are unaware of these feelings and thoughts, they act as the invisible drivers of our behavior. This unawareness is fertile soil for the development of both unhealthy consumptive habits and emotional habits such as an anger habit.
To change a consumptive or other unhealthy habit, I must first become aware of or “mindful” of it. I have to practice being present, non-judgmentally, to my experience in this moment. When an unhealthy habit has become quite strong in my life, I know it will take a great deal of mindful awareness to transform it into a healthy habit. I will have to practice a lot of forgiveness of my self while I am working to transform this habit because the energy of the habit may be quite strong compared to my mindfulness.
To transform my unhealthy habit, I have to practice watering the seeds of mindfulness everyday more than I am watering the unhealthy habit seeds. If I am trying to transform the habit of being negative and critical, especially to people in my family, I can make a daily practice of noticing what I appreciate and expressing gratitude to them. I could use my commute home as a time to reflect on all that I am grateful for in may everyday life. Bringing awareness to my breathing is another powerful way to support the strength of my mindfulness. When I bring attention to the breath while I am doing the laundry or the dishes I am more likely to notice my thoughts or emotional state.
Developing the capacity to be the witness of my experience helps me see that I am not that experience. With practice I can become more conscious and awake to that which seemed automatic and hidden from my awareness. Modern neuroscience has confirmed that developing everyday mindfulness actually rewires our brains. Becoming more observant of our experience develops an area of the brain called the prefrontal cortex as well as enhances this areas connections to the limbic brain, an area associated with the fight or flight response. To practice everyday mindfulness during non-stressful times enhances our capacity to make more conscious choices during stressful times.
Even the simple practice of taking time everyday to use all of our senses to be aware of the world around us and breath it in deeply enhances our connection to being rather than acquiring. Practicing everyday mindfulness can support us in transforming unhealthy consumptive habits and creating more habits that can sustain the kind of lives we want to be living in our families and in our society.