Housework Can Be an Opportunity to Practice Mindfulness Meditation
Mindfulness is both a practice and a state of mind that revolves around greater presence, attention, and concentration. The next time you’re doing some dirty housework, kill two birds with one stone and meditate while you do them.
Mindfulness meditation practice has shown countless benefits , and so researchers at Florida State University wanted to see how routine activities could contribute to its practice in everyday life. In their study, half of the participants were focused on remembering the sensory experience of dishwashing, and the other half were focused on focusing on correct dishwashing techniques. Here’s what their results suggested:
Washing dishes with conscious attention indicates a greater attentiveness to the state, an increase in the elements of positive affect (i.e., inspiration), a decrease in elements of negative affect (i.e., Nervousness) and an overestimation of the time for washing dishes. The implications of these discoveries are varied and suggest that mindfulness as well as positive influence can be cultivated through deliberate participation in a wide range of activities.
Basically, you can use the time spent doing housework as a small meditation session to develop your own mindfulness. The key is to focus on what you are doing and how it feels at every moment. They have to be met, so why not get more out of your work?
Dishwashing Dishwashing: A Brief Guide to Informal Mindfulness Practice | Mindfulness magazine via the Wall Street Journal