Finding Abiding Peace in Under 20 Minutes a Day
Mindfulness practice has the power to transform our lives, helping us to:
- Deal with life’s challenges with greater wisdom.
- Be kinder, gentler, more compassionate human beings.
- Maintain a healthier perspective on life.
- Nurture a life of peace, happiness, and contentment irrespective of external circumstances.
The question is, how do we bring these about?
Mind Training
Fortunately, there are simple meditation practices specifically designed to train the mind in a manner that naturally fosters optimal mental health.
Intended as a short daily practice, they consist of these components:
- Calming the mind.
- Quiet reflection on key mindfulness teachings.
- Affirmation and visualization of the traits we wish to nurture.
In my own case, I devote between fifteen to twenty minutes each morning to a particular mindfulness routine that incorporates all three of these techniques.
What I especially like about this practice is that, despite its simplicity and brevity, it is impressively comprehensive, providing daily exposure to many of the core teachings of mindfulness.
Indeed, it is exactly this repetitive exposure that lies at the heart of its magic. Through the science of neuroplasticity, consistent practice beneficially alters the neuronal structure of your brain. Over time, the wisdom of mindfulness steadily becomes integrated fully into who you are.
In short, for anyone wishing to foster a more peaceful life and to nurture optimal mental health, I can think of no better mindfulness practice to help bring these about.
An Important Caveat
One important word of guidance however. As with the learning of any new skill, persistence and patience are essential. Count on dedicated practice for at least a couple months to even begin to notice a difference.
So, please don’t give up just because you feel you’re not making progress. You are.
But it won’t happen overnight. The changes will prove subtle, virtually unnoticeable from day to day.
Until, that is, you suddenly catch yourself feeling happy for no reason, or responding to an unpleasant situation with a wisdom you hadn’t realized you possessed, or finding joy in little things that previously would have escaped your notice.
In other words, when the reality of a better you, a mentally-healthier you, suddenly becomes too obvious to overlook.
And it will happen – but only through persistent daily practice.
“Lasting well-being arises from cultivating positive emotions and wisdom.”
“It requires sustained effort in training the mind and developing a set of human qualities such as inner peace, mindfulness, and altruistic love.”
“Such effort is eminently desirable. We need to get rid of mental toxins and at the same time to cultivate states of mind that contribute to emotional balance and ensure the optimal flourishing of a truly healthy mind.”
Matthieu Ricard, Buddhist monk and author of “Happiness – A Guide to Developing Life’s Most Important Skill“
The Practice: ‘CAGPACSS’
The mnemonic ‘CAGPACSS’ helps us to remember the practice’s eight components:
- Calm concentration
- Awareness
- Gratitude
- Patience
- Acceptance
- Compassion
- Slow
- Smile
The practice itself is completely straightforward: simply contemplate each component in turn, bringing to mind the core teachings relating to each one.
Of course, this obviously necessitates some familiarity with these teachings!
Not to worry! To assist you in this regard, I present below some of the most pertinent teachings (along with numerous links to access expanded discussions).
For beginners reading this post I do appreciate that the CAGPACSS practice may seem a touch overwhelming. However, please don’t be put off from giving it a try – much potential happiness and personal growth hangs in the balance.
In addition, if my personal experience is any guide, as familiarity with the teachings grows, what you actually mentally ponder shrinks materially. Indeed, in some instances I’ve found that mentally contemplating just one word proves sufficient to acknowledge the truth of an entire body of wisdom.
So, now somewhat undaunted, let’s begin! 🙂
Calm Concentration
This is simply a quick body scan meditation to settle the mind and bring us into the present moment. I typically devote about three to four minutes to this opening practice.
Here are the basic opening steps: 1) Assume any standard meditation posture. 2) Take three deep, slow breaths (in to the count of four, hold for seven, out for eight, pause for four, repeat). 3) Mentally smile. 4) Start to breathe normally.
Next, turn your attention to the toes of your right foot, noting any and all sensations. Then move on to your right ankle, right shin, etc. until you have worked your way around your entire body.
As each is brought into awareness, consciously soften and relax those muscles. If it helps, pretend you are actually breathing through each body part.
The purpose here is to still the mind, relax the body, strengthen your ability to focus, and render you more receptive to the subsequent steps.
Awareness
Along with Concentration, Acceptance, and Love, Awareness forms one of the four key components of mindfulness. Once internalized, these provide a solid foundation for abiding peace.
The practice here is simply to briefly reflect on each of these teachings:
- Suffering. Pain is an inescapable part of life (loved ones die, relationships end, health and vigor deteriorate, etc.). Suffering, however, is optional and arises when we resist this fact. We suffer when we cling obsessively to the things we like or try to push away the things we don’t like. When we experience pain it doesn’t mean anything’s wrong, it just means we’re alive. Don’t resist pain and find psychological freedom.
- Impermanence. Everything comes to an end. Resist this truth and needless suffering follows. Accept this truth and peace of mind reigns.
- Intentions. Here, silently bring to mind those character traits you aspire to embody. Visualize yourself acting in such a manner. I use the phrasing, “May I be ….” (e.g. May I be kind). Some of the ideals I personally aspire to include the following: being generous, ethical, patient, kind, gentle, considerate, respectful, compassionate, understanding, mindful, caring, thoughtful, and selfless.
- Interdependence and Interconnection. Our egos tell us we are separate and apart. Reality tells us differently. In truth, we are all related, we all came from stardust, we all want the same things (to be happy and safe), and we’re all dependent on one another.
- Perspective. Mentally fussing over moments we find disagreeable is confirmation of a loss of perspective and a lack of humility. The hard truth is that we are but insignificant flotsam in a vast unfolding universe. Only our comically-outsized egos lead us to believe otherwise.
- Human behaviour. Our evolutionary inheritance inclines us to be self-centered, selfish, judgemental, nepotistic, and discontent. Expect differently from others and you will suffer. Understand and accept the biological basis behind our nature and be free.
- Thoughts, feelings, emotions. 1) Most thoughts pop into our head without conscious involvement. Someone does something we don’t like and, without any volition on our part, our protective stress system kicks in and angry thoughts arise. But we are not our thoughts – we don’t have to take them seriously. We can distance ourselves from our thoughts, just be observers of our thoughts, and then choose how to respond (or, indeed, even whether to respond). 2) Feelings and emotions are simply evolution’s way of nudging us to maximize gene propagation, not to maximize our happiness. Being aware of this, we realize we don’t have to take feelings and emotions seriously. Just as with thoughts, we get to choose what to do about them, if anything. If not latched on to, they soon dissipate. 3) Negative feelings are the result of negative thoughts. Change the thoughts and our feelings change for the better – it’s that simple, and it’s always our choice. 4) External factors don’t cause us to feel a certain way. It’s our thinking about those factors that do. Change our thinking and our perspective changes, for the better.
- Bodily sensations. Tightness in our body is a signal that our stress system is switching on and our wisdom is switching off. We use awareness of such tightness to pause, take slow, deep breaths, calm ourselves, smile, regain perspective, and then, and only then, proceed in a wise manner. In so doing, our next action becomes our choice rather than our unthinking reaction.
- Present moment. Being fully aware of each present moment is to be mindful, to take notice, to pay attention. Residing always in the ‘now’, not the past or future, is one of the keys to achieving enduring happiness and a peaceful life.
In addition, being mindful of the present moment means living in “bare awareness”; living in lightness of being through conscious contact with our five senses minus any judgmental commentary. In other words, we acknowledge that sound is just sound, scent is just scent, sight is just sight, touch is just touch, and taste is just taste. They only cause upset when we add negative commentary.
“This very simple process of noticing puts you in the present and makes you sensitive to context and perspective. It’s the essence of engagement. Noticing turns out to be literally and figuratively enlivening.”
Dr. Ellen Langer, Professor of psychology, Harvard University and author of “Mindfulness“
Gratitude
Here the practice is simply to reflect on some of the things you are grateful for.
Why this is important is that evolution has inclined us to be a “glass-half-empty” bunch, wasting much psychic energy fussing over the few bad things in our lives when, in reality, these are but insignificant trifles relative to all we have to be grateful for.
Should you have difficulty bringing some to mind try these helpful prompts:
- what never fails to bring a smile to your face?
- what makes your life easier?
- what brings you joy?
- what gifts do you bring to the world?
We need not search for the profound here. Indeed, it’s often the simplest of things that prove to be some of our greatest sources of gratitude. By way of example, some of mine include such seemingly unremarkable things as passing clouds, the scent of a forest, the activity of birds around our feeders, and the sound of leaves in a breeze. All make my life better and would be deeply missed if absent.
Patience
Here I bring to mind this important reminder:
“Let the world unfold in its own time. Don’t struggle against it as this leads only to sorrow.“
I also reflect on the types of people with whom I often feel impatient. For me these include the incurious, the illogical, the irrational, the unthinking, the dogmatic, the impatient, and the aggressive.
The point of reflecting on such people is to heighten our sensitivity to them so that, in their presence, we may remain doubly patient and compassionate.
Acceptance
Here I bring to mind these simple words of wisdom:
“Whatever life presents, just deal with it. Forego any drama as this leads only to suffering.“
“There are no ‘problems’, simply situations to be dealt with.“
The essence of this teaching is that, whatever life brings our way, it’s all just part of life – the good and the bad – so just accept it all and deal with it, calmly and in a matter-of-fact manner.
“To offer no resistance to life is to be in a state of grace, ease, and lightness. This state is then no longer dependent upon things being in a certain way, good or bad.”
Eckhart Tolle, author of “The Power of Now“
It is acceptance that lies behind such pithy sayings as, “Let it go” and “Let it be”. Simple, yet they carry much wise counsel.
Compassion
The teaching here is to extend compassion to everyone, without exception, under all circumstances, in every situation, full stop.
Why? Because an individual’s behaviour at any given moment is the best they can muster. To believe otherwise, to believe they ‘ought to have known better’, is to ignore basic human biology.
What creates a behaviour? A particular set of neurons fire to create an action (we don’t control these). Those neurons were kicked into action by particular hormones (we don’t control these). Those hormones were released in response to particular stimuli (we don’t control these). Those stimuli were ……
And so on, and so on all the way back to evolutionary impacts on human behaviour from millenia ago (and we don’t control these either).
What this describes is an inevitable chain of events that, once set into motion, cannot be altered. And we have no direct control over any of the stages of this cascade of prior causes.
In fact, it is only with the benefit of hindsight that better behaviour appears to have been a choice. But in real time, it was simply an impossibility.
Of course, daily practices such as CAGPACSS can improve the odds of better behaviour by altering our brain structure. Indeed, we commit to such practices specifically to become better citizens of the world, ones who contribute to its peace rather than add to its aggression. In so doing, we also contribute to our own optimal mental health.
The moral of the story then is this:
At any given moment, we’re all just doing the best we can.
As a result, it necessarily follows that extending compassion to everyone, regardless of circumstance, is always the wisest response.
“When we consider an individual in the clutches of hatred, anger, and aggression, we should consider him more as a sick patient than as an enemy; someone who should be healed, not punished.”
Matthieu Ricard
To help nurture compassion I mentally repeat these words (taken from a ‘Loving Kindness’ meditation), placing inclusive emphasis on the word “all”:
May all be happy and content
May all be healthy in mind, body, and spirit
May all be safe from mental and physical harm
May all have ease of being.
Slow
Here we commit to slowing down every aspect of our lives.
For this part of the practice I picture myself talking slower, walking slower, washing slower, golfing slower, eating slower, driving slower, thinking slower,….
In my own personal experience, the act of slowing down has not only improved my golf game 🙂 , it is also materially responsible for the sense of peace and calm that now permeate my day.
Through this practice I have also become more sensitized to the tightness associated with rushing and use it as my signal to ease up and slow myself down.
Smile
Here the practice is simply to bring a half smile to your face, an act that immediately banishes seriousness and self importance.
In my practice I often envision the semi-historical Chinese monk, Budai, he of fat belly and broad grin featured at the top of this post, and then mentally smile to myself. Doing so immediately softens my mood, puts life into perspective, and compels me to take life much less seriously.
Smiling is wonderful for us, even if forced, because it releases the feel-good biochemicals dopamine (pleasure), serotonin (calming), and endorphins (pain relief). As an added bonus, smiling is also contagious, and so benefits those around us as well.
Nurturing Optimal Mental Health
In the absence of mind-training practices like CAGPACSS we tend to life life on evolutionary auto-pilot: habitual, unthinking, mindless, and harshly reactive.
Living in this manner, although sadly the norm, is in fact the antithesis of sound mental health and an impediment to finding inner peace.
Fortunately, reflective practices like CAGPACSS provide an easily-accessible path to optimal mental health and help foster the peaceful lives we all seek; lives imbued with an ease of being independent of external circumstances.
In other words, true peace.
Warmest regards,
Rob @ Living a Mindful Life
P.S. To access a handy two-page summary of the CAGPACSS meditation suitable for printing, click on this link.