Meditations are mental training practices, and we set aside time to do them.  When we start we typically choose a quiet room with few distractions.  A quiet room helps at first, but the goal is to be able to practice anywhere.

Eventually, we want to take all the skills that we practiced while quietly meditating and begin to bring them into our everyday lives. A great way to begin to do this is to use Micro Exercises.  A micro exercise is a short reset that often takes less than a minute and can be done anywhere. All of us have time to take three breaths.

The great thing about these Micro Exercises is that you can do them as often as you like throughout your day. Micro exercises reinforce skills you already understand. They do not replace learning those skills.

The STOP Technique

The other main tool for real-world practice is a technique called STOP. It stands for Stop, Take a breath, Observe, and Proceed. It creates a pause between what activates you and how you respond. In that pause you can apply everything you have been building.

1. Stop: pause and become aware of what is going on.
2. Take a breath: this allows you to delay your reaction and also helps you to relax.
3. Observe and look at your options: observe yourself and your experience to understand what is really happening. Ask yourself, “Is this about trust, value, or acceptance?” Then look for options that are kinder and more in line with who you want to be.
4. Proceed: continue with the best option now that you have consciously become aware of your options.

Trust, value and acceptance are the three core themes of this approach. You will learn what each one means during the Insight step.

You can use STOP in three ways. You can use it after the event, revisiting a past situation to understand what happened and what you would do differently. You can use it in the moment, catching yourself part way through a reaction and running through the steps in real time. You can also use it before the event, rehearsing a situation you know is coming.

Start simply. When you begin practicing in the real world, use the micro exercises. Three breaths is enough, and you can do them anywhere. Use STOP when you notice yourself reacting to something.

With these practice methods in mind, let’s put Mindfulness into practice.