Ongoing Mindfulness<\\/h2>\\n \ Time out, sitting and meditating, is a very helpful and advised practice which can increase your focus and allow you to still your mind \\u2013 and this will help with nearly all other aspect of your practice. But this kind of sitting time has always had as its purpose to help you when you are not sitting, but when you are out in the world living life.<\\/p>\\n \ Ongoing Mindfulness is where you take a high focus and present-moment awareness you would apply to the breath, and apply it to all of your thoughts, perceptions, and actions in the present as you go about your day. Anything can be a meditation! Dishes meditation. Meeting meditation. Email meditation. Accounting meditation. Fixing the printer meditation.<\\/p>\\n \ This is very difficult to maintain for a long period of time, but practicing this can be illuminating. I found it so difficult to do when I first tried, that I eventually decided to set a timer to go off every 15 minutes throughout the day. This would jar me and remind me to bring my attention back to the present.<\\/p>\\n \ The practices below would also benefit from this ability, as they are more specific things of which to be mindful.<\\/p>\\n

{"id":2360,"date":"2023-12-20T08:52:49","date_gmt":"2023-12-20T13:52:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualnaturalist\/?p=2360"},"modified":"2023-12-20T08:52:49","modified_gmt":"2023-12-20T13:52:49","slug":"integrated-spiritual-practice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualnaturalist\/2023\/12\/integrated-spiritual-practice\/","title":{"rendered":"Integrated Spiritual Practice"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u00a0

by\u00a0

DT Strain<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/header>\n<\/head>

Last month, in \u201cIs A Spiritual Practice Too Much?<\/a>\u201c, I talked about notions of an \u201cideal\u201d spiritual practice butting up against the realities of our busy lives. I said I would be exploring what I call \u201cintegrated practices\u201d and asked for your input. Thank you to everyone who wrote in.<\/p>\n

Toni said, when dealing with the stress of work during the day, he sets a reminder bell to recenter by breathing deeply. When needed, he goes to the bathroom and takes a quick 5-minute meditation.<\/p>\n

As she goes about her daily tasks, Mary likes to consider the commonality we have with our surroundings, being made of the same elements. And another reader has six children and works in hospice and hospitals as a Humanist chaplain. They deal with with stress with occasional Zazen and in between stopping to be mindful of everything within, and around them.<\/p>\n

Sitting meditation is an example of a specific \u201cregular practice\u201d where we set aside a special time and stop everything else in order to do it. There are other kinds of practices like journaling, visioning, music, or other rituals which are also like this.<\/p>\n

Another type are \u201coccasional practices\u201d. These are similar to regular practices, in that they are a time set aside to do that activity. But these may happen at irregular times; often when you feel moved to do them. Or, they may happen when you feel a need for them, or when logistical matters make it possible, or any other number of spontaneous reasons.<\/p>\n

But what I call \u201cintegrated practices\u201d are those which you do interspersed within, or alongside, your other ongoing activities of life. I am focusing on these here, because if the concerns many have are about a busy life, these practices should be the most efficient to add to your practice in the short term without much disruption. Here are some examples:<\/p>\n

Ongoing Mindfulness<\/h2>\n \ Time out, sitting and meditating, is a very helpful and advised practice which can increase your focus and allow you to still your mind \u2013 and this will help with nearly all other aspect of your practice. But this kind of sitting time has always had as its purpose to help you when you are not sitting, but when you are out in the world living life.<\/p>\n \ Ongoing Mindfulness is where you take a high focus and present-moment awareness you would apply to the breath, and apply it to all of your thoughts, perceptions, and actions in the present as you go about your day. Anything can be a meditation! Dishes meditation. Meeting meditation. Email meditation. Accounting meditation. Fixing the printer meditation.<\/p>\n \ This is very difficult to maintain for a long period of time, but practicing this can be illuminating. I found it so difficult to do when I first tried, that I eventually decided to set a timer to go off every 15 minutes throughout the day. This would jar me and remind me to bring my attention back to the present.<\/p>\n \ The practices below would also benefit from this ability, as they are more specific things of which to be mindful.<\/p>\n

Demeanor Practice<\/h2>\n This is mindfulness on the overall \u2018vibe\u2019 we are putting out into the world and toward others. It can be applied in person or in what we are writing. It includes smiling, kindness in our tone and phrasing, patience, and paying attention to the feelings and needs of others.\u00a0You can click here for a more complete article on Demeanor Practice<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Epoch\u00e9 (Withholding Assent)<\/h2>\n This is an ancient practice in humility. As we go through our day and interact with others or our work, try to remain mindful of the assumptions and claims you are making. This, not only to others, but in the little stories you tell yourself about your situation, people, and the world. Look at the labels you are using, the classifications you are making, and the way your framing colors your experience. Again, this is not something you take a break to do. It is something you stay aware of as you work, talk, interact, etc.\u00a0Here is a more complete article on Epoch\u00e9<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mindfulness on Control<\/h2>\n \ This is trying to stay mindful of what you control and what you do not control. This is a very strong and specific notion of control. In other words, do not think about \u201cdegrees of control\u201d or influence. In these cases, the universe has a veto, and that means you do not control that thing. What you control are (generally) your thoughts, values, choices, and actions. As you go about your day, try to remain mindful of what is in your control and what is not.<\/p>\n \ Cultivating Appreciation<\/h2>\n \ This could also be called mindfulness on impermanence. The Stoics did something with a lot of overlap called \u2018negative visualization\u2019 but these could be intense at first if you have anxieties. This is a much simpler and easier practice to begin with. As you go about your day, continuously focus on what you have \u2013 in that moment \u2013 to be grateful for. This isn\u2019t day dreaming or being anywhere else than present. If you are doing a hard job, think about the people who don\u2019t have work. Think about the people that will be helped by what you are doing. Don\u2019t allow yourself to start telling negative stories about your conditions. Try this exercise throughout the day and review your results that night.<\/p>\n \ Conclusion<\/h2>\n \ Of course, trying all of these at once would be overwhelming to most beginners. Try a day on just one, and maybe later try another. The timer technique can be a way to bring your attention back when it inevitably wanders. Another trick I\u2019ve used to stay mindful when it comes to something particular, is to hold a small object in your hand without ever setting it down. If the object represents the thing of which you are trying to stay mindful, it will be hard to forget while actively having to hold on to it. These are meant to be occasional short-term techniques to stretch your attention muscles and help begin you in fruitful directions.<\/p>\n \ Thank you to everyone for reading, and I will be getting in to how we can realistically begin to integrate other aspects of spiritual practice with busy life in future articles.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \ \u00a0by\u00a0DT Strain Last month, in \u201cIs A Spiritual Practice Too Much?\u201c, I talked about notions of an \u201cideal\u201d spiritual practice butting up against the realities of our busy lives. I said I would be exploring what I call \u201cintegrated practices\u201d and asked for your input. Thank you to everyone who wrote in. Toni said, when […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1269,"featured_media":2366,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[71,79,173,64],"class_list":["post-2360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-spiritual-naturalism","tag-meditation","tag-mindfulness","tag-practice","tag-stoicism"],"yoast_head":"\nIntegrated Spiritual Practice<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"\u00a0by\u00a0DT Strain Last month, in \u201cIs A Spiritual Practice Too Much?\u201c, I talked about notions of an \u201cideal\u201d spiritual practice butting up against the realities\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualnaturalist\/2023\/12\/integrated-spiritual-practice\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Integrated Spiritual Practice\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u00a0by\u00a0DT Strain Last month, in \u201cIs A Spiritual Practice Too Much?\u201c, I talked about notions of an \u201cideal\u201d spiritual practice butting up against the realities\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualnaturalist\/2023\/12\/integrated-spiritual-practice\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Spiritual Naturalist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-12-20T13:52:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/299\/2023\/12\/busy2-300x199-2.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"450\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"298\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Spiritual Naturalist Society\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Spiritual Naturalist Society\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualnaturalist\/2023\/12\/integrated-spiritual-practice\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualnaturalist\/2023\/12\/integrated-spiritual-practice\/\",\"name\":\"Integrated Spiritual Practice\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualnaturalist\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2023-12-20T13:52:49+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-12-20T13:52:49+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualnaturalist\/#\/schema\/person\/a007b1cc03eb70df3287352cfb1f89d2\"},\"description\":\"\u00a0by\u00a0DT Strain Last month, in \u201cIs A Spiritual Practice Too Much?\u201c, I talked about notions of an \u201cideal\u201d spiritual practice butting up against the realities\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualnaturalist\/2023\/12\/integrated-spiritual-practice\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualnaturalist\/2023\/12\/integrated-spiritual-practice\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualnaturalist\/2023\/12\/integrated-spiritual-practice\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualnaturalist\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Integrated Spiritual Practice\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualnaturalist\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualnaturalist\/\",\"name\":\"The Spiritual Naturalist\",\"description\":\"Happiness through Compassion, Reason, and Practice\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualnaturalist\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualnaturalist\/#\/schema\/person\/a007b1cc03eb70df3287352cfb1f89d2\",\"name\":\"Spiritual Naturalist Society\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualnaturalist\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/181175367da0bdf5cb8f51be3beff918?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/181175367da0bdf5cb8f51be3beff918?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Spiritual Naturalist Society\"},\"description\":\"The Spiritual Naturalist Society works to spread awareness of spiritual naturalism as a way of life, develop its thought and practice, and help bring together like-minded practitioners in fellowship. For more information or to become a member, please visit us at www.SpiritualNaturalistSociety.org.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualnaturalist\/author\/dtstrain\/\"}]}<\/script>\n","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Integrated Spiritual Practice","description":"\u00a0by\u00a0DT Strain Last month, in \u201cIs A Spiritual Practice Too Much?\u201c, I talked about notions of an \u201cideal\u201d spiritual practice butting up against the realities","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualnaturalist\/2023\/12\/integrated-spiritual-practice\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Integrated Spiritual Practice","og_description":"\u00a0by\u00a0DT Strain Last month, in \u201cIs A Spiritual Practice Too Much?\u201c, I talked about notions of an \u201cideal\u201d spiritual practice butting up against the realities","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualnaturalist\/2023\/12\/integrated-spiritual-practice\/","og_site_name":"The Spiritual Naturalist","article_published_time":"2023-12-20T13:52:49+00:00","og_image":[{"width":450,"height":298,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/299\/2023\/12\/busy2-300x199-2.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Spiritual Naturalist Society","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Spiritual Naturalist Society","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualnaturalist\/2023\/12\/integrated-spiritual-practice\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualnaturalist\/2023\/12\/integrated-spiritual-practice\/","name":"Integrated Spiritual Practice","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualnaturalist\/#website"},"datePublished":"2023-12-20T13:52:49+00:00","dateModified":"2023-12-20T13:52:49+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualnaturalist\/#\/schema\/person\/a007b1cc03eb70df3287352cfb1f89d2"},"description":"\u00a0by\u00a0DT Strain Last month, in \u201cIs A Spiritual Practice Too Much?\u201c, I talked about notions of an \u201cideal\u201d spiritual practice butting up against the realities","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualnaturalist\/2023\/12\/integrated-spiritual-practice\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualnaturalist\/2023\/12\/integrated-spiritual-practice\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualnaturalist\/2023\/12\/integrated-spiritual-practice\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualnaturalist\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Integrated Spiritual Practice"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualnaturalist\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualnaturalist\/","name":"The Spiritual Naturalist","description":"Happiness through Compassion, Reason, and Practice","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualnaturalist\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualnaturalist\/#\/schema\/person\/a007b1cc03eb70df3287352cfb1f89d2","name":"Spiritual Naturalist Society","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualnaturalist\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/181175367da0bdf5cb8f51be3beff918?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/181175367da0bdf5cb8f51be3beff918?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Spiritual Naturalist Society"},"description":"The Spiritual Naturalist Society works to spread awareness of spiritual naturalism as a way of life, develop its thought and practice, and help bring together like-minded practitioners in fellowship. For more information or to become a member, please visit us at www.SpiritualNaturalistSociety.org.","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualnaturalist\/author\/dtstrain\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualnaturalist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualnaturalist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualnaturalist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualnaturalist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1269"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualnaturalist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2360"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualnaturalist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2360\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualnaturalist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualnaturalist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualnaturalist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualnaturalist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}