Meditation and Mindfulness

You don’t need any technology or tools to practise mindfulness (although the meditation apps Headspace or Balance are good places to start learning about it). When I was trying to think of things besides Home Scrum which have helped me to tackle life, I know that my mental health and my whole perspective on the world would be much worse without having done periods of meditation practice in the past. I know of no better way to work on fully separating yourself from your own addictions and beliefs in order to access the world as it truly is. The only time I have actually been able to ‘live in the present’ was for about three days after I finished a long weekend at a silent meditation retreat, but the experience proved to me that being mindful truly is the way towards peace of mind and contentment.

Meditation is both easy to start and hard to establish as a long-term habit in your life. I myself have not yet succeeded in doing it on a regular, consistent basis. But even doing it on an ad hoc, occasional basis is still worth doing.

Recently, my friend Alex and I did quite well for a while holding each other accountable with a nightly mindfulness call. We would do some simple everyday action, like drinking a cup of tea, but while trying to hold our attention on the sensations and movements involved.

There is also an added complication that there are many types of meditation, and not all of them are actually focused on mindfulness. Some are more for relaxation, and some have been entirely co-opted for the purposes of spirituality. There are many great free guided meditations on YouTube, including ones specifically for people with ADHD, as well as the apps above, but do keep in mind whether it is helping you to train to focus on the present moment, or more for general relaxation.