It is important to practise mindfulness in everyday activities as well as at times when unpleasant internal events occur.

Noticing five things

This is a simple exercise to centre yourself, and connect you with your environment. Practise it throughout the day, especially any time you find yourself getting caught up in your thoughts and feelings.

• Pause for a moment.                                                                       
• Notice five things you can see.
• Notice five things you can hear.
• Notice five things you can feel in contact with your body (e.g. your feet in your shoes, the air on your face, your back against the chair and the fabric of your clothes touching your legs).

This is a good exercise to use when walking to school or even in class.

Mindfulness of a task

Pick an activity you do every day. It may be cleaning your teeth, making your bed, washing the dishes. Notice every detail involved in this task. If you are cleaning your teeth, notice exactly what your toothbrush looks like as you place the toothpaste on it; its colour, the shape of the bristles, the spaces between them, then the shape and the colour of the paste and the smell that comes with it. When you put it in your mouth notice the sensations that occur, the taste, temperature, saliva, your tongue, etc. If you get bored or frustrated, simply notice what you’re feeling and bring your attention back to the task and the details you can notice.                                                           

Again and again, your mind will wander. As soon as you notice this, gently notice what distracted you and bring your attention back to your current activity.

This is useful to do in class if pain interrupts your concentration.

Observe, breathe, expand, allow

This exercise employs some of the breath awareness and detachment or defusion exercises described earlier. It is important to understand at the beginning that these exercises are not intended to control, remove or diminish your negative private events although they may change over time. You can use this exercise to gradually increase your tolerance to, and acceptance of unpleasant sensations or thoughts while still persisting with your chosen tasks.

 While you are pursuing values or goal-based activity, you may experience any unpleasant private event (e.g. an increase in pain, or anxiety). If this would normally cause you to withdraw from the activity you may try the following:

• Observe the details of the sensation or thought. Notice where it is in the body; does it move, throb; does it have a definition, shape, colour or texture; write the words up on the screen?
• Breathe into the area around the sensation or words and into the shape itself.
• Expand: make space around it to make room for it.
• Accept that it is there and allow it to be there, saying ‘I don’t like this feeling      but I have room for it’ or ‘it’s unpleasant but I can accept it’ or ‘just notice it      and move on.’

A useful acronym to remember the process is OBEA. (O is for observe, B is for breathe, E is for expand, A is for accept.)