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Meditation practice is not an end in itself. We don’t meditate just to meditate. We practice meditation to build mindfulness skills so we can apply them to every activity in our daily lives. The goal is to live mindfully all the time. Granted, it’s an ambitious goal, but that’s why we never stop practicing. Today, we’re going to explore how breath meditation can be applied to all our activities.
I’ve written many posts describing daily mindfulness practices: Mindful hand washing, tea drinking, reading, and more. Here are the links

* Have You Ever Really Washed Your Hands?
* Put Your Full Attention on Your Tea
* Reading with Your Full Attention
* No More Waiting in Line
* Doing Things You Hate to Do
* Daily Mindfulness Activities for the Workplace
* Consider Your Environmental Impact

But one of our listeners made me realize I’ve never clearly explained how breath meditation translates to daily mindfulness.They asked a whole suite of important questions about how to manage unwanted thoughts that pop up during the course of the day. Should we let go of the thoughts and focus on the breath? Or should we go back to what we were doing when the thought came up? And, what if the thoughts are disturbing or accompanied by strong emotions? Should we try to let go of them, or should we turn toward them and focus on them?
These are great questions and I want to send a huge thank-you to the listener who sent them to me. Now, let’s get to some answers.
During mindfulness meditation, you focus your attention on the breath. Your breath is the object of your meditation. And, it’s chosen for good reason. The breath is a metaphor for life. It is always cycling, always changing, never the same from moment to moment. It’s also a reliable object. It’s with you wherever you are, whatever you’re doing. I like to coach people to think of the breath as home base, a safe place to retreat to when you need a break. No matter what’s happening, you can always come home and take mindful breath.
But, the breath isn’t the only possible meditation object. Other meditation traditions have you focus on sounds, objects such as candles or drawings, or body sensations other than those caused by the breath. The truth is, you can focus your attention on any object, be it internal or external. The key isn’t the object you choose, but the practice of focusing, and returning your focus to the chosen object whenever you notice it’s wandered. You’ve likely heard me say that this returning of the focus is meditation, it is mindfulness.
This means that daily mindfulness is about focusing on whatever you choose to focus on. If you are reading, you should focus on reading. If you are listening, focus on listening. If you are showering, focus on showering. Basically, do one thing at a time, and place your full attention there.
Of course, when practicing mindfulness, you are also monitoring your internal state of mind. You may be focusing on reading, for example,