Like emptying the trash, but much more fun

When we think about meditation as a practice, a common misconception is that it’s a mental exercise that involves going into our mind and emptying it out, like the trash or the dishwasher. This isn't realistic, but these household tasks do offer a lesson in how we might view mindfulness.

Simple tasks thankfully give us a lot of mental freedom, because they're neurologically set down as hardwired skill; we don’t have to learn over and over again how to brush our teeth, or make tea, or shop for groceries. One byproduct of all this mental freedom, however, is that it gives us a lot of time to ruminate on all the stuff that plagues us, desires and aversions alike.

If we view meditation and contemplative practice as opportunities to turn the skill of thought-quieting into a reflexive habit that doesn't require much effort, like the mundane chores of daily life, we can become adept housekeepers of the heart and mind.

Like dirty dishes, intrusive thoughts are never going away, but they can be cleansed and eased with intention. We can train through repetition the return from rumination without getting caught up in judgement that it happened. By continually practicing a readjustment of distracting and anxious thoughts into simple moments of self-compassion and nurturance, we can hard-wire this skill, so it has the chance to become as natural and familiar as anything else we do on a regular basis.