What If I’m Too Busy To Practice Mindfulness?

When we’re too busy to practice mindfulness, that’s when we need it the most.

Living in the 21st century, many of us lead busy lives. Between work and family, sometimes we find that we are simply too busy and unable to find the time to practice mindfulness. Perhaps we put it off and say we’ll practice the next day. But next day comes and it ends up just as hectic as the last, if not more so. So mindfulness practice takes a backseat again. That’s very understandable. It happens to all of us. We get so caught up with taking care of everyone around us and everything outside of us, that we neglect to take a few minutes to take care of ourselves and look inside ourselves.

But have you ever been too busy to eat, or too busy to sleep? For some people, the answer is “yes” to both. If so, how did it affect you? Probably not so good. Most likely, skipping a meal or missing a night of sleep had a negative impact on your energy level, alertness, and mood. Furthermore, frequent/recurring incidences of missed meals or sleep could contribute to chronic physical and mental health problems.

Of course, we all know that eating and sleeping with regularity is critical to our health. This sense of regularity and consistency is equally important in mindfulness training. In order to reap the benefits of mindfulness, it’s helpful to do some mindfulness each day. It doesn’t have to be fancy or ambitious. It doesn’t have to be one hour of meditation each day, it doesn’t even have to be 20 or 30 minutes. In fact, even just two minutes a day is great. Can you find two minutes in your day to practice some mindfulness? For most people, that’s not too unreasonable and can actually be quite feasible. For example, you can practice two minutes of mindfulness each day after you brush your teeth at night, right before you go to bed.

Consistency is key to a successful personal routine practice of mindfulness. Doing formal mindfulness meditation each day at a consistent time and place, for a consistent duration, helps lay the foundation for a robust and sustainable routine practice.