Learning to Practice Mindfulness in Everyday Life

When we think of mindfulness, we might think of time spent on the cushion meditating. But most of us are not monks or nuns who sit and meditate for hours every day. We are laypeople, engaging with others, jobs, and the outside world. We can benefit greatly from bringing our practice off the cushion and learning how to practice mindfulness in everyday life. 

I sit in meditation daily, and my personal passion in both my personal practice and as a teacher has been working to really bring mindfulness to life. If we are only mindful on the cushion, we may develop insights and understanding. But in order to live mindfully, we are called to actually practice in daily life. Furthermore, everyday life offers us an opportunity to strengthen our mindfulness practice and develop further insight.

In my bestselling first book, Practicing Mindfulness, I really dove into this subject because of its importance in my opinion. I also have a six week online course coming up, the Practicing Mindfulness Online Course. I really believe in the power of incorporating mindfulness into everyday life and its potential to lessen suffering, build awareness, and connect us with both ourselves and others. Below are just a few ways you can begin to incorporate mindfulness into your daily activities that I’ve found useful.

Mindful Walking

Simply put, I’m a huge fan of walking meditation and mindful walking. I talked about walking meditation in my post on moving meditation, and there’s two recent episodes (August 27th and September 3rd, 2025) of the podcast on walking meditation as well. It’s an important practice, and something we can incorporate with relative ease into our daily lives.

Although some of us spend many hours seated or at computers during the day, we generally are also on the move in some way. I like to start my day with mindful walking to connect with the experience and lay a foundation for the day. When you first get out of bed and walk to the bathroom or kitchen, use it as an opportunity to be fully present.

This may look a number of ways. The most basic way to practice mindful walking is to collect your attention onto the experience of the feet and body moving. You might feel your feet on the floor, lifting with each step and placing them in front of you. You might feel the muscles of the legs working to make this happen, or the overall experience of the torso moving through space. The idea is to bring your focus to the present-time experience and tune into the direct physical sensations wholly.

You can do this at any point during your day; when you get up from the computer to take a break, when you walk to the bathroom, when you are walking from your car into the market, etc. Any time you are walking, you can use it as an opportunity to cultivate some mindfulness. When we do this regularly, it becomes second nature. We’re able to drop into the experience of walking and be present with greater ease.

Mindful Speech (and Listening)

There’s a lot to be said about mindful speech and mindful listening. Although we often think of mindfulness as having to do with our own personal experiences, learning to be mindful of others is an important aspect of bringing mindfulness to everyday life. After all, we are social creatures. And even if you are a relatively solitary person, you still likely interact with people throughout your day in some form or another.

We can practice wise and mindful speech by tuning into the words we speak, how they’re spoken, and the intention behind them. It’s a practice that takes time, but we can begin in each moment to tune into how we speak to others. With our awareness, we begin to see when we are speaking reactively, causing harm with our words, or perhaps could use an extra moment to reword what we are going to say.

The other side of the coin is mindful listening. Thich Nhat Hanh says, “The most precious gift we can offer anyone is our attention.” So often when someone else is speaking we are evaluating, doing something else, or perhaps thinking about a response. Instead, try to make listening a true practice in mindfulness. Tune into what the other person is saying and how it lands in your mind and body. Make the experience of listening the object of your awareness!

Mindful Eating

Mindful eating is another great way to begin practicing mindfulness in everyday life. I recommend the book Savor by Thich Nhat Hanh and Dr. Lilian Cheung. It does have a bit of a weight-loss aspect to it, but overall it is a great guide on investigating mindfulness of eating. I’ve found it very useful myself without any desire to change my weight.

The principle of mindful eating is pretty straightforward: be mindful when you are eating! The mindfulness can start before you begin actually consuming. You can be mindful of the process of cooking, plating food, etc. Once you have food in front of you, you might notice the smells, colors, shapes, craving, etc. And of course as you eat, eat slowly and really tune into the experience of eating.

A common way we introduce this practice on retreat or when we had the meditation center in California was with berries. You can take any berry you like, and just choose one to hold in your hand. Take a moment to look at it and feel it. When you pop it in your mouth, notice how it is before and after you start chewing. Taste the flavors, feel the texture, be present for the experience of eating.

Mindful Driving

Obviously I am not recommending you close your eyes and meditate while driving. But many of us drive to school or work nearly every day. It’s a great opportunity to practice mindfulness and perhaps change our experience. Whether we’re cruising down a road or we’re stuck in traffic, we can bring our attention to the experience in the present moment.

I often do this by taking a few breaths and settling before I actually start moving. When I am actually driving, I use the sense-doors. When I notice another car near me or at a stop sign, I recognize that I am seeing it. When a loud truck passes, we can note that we’re hearing a loud noise. There’s no right or wrong here. Just pay attention to what the experience is of driving. You can also always re-ground yourself in your feet on the pedals, hands on the wheel, or butt in the seat.

Mindfulness Reminders

Finally, we have the practice of mindfulness triggers or mindfulness reminders. I wrote a whole post about this recently (5 Mindfulness Reminders You Can Use to Be More Present in Daily Life) if you want to read more, but here’s the idea… You can set an intention to be mindful during your day whenever a specific thing happens.

This can be something like your phone ringing or buzzing, hearing a car horn, whenever your dog barks, etc. It can also be a movement, like any time you change posture (such as going from seated to standing), any time you walk through a doorway, or any time you put on or take off an item of clothing. Whatever you use, you can have this action or experience serve as your reminder to be mindful.

I often recommend starting with the idea of walking through doorways, as this is how it was introduced to me. It’s somewhat hard, but a great way to encourage mindfulness during the day. Whether it’s an open door in the house, or getting into a vehicle, pause and be mindful any time you pass through a doorway. Tune into the experience in the body and mind in these moments and let it serve as a grounding back into the present!