AP: daily life practice
Daily life practice is the bedrock of mindfulness.
It is regular practice in how we do all our normal day-to-day activities and in how we behave when in company and when alone.
Through regular practice we can learn to be focused, alert and totally involved in what we are doing here now: not in thinking about it or thinking about something else.
Daily life practice brings a shift from the head to the body, from thinking to doing and from being a spectator to being a player - an active participant of life.
It is to play the game of life and to play it well - with warmth and joy and so to be fulfilled.
AP stands firmly on the solid foundation of daily life practice.
With this we can learn how to meditate.
Daily life practice is done all day every day six days each week.
Meditation based on the daily life practice is a short period each day of focused attention to train ourselves to remain alert while keeping still and quiet.
Current research shows that this mindfulness daily life practice and meditation is the safest, most powerful and effective way of adapting to our individual circumstances and living in harmony with others, with life and with ourselves.
We have grown up learning how to get what we like and avoid what we dislike but not learning how to cope when we fail, when we are thwarted, when we cannot have what we like and when we cannot avoid what we dislike.
Now we need to devote time and effort to develop the inner strength , courage and and humility needed to cope when life is not as we would like it to be.
But how? That is the question.
Starting AP with the daily life practice we can begin to change, to adapt to life as it is.
This does not mean we do nothing about ourselves or our circumstances: on the contrary, it helps us be more effective.
When dealing with emotions we need to learn to accept them as they are and then they change.