Adding Mindfulness to What You Enjoy: Three Ways to Supercharge the Things You Love

The other morning, I went for a bike ride in my neighborhood. As I pedaled through the quiet streets, cool air brushed against my face, and the metronomic whirl of my bicycle wheels sounding against the pavement lulled me into a state of flow. Pedaling hard up a steep hill, I felt a smidge of can-do–it, out-of-breath of pride. And a smile spread across my face.

Since I was a kid, I’ve loved bike riding, but adding mindfulness to it has made it all the more pleasurable.

Mindfulness seems like serious business at times. We sit in reverential silence, attending to our breath, sounds, or sensations in the body. Often, we do this because we’re stressed, and we want to find a bit of calm in the storm of our ambient anxiety. This is a good thing.

But it’s also good to know that the awareness mindfulness cultivates doesn’t discriminate. It’s there for us through thick and thin, in the bad times as well as the good. And when we apply mindfulness to the things we enjoy, it has a multiplier effect, increasing our ability to savor the things we love and amplify our delight in doing them.

The Art of Enjoyment

Many of us engage in hobbies – whether it’s bike riding, reading a good book, or gardening – because they deliver us into the present moment where mindfulness resides, and worry recedes. And we can use the power of the present moment to enhance our enjoyment of the things we love to do by paying deliberate attention to the nuances of our experiences.

When I teach mindful eating to elementary school children, I bring them green grapes in Dixie Cups. As I hand the children their cups, I ask them to notice the feelings bubbling inside them. I then guide them to notice facets of the grapes they usually miss – the color and temperature, the texture of the grape skin against their lips before they bite into the fruit, and the explosion of tangy flavors in their mouths as they chew.

Afterward, it’s common for the kids to share how excited they felt eating the grapes and to say the grapes were the best they’ve ever tasted. I playfully ask them if we’re eating magical grapes, and they giggle. The grapes are ordinary, of course, but mindfulness made the experience of eating them extraordinary.

You might not even like grapes. So imagine how applying the same approach to the things you love to do can increase your joy. Next time you’re doing whatever it is you enjoy, follow the tips below to enhance the pleasure of your experience and even discover what you might love doing the most.

How to Add Mindfulness to Your Favorite Activities

• Get Physical: Everything we experience is a sensory event. We see it, hear it and feel it. And the more we notice the sensory aspects of the activities we love, the more we deepen our enjoyment of them. Paying attention to the bodily sensations of a good stretch during yoga or even the contraction of your muscles while pedaling furiously up a hill fills you with an aliveness that creates a positive feedback loop. 
• Slow Down and Savor: In the rush of daily life, we often miss the many small good moments that constitute our happiness. We get hung up on how long it takes to exercise and dismiss how good it feels to get outside and take a walk. Next time you’re on a walk, slow down and savor the experience, noticing the smell of the fresh air, the way the light dapples through the trees, or the call of a crow in the distance. Doing so reinforces enjoyment and helps foster healthy and happy habits.
• Discover What you Love:  Paying attention to your sensory experience also helps you discover what lights you up and, conversely, what dims your light. As you engage in an activity, notice the subtle emotions that arise. If listening to classical music bores you to tears but Beyonce lights you up like a Christmas tree, give yourself permission to Beethoven less and Beyonce more!

In between adding mindfulness to your favorite activities, you can also strengthen your awareness and mindfulness skills with live and on-demand programs like 7 Days of Meaning and Purpose on eM Life!

Written by Kelly Barron