Multitasking & Mindfulness

Spartickis

Soo... I've been practicing being mindfull quite a bit lately and I am getting better at it. However, I come across dilemmas sometimes. It is said, 'when you walk, just walk, when you eat, just eat, etc." What would I do, say, when walking with a group of friends and talking while we walk? I can't focus on both at the same time. I don't want to ignore my friends and be aware of my walking, but then I don't what to just be involved in my conversation while walking and I might trip on a root or something, which wouldn't be very mindful. While eating, should I only focus on eating and ignore conversation, so I can get the most out of my eating? I find it hard to be mindful in these situations.

Jason

That's a good practice, keep it up!

My advice would be to simply try and focus on whatever seems more important to you at that point in time. If you're eating with friends, for example, I'd say paying attention to them and being mindful of what you say is more important than the act of eating.

Plus it'd be kind of rude to ignore them.

fivebells

"Mindful walking" etc., with careful attention to the motions of the body, is an exercise. It's not the end goal in itself. The goal is awareness of every aspect of experience, roughly speaking. An exercise like that heightens awareness of physical sensations, which is very useful, because physical sensations are the easiest to trust, in a way (it's harder to fool yourself about them with some kind of ideology or any other form of willful ignorance.)