"Daily Menu Practice"

Hi all--
In last night's reading at Sangha the author Ezra Bayda suggested a
"daily menu practice" as a good way to support bringing mindfulness
practice off the cushion and into our daily life. A menu practice
just means bringing a particular focus of awareness to each day. We
unanimously voted to have a "menu practice" each day this week which I
will send via email (just this one week only, not to worry)-- as
always, feel free to hit your delete button.

So today's practice is SOUNDS. Whenever you can (whenever you
remember!) notice whatever sounds are present. Hear the tone quality,
the loudness, softness, continuity, sharpness, dullness, roundness,
even the silence underneath. Notice the sounds of walking, eating,
cooking, breathing, going to the bathroom, computer keys clicking,
voices, wind, cars, birds, plumbing, whatever it is. (Last night I
ate my noisiest salad ever {crunch crunch)!) And of course, notice
when there's a mental story or judgement about the sound; whenever
there is, meet it for a moment with curiosity and acceptance, and then
come back to the physical quality of the sound itself. If you find
yourself caught up in an emotion, a personal drama or any kind of
mental gymnastics during the day, come back to the simple experience
of the actual sounds arising in that moment.

from Rebecca Foster's Virtual Sangha email