10 tips for a mindful home

April 7th, 2020

1.Wake with the sun
There is no purer light than what you see when your eyes open first thing in the morning.

2.Sit
Mindfulness without meditation is just a word.

3. Make your bed
The state of your bed is the state of your head. Enfold your day in dignity.

4.Empty the hampers
Do the laundry without resentment or commentary and have an intimate encounter with the very fabric of life.

5. Wash your bowl
Rinse away self-importance and clean up your own mess. If you leave it undone, it will get sticky.

6. Set a timer
If you’re distracted by the weight of what’s undone, set a kitchen timer and, like a monk in a monastery, devote yourself wholeheartedly to the task at hand until the bell rings.

7. Rake the leaves
Rake, weed, or sweep. You’ll never finish for good, but you’ll learn the point of pointlessness.

8. Eat when hungry
Align your inexhaustible desires with the one true appetite.

9. Let the darkness come
Set a curfew on technology and discover the natural balance between daylight and darkness, work and rest.

10. Sleep when tired
Nothing more to it.

26 Comments »

  1. Yes, yes, yes, I live and breath by these words!

    Comment by Roos — May 25, 2012 @ 10:34 am

  2. (oops breathe, I typed it overly enthusiastic :-))

    Comment by Roos — May 25, 2012 @ 10:35 am

  3. Clean, simple, sharp, inspiring

    Comment by Bill — May 25, 2012 @ 11:08 am

  4. I welcome your encouragement that if I rise with the sun,the rest takes care of itself.

    Comment by mj — May 25, 2012 @ 12:41 pm

  5. It’s wild and wonderful how often we need to be reminded of this simplicity and beauty. Thank you for doing so — I’d forgotten — once again!

    Comment by Elizabeth Aquino — May 25, 2012 @ 8:11 pm

  6. […] always enjoy reading Karen Maezen Miller, but this week’s post on tips for a mindful home was print worthy. Rate this:EmailPrint Pin ItLike this:LikeBe the first to like this post. Tags […]

    Pingback by Tips for a mindful home « Bowl of Miso — May 28, 2012 @ 5:18 am

  7. […] simple tips for a mindful home from Karen Maezen Miller. Check out her blog Cheerio Road for more tips on staying mindful when house chores (or life in general) has you […]

    Pingback by Week Seventeen | The Wednesday Wellness Break — April 24, 2013 @ 9:09 am

  8. Amazing, thank you so much. Very practical an lovely 🙂 Nameste

    Comment by Chris Hastings — September 5, 2013 @ 4:21 pm

  9. Thinking about this while working up a sweat cleaning my floors and vacuuming a beautiful rug. I realised that while I really love the rug, I resist cleaning it. “I can’t do it (good enough).” I keep telling myself (with a lot of things). I ask my husband to do it and am critical when he does. Today I loved the rug and cleaned it. Well enough, what might not be right can be done next time. Phew!
    (So your mindfulness messages are really seeping in over here.)
    Have a wonderful weekend.

    Comment by Simone — September 6, 2013 @ 10:37 am

  10. […] 10 tips for a mindful home from Karen Maezen […]

    Pingback by Something Good | A Thousand Shades of Gray — September 9, 2013 @ 5:15 am

  11. […] for a Mindful Home,” published in the March 2010 issue of Shambhala Sun as well as in a 2013 post on her blog, Cheerio Road. It shows her keen insight into cultivating mindfulness in the daily […]

    Pingback by Mindful Monday: “Ten Tips for a Mindful Home” | Begin Again — October 13, 2014 @ 12:10 am

  12. […] while reading some articles on the net, I came across Karen Maezen Miller’s blog post about a mindful home. I find it very beautiful, especially when taken figuratively and I think that […]

    Pingback by A mindful home – 10 tips | Jenny Ebermann — January 5, 2015 @ 1:31 pm

  13. […] Ten Tips for a Mindful Home […]

    Pingback by A Mindful Home — January 7, 2015 @ 6:56 pm

  14. Thank you for the gentle reminders. Reconnect? Said Pooh. Yes, said Piglet, and they did.

    Comment by mac — January 13, 2015 @ 4:43 pm

  15. I appreciate your newsletter and posts. They give me great insight to my journey, my path. They allow me perspective and contemplation as well as balance. Sometimes nothing is just what we need after the realization.
    Stay beautiful!

    Comment by Tara Thompson-Chapman — July 18, 2016 @ 1:25 pm

  16. Thanks for this.
    It’s the “without resentment” bit of doing the laundry that I find difficult. Any advice?
    Best wishes,
    Paul

    Comment by Paul Brennan — August 11, 2016 @ 4:41 am

  17. In the 1960s I had to help my abusive mother in the basement on Saturdays. Fun times. First we filled the wringer washer with a hose from the spigot on the wall; later, fished the clothes out of the boiling hot water with a bbq fork, and then fed them through the wringer, where the buttons went crack-crack-crack, into a plastic tub of rinse water on a chair, also boiling hot; then fished them out and re-wringered them. We’d hang them up outside, and everything had to be sprinkled, then ironed (all cottons, no synthetics).

    Now my clothes come out of the washer almost dry; the detergent takes out stains and odors; I put them in the dryer and come back later and they’re done! Wrinkle-free! My specially chosen wardrobe! Need I go on? It’s all gratitude all the time!

    Comment by Wren — December 7, 2023 @ 7:30 pm

  18. […] é uma tradução do texto de Karen Maezen Miller, esposa, mãe e sacerdotisa zen em Los Angeles, Califórnia, e que mantém o […]

    Pingback by 10 dicas para mindfulness no lar – Vida Boa — September 25, 2016 @ 12:02 pm

  19. […] This list also appears on Karen Maezen Miller’s blog, Cheerio Road. […]

    Pingback by 10 Tips for a Mindful Home - Lion's Roar — July 24, 2019 @ 7:55 am

  20. Lovely! Thank you.

    Comment by Terry B. — October 1, 2019 @ 5:23 pm

  21. You had me at “wake with the sun” …

    Comment by Bonnie R Nygren — April 8, 2020 @ 6:46 am

  22. Please change #7 to Sweep the Floor! It’s better to leave the leaves for Nature. Leaves are not litter–they are habitat for insects and caterpillars. When people rake them we lose all that life!
    https://www.xerces.org/blog/leave-the-leaves

    Comment by Constance Pepin — April 14, 2020 @ 6:04 pm

  23. […] This list also appears on Karen Maezen Miller’s blog, Cheerio Road. […]

    Pingback by 10 Tips for a Mindful Home | Self Improvement — April 15, 2020 @ 2:59 am

  24. Hi. Can you please explain #7? I don’t understand the concept of learning the point of pointlessness. Thank you.

    Comment by Shawne Johnson — April 16, 2020 @ 7:14 am

  25. There is nothing to understand.

    Comment by Karen Maezen Miller — April 16, 2020 @ 8:01 am

  26. Love the reminders

    Comment by Elizabeth Clarknb — April 17, 2020 @ 7:40 am

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