How to use everyday mindfulness to make life more enjoyable. (article)

How to use everyday mindfulness to make life more enjoyable. (article):

WHAT DO YOU DO when you feel a little uncomfortable meeting someone? Or conversing with someone you find difficult to be around? Or talking to someone who is mad at you? What do you do? Get mad back? Go into the other room and slam the door? Fidget? Look down? Lean back? Avoid eye contact?
A spiritual practice from Buddhism works well in situations like that. It is called various things: Zazen, vipassana, mindfulness meditation. Zazen is the shortest and most fun to say. That's what Zen Buddhists call their meditation practice.
There are basically two broad categories of meditation: Concentration and mindfulness. Concentration meditations involve focusing attention on one thing, and when the attention wanders, bringing it back to that one thing. It could be a candle flame or the sensation at the opening of your nostrils where the air goes in and out. It could be a word you repeat over and over. In concentration meditations, you continually return your attention to a central focus.
Mindfulness meditation is somewhat different. There is no particular focus. It is a process of paying attention to your ongoing experience, whatever it may be at the moment. If you have a pain in your knee and that happens to be prominent in your awareness right now, you pay attention to that � not trying to concentrate, but simply noticing it and letting it be there. You don't try to make it different. You don't try to hold onto it. You just notice it as fully as you can, including what is going through your mind about it.
Paying attention to your experience is not difficult, but the mind has a strong tendency to wander off. That's why it takes practice. It is a skill.
But it isn't necessary to practice "