Mandatory mindfulness

There is all kind of medical and psychological evidence about the benefits of the ancient practice of mindfulness in dealing with stress, anxiety, pain, athletic performance, trauma and-the big one-everyday life.

I’m a big fan, abstractly, but must admit I’ve never been very good at the basic mindfulness practice of just sitting and maintaining awareness. I seem to do better with active ways of trying to sustain it, like karate, tai chi, running, yoga and such.

(I think this is why meditation is much more fun to read about than to actually do.)

The idea of attending a ten day sitting mindfulness retreat scares me way more than trying to walk 500-600 miles across Spain.

Still, I have found one infallible way to practice moment by moment awareness: trail running or hiking on uneven, hilly and rocky surfaces like the one I had to go down today on the Camino.
It’s not optional: it’s mandatory. One lapse of attention, one false step or placement of your trekking poles and it could be game over.

I guess the hardest part for someone like me is to get better at doing it voluntarily when I’m not doing something crazy.

Question: how do you deal with it?