- Put up a new picture in your office. If you work in the same place every day (cubicle, office, desk, truck…) place a new picture someplace. Every time you notice it, stop and take a meditation mini-break. Variations of this trigger are to just take a picture that is already on the wall and make it slightly crooked or set your screen saver to browse through you photos and add a new one.
- Put a new ring on a finger. This also works if you take a ring you normally wear off your finger. Each time you notice the ring, take a mini-break.
- Use a recurring physical sensation. For example, this week I have had intermittent lower back pain. Each time I notice it (and it is hard not to notice!) I use it as a reminder to take a mini-break.
See also:
Really Integrating Meditation During the Day
Really Integrating Meditation during the Day: Overcoming Anxiety and Agitation
Really Integrating Meditation during the Day: Developing the Habit
NYC Talk on Jun 21st
I will be giving a talk in New York: Integration: What Meditation Really is During the Day
You can find more information at this link or here (and scroll to bottom).
Comments
The answer to your question depends on several factors. You need to have some stability in meditation practice or there is nothing to integrate in the mini-break. That is why I would really recommend spending even as little as five minutes in formal practice to start each day. But it depends on what kind of meditator you are.
Now using a low moment can be a very effective trigger. And from what I understand reading your post, when you encounter your trigger, you use devotion to your teacher as a way to at least have a glimpse of the state of non-distraction .
There is a famous quote by the Third Karmapa (a great Tibetan Buddhist master): "In the moment of love, the empty essence nakedly rises." To put it in layman's terms in the moment of one pointed compassion or devotion (without thought of one's self) that is true love. And the moment of true one-pointed love is the state of non-distraction .
So yes, your informal moment of non-distraction is a meditation mini-break.
Of course it would be great if every time we meet our trigger, we did a formal session of practice. But informal practice is also really important, especially because most of our day is spent outside of formal practice sessions.
Now the thing for you to consider is can you drop the daily distraction for a bit longer than a flash? You don't have to sit in some kind of formal posture, but if you can have one flash, why not two? or three?
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