What are some practical ways I can apply the principles of Buddhism every day?

I’ve just finished reading the book Buddhism for Busy People: Finding Happiness  in an Uncertain World by David Michie. David  gave an very easy-to-understand introduction to some of the key principles of Buddhism. I love the ideals of Buddhism: it  is such a practical and sensible philosophy.

After I finished the book, I asked myself,   “How can I apply these ideas  in practical, fun ways to my everyday life?”

I came up with this  list.  See if there are any ideas you want to try:

  1. Check my contentment level at various times during the day. Work out my typical contentment “set-point”. If it’s too low for my liking, can  I come up with ways to lift it higher?
  2. Watch for when I am feeling dissatisfied about something–even just tiny sources of dissatisfaction.  Can I take constructive action or change my thinking to lower my dissatisfaction.
  3. Identify instances of unhealthy attachment. This unhealthy attachment could be to people (e.g.,  a friend I’d hate to lose), to things (e.g.,  a job contract I just have to win) and to feelings  (e.g., feelings of  self-pity or resentment  I cling to for comfort).
  4.  Learn how to subdue my mind better. Can I subdue my “monkey mind” thoughts better while meditating? Can I abort attacks of  anger, anxiety, depression or other bad emotions? Can I subdue my super-sensitive ego when it flares up after someone criticises it?
  5. Build “a start and finish routine” into my meditation sessions.Before starting, I will prepare my mind for a good session.  I’ll remind myself  it’s important to try hard to have a good session; I’ll spend a few moments  mentally visualizing myself doing all the right things. At the end of the session, I’ll congratulate myself for working hard and sticking out the session as long as I could–even if I felt it wasn’t my best effort so far.  Adopting a good  start and finish routine will my meditation technique to improve over time.
  6. When I feel “bad” during the day,try to re-create the calm I feel during a good meditation session. Hopefully I’ll be able to replace my feelings of agitation with nice feelings of calm–at least for a while.
  7. Think about the consequences that arise from my actions during the day.Actions produce consequences, and those consequences produce other consequences, and so on. By making myself be more aware of the consequences arising from my actions–both and good and bad–I’ll become wiser about what actions to take in the future. I’ll learn to pursue actions  that are likely to produce good consequences and avoid actions that are likely to produce bad consequences. For example, here is an example of an action that led to good consequences. This freezing cold morning I got up in time to attend my walking club session. (I was seriously thinking not to.) I had a good session. The result was that I felt proud of myself and  energised enough to sit down at my computer and write this post. A consequence of writing this post was that I have been applying many of the ideas i came up with. Another consequence was that I liked my ideas so much I wrote to David Michie, the author of the book that triggered the ideas to share my ideas with him.  As a consequence to that email,  he wrote back and…. and so forth.  One good action can trigger a cascading wave of  wonderful consequences.
  8. Identify any pockets of resentment I’m feeling feeling towards life and other people. Re-appraise this resentment by applying “compassion” therapy and “understanding the other person’s perspective” therapy.
  9. Keep a “mental eye” on any unhealthy “themes” I think about during the day.  Can I re-appraise those unhealthy thoughts into healthier thoughts?
  10. Watch out for irrational  narcissistic delusions and rationalisations I hold about myself and replace these thoughts with more realistic ones.
  11. Dedicate time each day to thinking about other people.  Each day I should spend a minute of so thinking about themes such as:
    (a) excellence in others;
    (b) things I can do for others;
    (c) what’s happening in the lives of people important to me;
    (d) good things happening to others and being pleased for them;
    (e) how others are suffering in some way and how I might be able to lighten their burden in some way;
    (f) how others have helped me recently and to feel grateful about that and to think about how I can help them in return. 
  12. Keep an eye out for when I am about to succumb to behaving  less-than-perfectly during the day–even just in little ways. If I let myself succumb to behaving badly one time, I am just making it easier to behave in that bad way in the future. For example, if I succumb to getting irritated because an old lady held me up in the supermarket, I’m more likely to give into my irritation  next time others others hold me up in the future.  Instead of succumbing, I need to quickly think of a better way of responding ( such as applying “compassion”therapy towards the old lady for being so feeble and “gratitude” therapy towards myself for being so able-bodied.
  13. Take proper ownership for the bad things that I was responsible for creating during the day. It can’t always be everyone else’s fault or bad luck  that bad things happen to me ! (For example, yes, my friend behaved poorly towards me, but I did not help the situation by getting angry with him and calling him names!)
  14. Learn how to give intelligent kindness. It’s not always obvious how to best to be kind. I have to learn how to be intelligently kind.
    (a) Do lots of tiny acts of kindness each day.  Just keep testing what seems to work.
    (b) Try to implant the will to be kind in my mind.  Think of myself as a kind person and act accordingly.
    (c) Train myself to be more aware of others when I’m in their company so I can spot more opportunities to be kind.
    (d) Watch others and read about other being kind and learn from their example.
    (e) Listen to what others say they found to be kind for them.
  15. Examine my motivations behind my actions towards others:  was my heart always pure?
  16. Practise equanimity.When unexpected bad things happen, try not to feel too hard done by. Instead, say,”This is life. It’s all unpredictable.  What else do I expect?”
  17. Have I fully seized opportunities to do good today ? Or was today a bit of a squandered day? I need to keep reminding myself how lucky I am to be alive and be in this position to do lots of good for others.