Typically when we think of these practices, we think of sitting meditation, or formally structured periods of practice, the benefits or insights related to which can then be carried into everyday life situations. There is another approach however, which doesn't get as much press, so to speak, and that is the practice of mindfulness IN everyday situations, without, necessarily, the added participation in formal meditation periods.
Consider: a successful senior executive, now in a subordinate role as a member of a task force to which she is very well suited, and for which she is supremely qualified. Since she is not the "leader" of this task force, she finds herself observing situations which, in her former roles, she would readily have addressed and guided, but in which she now "holds back", thinking her thoughts, making her judgements, feeling the sensations of frustration and impatience, but "doing" nothing. She is "forced" to observe all of this, while not, at least at times, directly acting on any of it. This is the practice of bare attention, or mindfulness.
It is a struggle for her, because she is accustomed to being in charge, and to taking the proverbial bull by its horns in order to wrestle the "problem" into a "solution". Now, she has to "sit with" situations which every fibre of her body/mind wants to "tackle". An interesting dilemma, and a wonderful opportunity in support of her Buddhist practice.
Finding a balance between form and formlessness is an essential Buddhist dilemma, as well as, in one way or another, a meaningful therapeutic challenge.
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