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How does your body feel? What is the quality of your mind? Just place the attention on your breath as it comes in, and follow it through your nose all the way down to your lungs. Repeat this to the count of 10, then start again at one. Come back when you wander. Your mind will wander. This is an almost absolute certainty. When you notice your mind wandering, smile, and simply gently return to your breath. Develop a loving attitude. When you notice thoughts and feelings arising during meditation, as they will, look at them with a friendly attitude.
When you notice your mind wandering, smile, and simply gently return to your breath. Some benefits of meditation that are less observable for most people include: Retrieved 12 May Hyperfocus , and The Productivity Project. What exactly is to be seen various withing the Buddhist traditions. Whatever length of time you choose, try to make meditation a regular part of your daily routine.
See them as friends, not intruders or enemies. They are a part of you, though not all of you. Be friendly and not harsh. Lots of people think meditation is about clearing your mind, or stopping all thoughts. Instead, just try to practice focusing your attention, and practice some more when your mind wanders. Stay with whatever arises.
When thoughts or feelings arise, and they will, you might try staying with them awhile. Yes, I know I said to return to the breath, but after you practice that for a week, you might also try staying with a thought or feeling that arises. We tend to want to avoid feelings like frustration, anger, anxiety … but an amazingly useful meditation practice is to stay with the feeling for awhile.
Just stay, and be curious. Get to know yourself.
Become friends with yourself. As you get to know yourself, do it with a friendly attitude instead of one of criticism. Smile and give yourself love. Do a body scan. Another thing you can do, once you become a little better at following your breath, is focus your attention on one body part at a time.
Start at the soles of your feet — how do those feel? Slowly move to your toes, the tops of your feet, your ankles, all the way to the top of your head. Notice the light, sounds, energy.
Another day, just focus on noticing sounds. If you are slumped your mind will drift. Mind and body are intertwined. If your body is well-balanced, your mind will also be in balance. To straighten up, imagine that your head is touching the sky.
Try and keep you eyes open. Open eyes allow you to be more present.
Just lower your eyes and let your gaze be soft. If you close your eyes you will be more likely to drift away on thoughts and stories. Some people find closing their eyes much more effective. In ordinary consciousness we are hardly ever present.
For example, sometimes we drive the car on autopilot while being preoccupied with thoughts. So, meditation is a wonderful way of waking up to our life. Otherwise we miss most of our experiences because we are somewhere else in our mind! In ordinary life, we tend to equate focus with concentration. To focus in meditation means to pay soft attention to whatever you place in the centre of awareness.
I suggest using the breath as a focus. Zen Master Toni Packer says:. Paying attention to the breath is a great way to anchor yourself in the present moment.
Notice your breath streaming in and out. If you are having difficulties settling, you can try counting the breath — which is an ancient meditation practice. When you notice thoughts, gently let them go by returning yous focus to the breath.
Imagine that they are unwelcome visitors at your door: Then shine the soft light of your attention on your breath. This is because some emotions tend to breed stories in the mind. Especially anger, shame and fear create stories that repeat over and over in the mind. Anger and shame make us keep looking at past events of the past.
The way to deal with strong emotions in meditation is to focus on the body feelings that accompany the emotion. For example, this could be the tight band of fear around the chest or the hot roiling of anger in the belly. Let go of the stories and refocus on your body. In this way you are honouring your emotions but not becoming entangled in stories.