Becoming more mindful during the day allows us to become more mindful at night time.
And so,
A foundational practice for mindfulness of sleeping and dreaming is mindfulness of the breath.
Mindfulness is the art of keeping your mind on the present moment.
It's noticing what's happening while it's happening without judgment or preference.
As we engage in mindfulness meditation practice,
We're training the mind to be more present.
Noticing when we become distracted.
We're learning to simply notice when our mind is distracted and coming back to the present moment.
That recognition of distraction is the practice.
Sometimes it happens on its own.
You may be sitting for two minutes and have totally forgotten that you're meditating.
The moment that you recognize that I was supposed to be meditating,
You've become mindful.
You are now in the present moment.
So without judgment,
You can bring yourself back to the breath in the present moment.
This may take some time and effort and practice.
But each time we notice we are distracted,
We're building this mindfulness muscle.
So as we begin,
We take a seat on a chair or cushion on the floor.
Feeling our connection with the earth.
Hands are on our thighs or folded in our lap.
Sitting up attentive but not tense.
Shoulders rolled back and our back straight.
A meditative posture will lead to a meditative mind.
So we're alert yet not overly tense.
Let any extra tension that's not required to hold your posture,
Let it relax.
Chin parallel to the floor.
Relax any extra tension in our jaw,
Which we tend to keep a lot of tension in.
Just letting that release on the out-breath.
And for this practice,
It's ideal to keep your eyes open.
Though soft and directed downwards.
A spot on the floor,
Four to six feet in front of you.
Looking down the bridge of your nose.
Letting the gaze soften,
Not focused on anything in particular.
Simply aware of the room that you're in.
And now bring your attention to the breath.
Noticing it wherever you feel it the most.
Tip of the nose.
Rising and falling of the chest.
Or the deep belly,
The rising and falling of the belly.
Letting it flow in naturally without controlling it.
Letting it come and go.
Breath like the wind.
Letting our breath settle with a light attention on the inflow and outflow.
Sensations of filling and emptying.
And if we notice we've become lost in thought,
Simply notice that with a label,
With the word thinking.
Without judgment,
Without preference,
Return gently to the breath.
If we've become lost in our storylines,
Letting a thought overtake us,
Simply notice that,
Label it thinking,
And return softly to the breath.
Noticing if our mind has drifted away,
And redirecting it back to the breath without judgment,
Without preference.
Bringing the meditation to a close.
Taking a moment to stretch or adjust your posture.
When we first start to practice mindfulness,
It takes effort.
We're so accustomed to the opposite of mindfulness,
Mindlessness,
That we default into this position and simply notice just how distracted we are.
When we remove all of the distractions,
Movement of the body and sounds around us,
And simply sit with our minds in stillness,
It's then when we notice just how busy our minds are.
We notice how mindless we are.
But as we practice it gets easier,
Where we become eventually more present,
More mindful,
Over the course of our meditation practice and in our lives.
But it takes this effort up front.
It takes a regular meditation,
Daily meditation practice.
And so I wish you luck and encourage you to keep up the efforts and keep up your diligence and the practice will come.
Thank you and see you next time.
