Mindful Meditation For Beginners

This is an excellent introduction to meditation. A seated practice, including the following elements: how to place the body, description of stillness, quietness, and inwardly directed focus, breath movement and thought movement, and establishing identification as the observer. A good way for beginners to touch on gentle elements of the practice.

Transcript

To begin,

Find a comfortable position for your body.

Sitting upright is preferred as it encourages the mind to remain in a more alert state.

So sitting in a chair or on the floor with your spine upright but not rigid and letting your shoulders gently relax down your back and perhaps nodding the chin slightly forward toward the chest encouraging the back of the neck to lengthen.

Then letting the eyelids close and noticing any shifts in your state,

Your state of mind,

Your state of body,

Just by bringing these three elements together in this moment.

These three elements being stillness of body,

Quietness and inward focus.

So we take the attention that we normally use to focus on external stimuli and by closing the eyelids,

We begin to turn that attention in the other direction looking inward.

So stillness,

Quietness and inwardly directed focus.

These three elements have been used by our fellow human beings for thousands of years to provide a platform to connect with the deeper dimensions of human consciousness.

So as you find yourself bringing these three elements together in this moment,

Perhaps consider the big picture of what you are stepping into.

Now as we bring the body into stillness,

Not rigidity,

We choose not to project sounds out into the environment for now and we allow our eyelids to close.

Perhaps we are confronted with a sense of restlessness,

Perhaps an unruly stream of thought,

Stream of thoughts.

This is normal.

Every human being has that thought stream that you might be noticing right now.

And right away,

I like to encourage individuals to consider that if you can maintain these three elements of stillness,

Quietness and inward directed focus,

You are at some level successful in this practice,

Regardless of the seeming disturbances,

Overactivity or objections raised by the thinking mind.

So now just to allow us to find a little more inner stability,

We're going to shift our attention away from the movement of thoughts and we're going to begin to notice another simultaneously occurring movement.

And that movement we call breath.

So begin to notice the breath as it moves into and out of your body.

The breath flowing in,

The movement in we call inhale,

The movement out we call exhale,

The movement out we call exhale.

Following that movement in and the movement out for just a few moments,

Following the movement in,

Following the movement out.

And just seeing if you can sustain your focus on that movement of breath for three cycles in a row,

Three breath cycles in a row,

Just allowing your attention to stay steadily on that movement for three cycles of breath in a row beginning right now,

Steadily on that movement for three cycles of breath in a row beginning right now.

When you complete that last exhale,

Notice any shifts that may have taken place,

Either in what feels like the state of your body or perhaps the state of your mind.

This connection with the breath already allows us to drop into a slightly deeper dimension of our own mind.

So just consider that anytime during this practice,

You feel perhaps caught up in a thought stream or a thought loop that you can always return to focusing on the movement of breath.

And if you can sustain your attention for three breaths in a row,

For three breaths in a row,

You find your way back to your center and you've landed essentially in a slightly deeper dimension of your own mind.

And just considering for a moment that that thought stream that we so often are fixated on from the moment we wake up in the morning to the moment we sleep at night,

That thought stream is happening simultaneously with the breath and it is the very surface of the mind,

You might say.

That thought stream is the very surface of the mind.

So what I'm going to invite you to do is visualize an iceberg,

An iceberg in the ocean.

Only 10% of the iceberg is visible above the surface of the water.

The other 90% is hidden beneath the surface and icebergs tend to be very large and only 10% being visible is why often ships run into them.

So as you visualize this iceberg in the ocean with only 10% of the water,

You're going to see an iceberg in the ocean with only 10% above the surface.

Now consider your mind,

Your mind,

And imagine those thoughts,

That thought stream that motivates so much of your attention is only the top layer of your mind.

And literally behind that is a depth,

Your whole mind,

The stillness,

The spaciousness that actually contains the thoughts but is so much more.

And like the thought stream constantly moving,

Passing before your awareness,

The stillness is always there as well,

Always constant.

That stillness,

That quietness,

That spacious,

Expansive mind is always there without exception.

And if we learn to just simply turn in the right direction and allow ourself to basically not be distracted away from it,

We just land,

We rest back into that spacious mind of ours.

So as you sit here with me right now and you find wherever you find your body in this moment,

Once again,

Begin to bring your attention back to the flow,

That movement we call breath,

The inhale and the exhale,

The inhale and the exhale.

And just begin to observe that.

As you watch the breath,

You may start to become aware that the one who is watching the breath,

The movement of breath,

Is not that movement.

See if you can feel that the one who's watching the breath is not the breath.

So we can observe the breath and just by doing that,

We can see that the breath is not the breath.

So we can observe the breath and just by doing that,

We land in a deeper dimension of our own mind.

And then as we observe the breath and we actually become aware that we are not that breath and perhaps begin to feel as if we are the observer of the breath.

We're the one who is observing,

Seeing it,

Witnessing it.

We're witnessing the movement in,

The movement out,

The movement in,

The movement out.

We begin to identify as that observer rather than what we are observing.

The observer is still.

The observer is quiet.

The observer is neutral,

Just observing without judgment.

Can you feel yourself as that observer?

And if you are feeling that in this moment,

You've just found connection with even a slightly deeper dimension of your own mind.

So just relax into that awareness for a moment.

And then once the identification as the observer is more firmly established,

You can begin to expand what you're observing,

Perhaps to include not only the movement of breath,

But also the movement of the breath.

Now,

The movement of thought may take a little more practice because often there's a very strong identification of the movement of thought.

And so,

Just relax into that awareness.

And then as we begin to feel the movement of thought,

Because often there's a very strong identification with that movement.

So as we begin to observe it,

We get pulled back into identification.

So just noticing where you are within this process.

Start again by just going back to observing the movement of breath,

The in and the out,

The in and the out.

And notice you're not the movement.

You're the one observing the movement.

In and out.

In and out.

In and out.

Noticing the observer is still quiet,

Neutral,

Relaxing your eyes.

And then just as you have identified once again,

As that observer,

That still neutral observer,

Can you begin to just observe the movement of thought?

Just watching the thoughts rise and dissolve like the breath.

Just watching that movie pass before your awareness.

Every thought rises and dissolves.

And you're just allowing them to move,

To be seen,

And then not seen.

Rising and dissolving as you remain that still,

Quiet,

Neutral observer.

The still,

Quiet,

Neutral observer.

Watching the thoughts.

Not identifying with those thought movements.

Not clinging.

No aversion.

Just neutral witnessing,

Hands off.

Still,

Quiet.

Looking,

Not attaching.

Just as the breath rises and dissolves.

That thought stream just moves.

Rising and dissolving,

Appearing and disappearing.

Every thought temporary,

Temporary.

Feeling that space behind that thought stream.

Feeling yourself seated,

Literally seated and connected to a deeper dimension of your own mind.

Every time you come to this practice and you bring these three elements of stillness,

Quietness,

And inward directed focus,

You have the potential to strengthen your connection with the deep,

Deeper dimension of your mind.

And as that connection becomes stronger and more practiced,

You begin to have the ability to integrate,

Almost live in the moment.

Almost live out from that deeper dimension in what we call everyday life.

Little by little,

Little by little,

We wean ourselves off of over identification with the movement of thought.

The movement of thought.

So just once again,

As we complete this practice,

Connect with your physical form,

What we call the physical form.

Feel your senses expand from the hairs on your head to the toenails on your feet.

Wiggle your toes,

Wiggle your fingers.

And then whenever you feel ready,

From this quiet,

Calm,

Peaceful place right within your own mind,

You can move on with your day.

Reviews

I love how she said that most everyone strays into thoughts and that we can always come back to our breath!

Helpful introduction to meditation technique and non-attachment to thoughts.

Gentle and calming reminders of the basics. I shall revisit again and again. Helps to reinforce the connection to mindfulness. Thank you Alison for this gift. 🙏🏻💕

Very good! Allowed me the space to developed the birth of imagery. Which is rare for me