Hi everyone,
This is Claire Parsons.
Whenever I present on meditation,
I almost inevitably get a question about clearing one's mind.
Someone asks me how to do it,
Where they insist that they can't do meditation because they can't clear their mind.
I always let them know that clearing their mind is not really something that the mind is capable of doing.
Thoughts come to the mind.
It's a natural part of the process.
Meditation really isn't about emptying the contents of one's mind so much as it is making friends with and finding peace in the midst of a cluttered mind.
That's okay.
But sometimes I think people don't understand that clearing one's mind,
If it happens at all with meditation,
Happens in a process.
It's a process that has to happen over and over again.
It's a skill that you can develop.
This meditation is intended to help you learn how to start developing that skill.
If you're a new meditator and you're trying to understand how to clear your mind or how to make peace with your mind,
This meditation is for you.
Let's get started.
First,
Find a comfortable position.
You can sit or stand or lie down.
Just find a place that you can be relatively alert but relaxed and comfortable for the next few minutes.
You don't want to be too rigid,
But you don't want to be so loose that you might fall asleep.
So you want to sit upright or ease back and just check in with yourself.
Let your brow relax.
Let your eyes close or lower.
Check in with your jaw and let it hang if it is clenched or tight.
Allow your shoulders to fall away from your ears.
Allow your throat and chest to be open and at ease.
Allow your breath to flow freely in and freely out.
Find your breath wherever you feel that sensation most strongly.
It may be in the tip of your nose.
It may be near your lips or your throat.
Or your attention may settle naturally on the rising or falling of your chest or belly.
There isn't a wrong answer here.
There isn't a right answer here.
Just let your attention remain wherever your breath is calling out to you the strongest right now.
Stay with the feeling of your breath right now.
What is the experience of the breath like in this very moment?
Do you feel heat or cold when the air comes in and leaves?
Do you feel a rising or a falling?
Do you feel attention and then release?
Whatever it is,
Just stay with it.
Follow it with your attention.
With each out breath,
Count one and keep counting on each successive out breath until you get to five.
Once you get to five,
Just return to one.
If you lose your place,
If you get sidetracked,
When you notice the distraction and come back to the breath,
Just start again at one.
I will leave you here for a moment just to follow your breath and just to count.
It may have happened that even in that short time you had visitors while you were breathing.
Those visitors may be thoughts,
They may be sensations in the body,
Or even emotions.
If that happened,
That's okay.
It's normal.
If a distraction arises for you,
Can you just notice what's going on?
Can you name it?
Is it a thought?
Is it a sensation?
Is it a feeling?
If you can do that first step,
Can you go one step further?
Without getting into the story,
Can you describe the distraction?
Is the thought a picture?
Or is it a scene?
Or is it words?
Is a sensation somewhere specific in your body?
As in,
Is it on your arm or your leg or your back?
Is the sensation constant or moving?
Can you observe these things and just notice them?
Can you simply be aware that they are there?
If you were able to do this,
Can you now see any distance from the thought or the feeling or the sensation?
Can you see how some space from that experience perhaps changed the story or stopped the story from forming altogether?
Can you see any ways that just this space,
Even this small space,
Could give you an opening in your own life?
If you struggled with this,
Can you see what the struggle was?
Did you just feel confused?
Did you feel any resistance?
Can you describe the struggle for yourself?
Can you see that even noticing the struggle might open up the possibility of finding greater clarity if you give yourself a little bit of time?
Now let's come back to our breath,
The feeling of the breath,
Wherever it is strongest,
Coming in and going out.
I'll leave you here again just to be with your breath or just to be with whatever other experiences,
Whether thoughts or sensations or emotions might happen to arise.
Again,
Start by counting in on the out-breath and see if you can get to five.
If you lose your track or forget where you were,
Just start again at one.
In the third secret bring out what goes on at one.
In your practice,
Whatever shape that practice takes,
You can always come back to the breath.
You can't clear your mind forever.
Most of us can't even clear our mind for two minutes,
But with practice you can see more clearly what's in your mind.
You can make space to be with what's in your mind.
Now that you have done it once,
You can do it again and again and again.
This is clarity.
This is ease.
It's not a trait,
But a process.
It's not an achievement,
But a haven that you can always return to.
As we begin to close,
We'll take one final deep breath in and release it to let it go.
When you are ready,
You can open your eyes.
I hope you take this clarity with you throughout the rest of your day.
