Mental Noting: Focus & Concentration

An explanation and guided practice on mental noting. This technique will help you tame your wandering mind and develop the ability to focus and be really "here" more often. This is a life-changing ability.

Transcript

Hello,

And congratulations for taking a few moments out of the day to investigate what it's like to just be alive.

It can be hard to do that amidst our daily activities,

So good job.

And let's go ahead and set the intention now for this meditation to feel the sensations of the breath as deeply as possible,

And to mentally note when the mind has wandered away and then bring the attention back to the breath again and again.

This technique,

When practiced regularly,

Will dramatically improve the brain's ability to concentrate and change the way you experience life on a daily basis.

So you can go ahead and close your eyes.

Sit in a posture that's comfortable,

But that's also upright,

Energized,

And awake.

We're developing a heightened awareness of the present moment here,

And the positioning of your body can help cue the mind to focus.

So you want to be alert and awake,

But also comfortable.

You can move around in your seat now if you like.

Let gravity find this position for you.

Now feel into the body,

Starting at the very bottom of your feet.

Feel around just what it's like in the feet right now.

And now gradually scan your awareness all the way up through the lower legs,

Through the torso,

And all the way up to the top of the head.

And then go all the way back down through the body,

Through the legs,

And down through your feet and into the ground below you.

And settle into this very stable base.

And begin to ride the breath in and out.

A useful technique is to focus on the sensations of the breath at the very tip of the nostrils.

Feel the cool air as it comes in,

And the warm air as it leaves.

Take a few deep breaths like this,

And notice the sensations of the breath at the tip of the nostrils coming in and going out.

Cool as it enters.

Calm as it leaves.

When you breathe out,

Notice if you're restricting the breath in any way.

And as much as you can,

Just let it all go.

Breathe in the cool air at the nostrils.

Breathe out the warm air and let it all go.

And when you let it all go,

Notice that space,

The gap between the out breath and the in breath.

Let's be aware of that too.

And when you have that space,

Just wait for the breath to come back in on its own.

The breath is always happening on its own.

But when we start to pay close attention to it,

We often attempt to take over and try to control it ourselves.

Use this space between the out breath and the in breath,

And just wait for the in breath to emerge naturally on its own.

No need to control it here.

Just ride the breath in and out,

Right at the tip of the nostrils.

In and out and go deeper and deeper and deeper into the present moment.

It's all happening right now,

And the breath is a perfect way to ride all the way into it.

Take a few seconds to feel the breath in detail,

Continuously.

All the way in,

And that space,

All the way out,

And that space.

See if you can ride the breath all the way through.

It can be helpful to count up to 10,

Along with your breaths and your mind,

To keep you focused,

Like this.

One in,

Two out,

Three in,

Four out,

And so on,

Up until you get to 10,

And then just start again,

Back at one.

This counting and having that specific focus right at the nostrils gives you something to really ground your focus on the breath.

Because whenever your mind starts to wander,

You can always just restart,

Right back at one and right back at that very tip of the nostrils point.

Now for the tricky part,

And for the part that's really flexing the mindfulness muscle,

And the part that will really change your life if this is done consistently.

When the mind wanders away from the breath,

And it will,

Over and over and over again,

Because that's just what it knows how to do,

It's going to always do this.

When this happens,

Just observe where the mind has gone,

And make a specific mental note in your mind of where it has wandered to.

So this could be thinking,

Feeling,

Planning,

Worry,

Boredom,

Or even more general,

Future,

Past.

The accuracy of the mental note isn't as important as just making the action itself.

So you can even make the note,

Don't know,

If you just know that your mind is not on the breath right now,

But you don't know exactly where it is.

And one more thing,

There's no need to judge yourself for wandering from the breath.

This judgment will actually distract you from the practice.

So each time you catch yourself,

You're actually building the muscle of mindfulness here.

So I hope you can actually see it as a good thing.

Whenever you make a mental note without criticism or judgment,

That is a true moment of pure mindfulness,

That catching of the mind wandering.

So now I'll stop talking,

And I'll let you do your thing.

Here are your two tasks.

One,

To ride the sensations of the breath all the way through as it continuously moves in and out,

Right through the tip of the nostrils.

And if you like,

Counting from one to ten,

And just repeating over and over again.

That's the first part.

And then the second task is to make a mental note when the mind has wandered away from the breath,

And specifically where it's wandered to,

Or even just don't know,

But you can think future,

Past,

Or thinking,

Whatever it may be for you.

Just be aware of where your mind is now,

Note where it is if it's not on the breath,

And then just come back to ride the breath in and out.

And you just do this again and again,

And this is like you in the gym working out for whatever muscle it may be.

Here you're working out the mindfulness muscle,

And that's how you do it,

Just coming back again and again.

Sounds will play like this.

And these are here to help you become aware if your mind is wandering,

And then to return you in that moment to the breath at the tip of the nostril starting right back at one.

Cool as it enters,

Warm as it leaves.

Enjoy!

You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You Alright,

All done.

As you practice this technique regularly,

You can develop an awareness of where your mind tends to wander off to.

You can start to think of different mental note containers like future,

Past,

Fantasy,

Worry.

Figuring out where it is you tend to wander to can give you more information about yourself and develop a greater awareness of your mind.

This can also help during your daily life as you become more aware of when you're drifting off into those wandering areas during the day.

As opposed to being fully present with others at work or whatever you might be doing.

As Thich Nhat Hanh said,

The quality of being determines the quality of doing.

So take this intention with you throughout the day and regularly check in with your quality of being.

Again,

Congratulations on making the effort to directly perceive your mind.

I'll see you next time.

Reviews

I had never thought to identify where my mind wanders during meditation. It seems to always be on my “to-do” list. This has been very enlightening. Thank you!

wow. so helpful; simple yet thorough, direct and compassionate. charles has a way of speaking to exactly what my buddha mind can receive.

Mid way through you 111 day zen course (which is tremendous), so happy I stumbled on this guided meditation. So helpful for my practice and really practical - this may be a top track I'd recommend to early mindfulness meditation practice is such a myself. Much thanks!

It’s been a couple years since I was on insight… I’m glad to be back. This breath focus meditation was very grounding for me.

Very helpful. I’d even like little longer in length.
The reminder tones were a bit loud.

This was amazing . I wasn’t meditating while doing this practice. I was actually doing things in my home, but I will be doing this tomorrow morning and fully Embrace the mindfulness. Even while doing stuff, the bells kept reminding me to stay present in my actions

I love this meditation and will revisit. I love the long quiet space, though I found it hard at times...which is exactly why I need to revisit. Thanks, Charles. 🙏🙏🙏

Really great because he leaves you some quiet time with in which we all need but prepares you for the silence.

This is great as I am also trying to reflect on the question " WHO AM I " in two different courses on here.So this as I use it and practice seeing where my mind wanders to keep me from finishing any task in daily life or in meditation will help me also answer when and why hopefully.This will help me better understand myself.As I reflect daily after this I am sure I'm going to learn something new that I never knew or didn't realize about myself.Thank you...

Hello Charles!
This really was a great exercise. I could really notice when i was distracted, and was able to start counting my breaths again. I really enjoyed doing this exercise. Thank you

Thank you! I couldn’t sit still for that long, but I made it halfway through. I come back and do that practice again.

I enjoy learning the how of these practices and enjoy the matter of fact tone. One of the best sessions I’ve done on here. Thank you. 🙏

This is excellent. Thank you for this simple, direct teaching. The timing and voicing makes it easy to follow and practice. 🙏

Wonderful practice, bringing peace and concentration. Thank you, Charles 🙏🦋

Just finished the 80+ day of Tao. Exploring new sessions.

Thank you so much for sharing this wonderful meditation. Very helpful and enlightening! Namaste 🙏🏽

Gorgeously guided, thank you. 🙏🏼 Such important foundations to cultivate. I’m always amazed at how light and fast the thoughts are. You have to be focused to catch them with your awareness. 💫 I enjoyed putting a different tag 🏷️ depending on the quality of the thought 💭- anticipation, time, love, planning etc. It’s always interesting how the mind can wander simultaneously to the counting, I’d love to understand that more. 😊Thanks again Charles! 💗

For someone who’s mind wanders alot, this had been so helpful to me…Thank you 🙏🏼✨💫

Brilliant practice, brilliant teacher. Thank you. This is so hard but so important

Thank so much for this amazing technique will surely practice 🙏