Hello beautiful meditators.
So when it comes to initiating a mindfulness practice in an unguided setting,
I know it can be daunting.
There is often a misconception that we have to stop thinking in order to meditate.
And I've also heard many people say their minds are simply too busy and that meditation is not possible for them.
Today I want to clear that up by firstly explaining that broadly we are not trying to stop thinking during meditation,
But rather we are aiming to observe when we are thinking and bring our minds back to the present moment.
Now particularly when first starting out,
The process of thinking,
Noticing that you are thinking and coming back will happen over and over again.
And we don't judge ourselves when the mind wanders,
We simply acknowledge that this is the nature of mind and we gently bring it back.
We do this as many times as necessary.
In this way we are training the mind similarly to how we might train a puppy.
Gently,
Patiently,
Persistently,
And with care.
So how do we come back to the present?
We need some type of reference point,
An anchor of awareness to return to.
So today I'm going to offer three brief exercises to introduce you to different reference points which you may use.
In general it is recommended to choose only one during a single meditation session,
But you may play around with trying one each time you meditate until you find the one that resonates with you the most.
So first off,
And this will be the overarching instruction for all three exercises,
I want you to find a comfortable position either sitting up or lying down.
And the eyes may close or perhaps you prefer a relaxed open gaze.
You want to be alert but at ease.
And let's start by taking a couple of deep breaths together to ground into the body.
Deep breath in and deep breath out.
Good.
A couple more like that,
Taking your time to arrive here and even pausing this recording if you need more time to get centered.
Now for our first exercise,
I want you to focus on sounds you hear inside the room where you currently are.
These may be subtle or quite loud.
Perhaps there is no blatant noise but when you deeply focus your awareness you can hear a mild buzzing from a vent or a creek in the floorboards.
There is no need to label these sounds or assign them as good or bad.
The objective here simply is to listen.
And when the mind wanders,
Noticing without judgment and coming back to listening,
Coming back to the sounds in the room.
And now shifting your awareness to sounds outside of the room.
Perhaps you can hear voices or cars passing by.
Again,
No need to strive or force anything.
Just listening.
Okay,
Very good.
And now for the second exercise,
I want you to begin focusing your awareness on the sensation of your body,
Making contact with the ground,
The cushion,
The bed,
Whatever you may be sitting or laying on.
Bringing full awareness to the sensation without judgment.
And again,
If the mind wanders,
Coming back to the sensation of your body making contact.
Perhaps you feel your feet on the ground or your seat on the cushion.
Maybe you focus on your head making contact with the pillow.
Continuing to rest in this awareness.
Excellent.
And for the last exercise,
We are going to focus on the breath,
Which is the most common reference point.
You may choose to focus on the sensation of the breath entering and leaving the nostrils.
Perhaps you choose to focus on how the breath causes arise and fall in the body.
You may also even choose to count your exhales,
Which can be a very useful reference point.
So we want to count our exhales until we reach 10 and start over.
So inhale and exhale.
One.
Inhale.
And on the exhale,
Saying silently to yourself,
Two.
And so on until you reach 10.
And again,
When the mind wanders,
It's no problem.
We just come back to the sensation of the breath or to counting the breath.
Okay,
So maybe from that you saw that we have the capacity to listen,
To feel and to focus on the breath.
We have the capacity for attention or being present with a kind of alertness.
And on the other hand,
Our mind wanders off.
So the instruction,
No matter whether the object of meditation is sound,
Sensation,
Breathing,
Etc.
The instruction is that it's very interesting to see that.
See that the mind wanders off and that you come back.
You come back because the present is so precious and so profound.
We want to approach the practice with a sort of curiosity.
And if you've tried meditating without a reference point,
You may have found that without something to come back to,
Then we never notice that we're distracted.
And so I hope one of these methods work for you and your practice.
And remember,
It's a practice.
So play around with it.
Have fun and stay curious about the nature of mind.
Thank you for joining me and have a beautiful day.
