Welcome to this guided meditation based on the Mind Illuminated meditation training system.
This track is designed to be listened to repeatedly,
Helping you establish a consistent and diligent meditation practice.
While there is a good amount of guidance provided,
There will also be periods of silence for you to practice the prompts on your own.
This allows you to gradually become more independent in your meditation practice.
Today we will be focusing on stage 2 practice,
Aimed at shortening the periods of mind-wandering and extending the periods of sustained attention to the meditation object.
Let's begin by preparing ourselves with a six-point preparation for meditation.
This preparation helps to set a strong foundation for our practice by addressing our motivation,
Goals,
Expectations,
Diligence,
Distractions and posture.
Point one is motivation.
So to start,
Let's take a moment to review our general motivation for meditating today.
Be honest with yourself and accept your reasons without judgment.
For example,
You might think,
I want more peace of mind,
I want more tranquility,
I want to be less angry.
Whatever your motivation is,
Acknowledge it and let it guide your practice.
Point two,
We have goals.
So decide on a simple,
Reasonable goal for the session.
This helps to provide direction and focus.
For example,
You might set a goal like,
I will not get annoyed when my mind wanders.
Keep it simple and achievable,
And try to link it with something that you're struggling with in meditation.
Point three is expectations.
Bring to mind the dangers of having them.
It's important to be gentle with yourself and to remember that there is no such thing as bad meditation.
Find enjoyment in every session,
Regardless of the outcome.
This attitude helps to cultivate a positive and accepting mindset.
Point four,
We have diligence.
So resolve to practice diligently for the entire session,
Beginning to end.
Diligence means engaging wholeheartedly in the practice rather than spending your time on the cushion planning or daydreaming.
Recall that the best way to overcome resistance is by simply continuing to practice without judging yourself.
Fifth point is about distractions.
So perform a quick mental inventory of potential distractions in your life,
Internally and externally.
Acknowledge these thoughts and emotions and set the intention to set them aside during your meditation.
While you may not be wholly successful in keeping distractions at bay,
Planting the seed of intention is an important step.
The final point is posture.
Review your posture and get comfortable.
Ensure that your head,
Neck and back are aligned,
Your shoulders are even and your hands are level.
Close your lips,
Breathe naturally through your nose and relax your body like a lump of soft clay,
Solid and stable but pliant.
This helps to minimize physical distractions.
Now that we've prepared our mind for meditation,
We will move through a gradual four-step transition to our meditation object,
Which is the breath at the nose.
This transition helps to calm the mind and focus our attention,
And this is as important if not more important than the final stage of meditation practice.
Remember there will be periods of silence during this practice to allow you to deepen your experience with each prompt.
Step one is to focus on the present,
So close your eyes and just become present.
Open your peripheral awareness to take everything presented to the senses.
Allow your attention to move freely among sounds,
Bodily sensations,
Smells or thoughts you may experience,
But stay in the present moment.
If your attention is captured by a thought,
Gently return to the present.
This step helps to establish an open,
Relaxed awareness.
Step two we'll focus on bodily sensations,
So limit your attention to the body.
Let everything else slip into peripheral awareness.
Allow sounds,
Smells and thoughts to come and go without focusing on them.
When you notice your attention drifting to a sound or thought,
Gently bring it back to the body.
This step helps to ground our awareness in the body.
Step three we'll be focusing on the bodily sensations related to the breath.
Without suppressing anything else,
Restrict your attention to the sensations of movement produced by breathing around the nose,
Face,
Chest and abdomen.
Notice the invigorating sensation during the in-breath and the relaxing sensation during the out-breath.
This step helps to anchor our attention to the breath.
Step four we'll focus on the sensations of the breath at the nose,
So direct your attention to the sensations produced by the air moving in and out of your nostrils.
Identify where these sensations are clearest,
Inside the nostrils,
At the tip of the nose,
On the upper lip or elsewhere.
Just keep your attention on this area,
Maintaining peripheral awareness of background sensations.
This step helps to refine our focus on the meditation object.
Now that we have transitioned to our meditation object,
We will spend the remainder of our session focusing on the sensations of the breath at the nose.
In stage two our goal is to shorten the periods of mind-wandering and extend the periods of sustained attention to the meditation object.
We will work smart,
Not hard,
Using finesse,
Patience and positive reinforcement rather than willpower.
I encourage you to pay particular attention to the beginnings and endings of each breath,
Thinking of them as checkpoints in the breath cycle.
As you get better and more skilled at noticing clearly the beginnings and endings of each breath,
You can start paying more attention to the breath sensations itself and the space between breaths,
But there's no rush to do this.
Take your time.
One of the key elements of stage two practice is to begin holding the intention to appreciate the aha moment when you recognize your mind has wandered.
Instead of beating yourself up,
When you realize you've been thinking about something else,
You instead take a moment to savor being fully present once again,
Cherish this epiphany and encourage yourself to have more of them.
This appreciation of waking up and remembering the breath helps to train the unconscious process to happen sooner and more often,
Shortening periods of mind-wandering.
After you've savored the aha moment,
You can gently redirect your attention back to the meditation object.
Cultivate your ability to intentionally direct attention to the breath sensations despite their lack of intrinsic interest.
Allow sounds,
Sensations,
Thoughts,
Memories and feelings to continue in the background but remain focused on the breath.
This helps to strengthen your ability to sustain attention.
You can think of following the breath like a game to help you actively engage with it.
Find reasons to take interest in the breath and fully investigate it.
You can identify the exact moment the in-breath starts and ends and the exact moment the out-breath begins and ends.
Notice the brief pauses between the breaths.
Think of all these points with equal clarity.
This active engagement counters the natural tendency for attention to shift.
If feelings of impatience arise,
Recognize them as just one more feeling that arises and passes away.
Don't identify with impatience by thinking,
I am impatient.
Instead think,
Impatience is arising.
Focus on the positive aspects of your experience,
Such as the relaxation of your body or the focus of your mind.
Savor these rewarding aspects and let them grow stronger.
This helps to create a harmonious mind,
Making meditation more satisfying and enjoyable.
The monkey mind is an especially agitated state where attention jumps rapidly from one thing to the next.
If you find yourself in this monkey mind state,
Focus on trying to ground your attention in your body.
So expand the space in which you allow attention to move to include your entire body and if needed the other senses as well.
This means returning to step one or two of the gradual four step transition.
Instead of trying to hold the monkey still,
Give it a larger cage to move in and always intentionally select the locus of attention and finesse the situation by expanding the area of attention.
As we conclude our session,
Take a moment to reflect on your practice.
Mind-wandering stage two means you can sustain attention on the meditation object for minutes while periods of mind-wandering last only a few seconds.
You're not looking for perfection,
You.
This stage is about developing mental habits that shorten mind-wandering and extend attention to the breath.
Recognize that every session,
Regardless of perceived quality,
Contributes to your overall progress in meditation.
The time and effort put into mastering the early stages will pay off far beyond anything you can imagine.
Gently bring your awareness back to your body and the room around you.
Take a few deep breaths,
Stretch if you need to,
And open your eyes.
Thank you for joining this guided meditation.
May you continue to develop a consistent and diligent practice,
Bringing peace and clarity into your life.
