Mental Noting Practice

In this meditation, Dr. Julien Lacaille gently guides you through the mindfulness practice of noting your moment-to-moment experience.

Transcript

Into a comfortable sitting posture.

Making whatever adjustments we need to just be a little bit more comfortable.

And at the same time a little bit more alert and straight and centered.

And just becoming aware of our body just sitting right now.

So we're sitting and we know that we're sitting.

We can feel our body sitting.

Feeling the weight of the body on the floor.

Feeling the position of every part of the body.

And as the body settles into stillness seeing if we can become more and more aware of our breathing.

And it can be helpful at the beginning of a practice to exaggerate the breathing,

Take deeper breaths.

If the mind is particularly agitated taking longer out breaths to kind of calm down the system.

And as we take these deeper breaths seeing if we can find that place in our body where we're feeling very vividly the sensations of breathing.

And then choosing one area in particular in the body that's going to become our anchor.

The place we're going to come back to again and again in the body.

Where we can feel very clearly the sensations of breathing in and breathing out.

So just taking some time now to just choose this area.

Can be a small area in the abdomen,

In the chest,

The throat,

The nose or anywhere else.

And adopting as much as possible kind of like childlike curiosity,

Wonder.

About those sensations,

Like what does it actually feel like from moment to moment.

And by now the breath perhaps has come back to its natural rhythms.

We're no longer exaggerating breathing.

The sensations are maybe a little bit more subtle.

And yet there are still sensations.

Just feeling the body breathing itself.

And just being the silent witness that notices from moment to moment.

The breathing cycle from the very beginning of the next in-breath all the way to the end of the in-breath.

The moment of transition towards the out-breath.

The moment the out-breath begins and then moment to moment all the way to its end.

And then back to a new in-breath.

Thinking if we can keep this moment to moment attention and curiosity is key here.

This is what keeps the center of gravity anchored on breath.

And if you find it helpful you can also attach just a very quiet mental label to the in-breath and to the out-breath.

When you notice the very beginning of the next in-breath perhaps putting the label in or breathing in.

And when your awareness detects the beginning of the next out-breath attaching the label out or out-breath.

And making sure that even though we're labeling it that we're still feeling the sensation of breathing in and the sensation of breathing out.

Whether the sensation is the movement of the front of the body whether it's the temperature of the air going in and out of the nostrils or any other kind of bare sensation.

That's what we're looking to have at the very forefront of our awareness.

And perhaps in the background a mental label in out.

And it won't be too long until you notice that attention wanders away from this central point in the body.

Gets distracted by this thought and that thought.

This emotion or that emotion.

This other sensation.

Maybe pain or discomfort.

Or maybe a sound.

So whenever that happens even if it happens a hundred times I'm going to invite you to just attach again just a soft mental label to wherever you notice the mind wandering to.

It can be a general label like thinking thinking feeling feeling hearing hearing whatever the distraction is.

Or it can be more specific like planning planning.

Worrying remembering.

Regretting regretting.

Worrying worrying.

Then once we've labeled the distraction.

Just remembering that the body is still breathing.

It was breathing this whole time actually.

And it's still breathing now.

And just by becoming curious.

Curious about the bare sensations of breathing.

Attention naturally gravitates back to the anchor.

What does it feel like to be me breathing right now?

Am I breathing in or breathing out right now?

With that kind of curiosity and perhaps the mental label in out.

And as best as we can just staying with those sensations.

No matter where the mind wanders to.

We label it.

A simple soft label.

Then we let it be and we get curious about breathing again.

As though this next in breath was the very first one really being there really being present for the whole duration of the in breath.

And this next down breath was the very first one.

Maybe even the very last one.

We really want to be there for its whole duration the whole thing.

Savoring it like a good wine.

And when we lose that presence we label whatever comes in the way and we come back as best we can.

With patience and curiosity.

And as best we can just staying with those sensations.

So what's at the forefront of my awareness right now?

Can I label it?

With the intention of being present with my breathing.

When I breathe in.

I know that I'm breathing in.

I'm aware of it.

When I breathe out again I know that I'm breathing out as I'm breathing out.

When my mind wanders I know that it's wandering.

Because it's wandering I put a label on it.

That's the whole practice.

Just being aware of what's going on from moment to moment.

Non-judgmentally.

So taking the last few moments to really practice this skill of being aware of your experience from moment to moment.

Skinny You

Reviews

Excellent will try again 🙏

Amazing! Best guided meditation I've done in a long time. Labellingreally really kept me aware.

I had to add ambient noise due to surroundings, but he kept me in the moment.

Very simple, very sound meditation practice. No distracting mannerisms, sound effects or injunctions. This was not my first time with this meditation, and I’ll come back again. Merci Julien.

Basic meditation all you need for a good meditation will come back to this one.

Simple and very supportive méditation, thank you 🙏

My favourite mindfulness practice. Love it!

Being present moment to moment to moment very basic but fundamental to the meditation practice. 🙏

Excellent practice, very straightforward yet calming and focusing. Thank you, Julien! 🙏

The best mindful noting practice I have found so far. Noting has had the most profound effect on my life so I am very excited to find this meditation.

Fking love this guy 🙏🙏🙏

Helpfull..thank you! 😃🙏👍

Thank you. This has been very helpful. I ddid not quite understand noting. Thank you again.

He is an awesome teacher. Very soothing and logical.

These are very nice Meditations. Quiet and quiet moments to practice. Thank you.

Wonderful daily practice for learning how to stay with your breath and to calmly return to the breath when the attention inevitably wanders. Thank you!

calm and quiet voice, matter of fact, focused on the in and out breath as an anchor. spacious guidance.

Good pace and prompts were appropriate.

Very good! Really great technique. Thank you.