Choosing What To Focus On

Our attention is like the wind – being hijacked by our thoughts, emotions, sensations in the body and/or the external environment at any given moment. This leads to unnecessary stress in the mind and eventually in the body. It also contributes to poor concentration and lack of focus. This meditation practice is about recognizing when this is happening and using your willpower "muscle" to purposely direct where you want your "arrow of attention" to go, while still experiencing relaxation.

Transcript

Hello and welcome.

Thank you for joining me today for your meditation practice.

I am so grateful that you are here.

For our practice today,

We're going to focus on building that willpower muscle so that we can choose what we focus on when we recognize that maybe our attention is taking awareness,

Places that are self-defeating,

Places that are not helpful or skillful.

And so we need to know when that's happening and then use our willpower to direct our awareness to better places.

Let's just bring our attention to the breath.

Noticing the sensation of the breath as it enters in through the nose,

Travels down into the lungs and back out again.

Paying attention to where you feel the breath is most pronounced in the body.

It may be in the nostrils where you feel the sensation of the breath entering and leaving the nose.

It may be the back of the throat or maybe feeling the breath expanding the chest or maybe it's feeling the belly expand and contract.

Once you feel that area of the body where the breath is the most pronounced,

Keep your attention there.

And now we're just going to begin to slow the breath down as much as you possibly can.

Just really taking your time on every inhale breath and trying to take double the amount of time on the exhale breath.

If you wish you can mentally count your breath.

A ratio of inhaling to a count of four and exhaling to a count of eight works quite nicely.

Keeping all attention on the breath and the counting.

And with every exhale breath allow this to be a cue for the body to relax completely without losing your sitting posture.

So as you exhale feel the muscle softening,

Feel yourself relaxing more and more into your sitting pose.

Feeling at ease,

Feeling free.

And from there we're just going to do a quick body scan starting at the head as we move our attention slowly across the body toward the feet.

As we do so we're simply feeling for any tension along the way.

And wherever you feel any holding in the body use the exhale breath to let it go.

Settling even more into your meditation position.

Continue to feel and sense any tension and exhale to release it.

Knowing that the more the body is open and relaxed the deeper we can move into our meditation and the more we allow life to flow through us freely.

Now I invite you to visualize your attention as an arrow.

Similar to the type of arrow you would see on a compass that you use to navigate.

And for the rest of this meditation we're simply going to notice where our arrow of attention is pointing.

And then we're going to guide the arrow back to our chosen focus if it isn't already there.

So to begin with let's choose to direct our arrow to the breath.

The slow steady deep breathing.

Inhaling to a mental count of four.

Exhaling to a mental count of eight.

Doing a quick check in to notice where your arrow of attention is pointing.

Is it pointing to thoughts,

Emotions,

Sensations in the body,

Sounds in the environment,

Or is it pointing on the breath?

Redirect your arrow of attention if you need to and continue breathing mentally inhaling to a count of four exhaling to a count of eight.

And even as you are mentally counting your breath see if you can slow down the counting as much as you can.

Again checking in to see where your arrow of attention is pointing.

Noticing and redirecting if need be.

Trying to maintain the arrow of attention on the breath inhaling slowly to a count of four exhaling slowly to a count of eight.

Checking in to see where your arrow of attention is pointing.

Redirecting if need be.

And now I invite you to take a moment to take a moment to take a moment to take a moment to point your arrow of attention to the right hand.

Feeling all the sensations in the right hand.

Noticing maybe the temperature.

Feeling fully present in the right hand.

Whatever you can sense in that right hand keeping the arrow of attention pointed there.

Continue to breathe.

Trying to double the exhale breath compared to the inhale breath Checking in to notice and observe where your arrow of attention is pointing and if need be redirecting it to the right hand.

Continue to breathe deeply slowly.

Now let's bring our arrow of attention back toward the breath.

Mentally inhaling to a count of four exhaling to a count of eight.

Checking in to see where your arrow of attention is pointing and redirecting if necessary.

Now I invite you to direct your arrow of attention toward the left hand.

And notice what it feels like to have all awareness focused on that left hand.

To be fully present in that left hand.

Continue to keep your arrow of attention pointing toward that left hand.

Checking in to see where your arrow of attention is pointing and redirecting if need be.

Keeping your arrow of attention pointing toward the left hand.

Checking in to see where your arrow of attention is pointing and redirecting it if necessary.

Keeping it pointed at the left hand.

And now I invite you to point your arrow of attention back to the breath.

Inhaling to a count of four exhaling to a count of eight as slowly as you can and as deeply as you can.

Begin to expand your attention to include the entire body.

Feeling it in sitting position or maybe you're lying down.

Just wiggle the fingers and the toes.

And when you open your eyes keep your gaze cast down past the tip of your nose.

With your eyes relaxed but still focused on one spot.

And then slowly lift your eyes toward the horizon line in the room so you're gazing straight ahead.

Still focusing on the breath.

You can begin to move your body slowly coming back out of your meditation.

Still taking a moment to sit.

I invite you to take this practice with you in any meditation that you are using or practicing.

It's just a gentle reminder that some days we just can't focus but we can at least notice when our attention,

Our arrow of attention is not pointing where we want it to and we can use and exercise our willpower muscle to direct it to where we do want it to be.

And in that way our meditation practice is never in vain.

So every time you notice and refocus that is the practice and you are still meditating.

On that note,

Thank you so much for joining me.

Stay close to your peace.

Namaste.

Reviews

A positive moment for a total relaxation of mind and body. Thank you 🙏

Staying close to my peace.✨️ Thank you for sharing your gift.

Really needed this today.

Reeeally good. Simple practice. Essential, practical meditation. Thank you

Loved this guided meditation. It helped realize how your mind wanders, and guided you back to focusing on the meditation in a very clear and simple way. Will save this one to do again!

I needed this & it helped so much!! Thank you for this guided meditation. Peace & light! ✌🏾

Thank you!

A beautifully simple breathing technique I will now take into my daily meditation. Thank you 🙏🏻

Another great one from you. Thanks. Exhaling: nose or mouth? I’m drifting away so often lately and am having more trouble than in the past in breathing regularly. I seem to be inhaling shallower but exhales can be really long. I’m probably overly stressed

Incredible guided meditations, by far one of the best female leads in some time. Will save this for future practices.

Great practice and guidance!

This was just what i needed. Thank you 🙏

Thank you. Perfect for me, and perfect to share with someone I love who is working with attention.

This meditation really helped my wandering mind. Thank you!

Very helpful, thank you.

Thank you again, Chantelle, for such helpful guidance through this meditation practice. So simple and yet so deep. Peace!

Loved your example of how to focus with the arrow of a compass!

I meditate in the mornings, and with this, I fell back to sleep. I am surprised but i kept meditating in my dream! So deeply restful.

I have been challenged with focusing lately, but came across this meditation and found teachers voice and cues to be pleasant, precise, and presence inducing. I’ll definitely be using this regularly in my practice... In Gratitude 🙏🏾