Focused Attention For Circles

This meditation is designed to be used as a group meditation in Insight Timer Circles. The recording begins with an introduction as to what to expect in the 25-minute session, and invites participants to welcome each other and acknowledge the group. It continues with an introduction and then goes into a short focused attention practice using any present-moment object. The meditation closes by inviting the participants to share about their experience and to thank themselves and one another.

Transcript

Hello,

Good morning,

Good afternoon,

Good evening,

Wherever you are.

I'm Ryan in Hong Kong and welcome to our mindfulness daily practice.

So this is yet another recording for use and insight timer circles.

So again,

The idea of these recordings is to be used in insight timer circles and as a way to facilitate these kinds of group meditations.

So this particular meditation is going to be more on the focus attention practice.

So welcome everyone.

And I would encourage you just to take a moment to acknowledge who's here in the circle with you,

Who's here and joining this group guided meditation.

So maybe taking a moment to say hello to welcome everyone else.

And maybe even connecting into your intention as to why you're here today.

And maybe sharing that with everyone else.

So what has brought you here?

What is it that you hope to get from participating in this practice and whatever other practices you do?

And so in mindfulness practice,

We let go of our desires,

Our strive to do something to be different from how we are.

But of course,

We do recognize that as we come to this practice,

There's a reason that we're here.

We just show up for no reason at all.

So maybe articulating that and seeing if there's some resonance between what you've written and what other people have written here today.

And so welcome.

We'll get started here in a few moments.

I just wanted to give a little introduction to today's practice.

So we've done a variety of practices and this one is the focused attention practice.

Focused attention is a way to practice mindfulness by bringing our attention to one central object.

And the object is just something to hold our attention in the present moment.

So tends to be something that's happening right now.

And the things that we can notice that are happening right now tend to be inputs from one of our five senses.

So one of the most popular objects of meditation we use for focused attention is the breath.

And so not focusing on the idea of the breath necessarily,

But actually noticing the physical sensations of breathing and how breathing shows up in the body.

And so as we do the practice,

You'll notice.

And one thing that can help when it comes to focusing on the breath is by keeping the rest of the body still.

So when you remain in stillness,

Because the rest of the body is still,

The movement with the breath becomes very apparent because it is the only part of the body that's moving,

Or it's the only thing that's causing the body to move.

So the body will be moving in various areas,

Maybe in the abdomen.

You'll notice,

Especially if your muscles in your abdominal muscles are relaxed,

That there's an expansion as you breathe in.

There's a release as you breathe out.

The chest will move.

There's also movement of air that you can notice through the nostrils as air is literally going into the body via the door of the nostrils and coming out of the body.

And you know,

The air going in and coming out is different.

And we can notice all of these things.

And of course,

You don't have to use the breath as the object of meditation,

Because there are a lot of other things that are also happening in the present moment.

So you could notice sounds that are happening,

Can be sounds that are in your room that are around you.

It can be not trying to hear anything,

Just observing what's happening.

And so anything in this focus attention practice is passive.

We're not on the breath,

We're not activating the breath,

We're not breathing in any particular way.

We're not trying to make the breath longer or deeper,

We're just observing things as they are.

And so the same way as we focus on our hearing,

We're not trying to hear something,

We're not focusing so hard to be Superman and hear something in the far distance,

Just observing what's happening right now without trying too hard in any way.

And another object that you could use is the physical contact between your body and something else.

So feeling how gravity pulls down on the body,

You can use whatever it is that's pushing back to hold your attention in the present moment.

And so this is kind of the goal,

Let's say,

Of the focus attention practice,

Is that our mind is always moving into the future and backwards into the past,

Thinking about things that happened,

Ruminating,

Trying to predict what's going to happen next.

And this,

Of course,

Is very tiring for the mind,

And we don't really have much control over this process.

This process is happening all of the time without our consent.

So the focus attention practice is just purposely bringing attention to something that's happening right now.

And through that paying attention to something in this moment,

You'll find that your mind is too busy focused on your breath,

Or too busy focused on the sounds that you're hearing to continue that rumination.

So this is kind of the idea of the practice.

To give us a little bit of space to disengage from the thoughts that we're always having,

And that are natural and that come up.

And so knowing that this practice isn't about taking the broom of mindfulness and sweeping all of the thoughts away and ending up to be melting into the cosmos and transforming into something different from how we are.

It's not about that at all.

It's just about if the mind wanders,

If we notice in these moments that our mind starts to wander away,

Recognizing that that's normal,

And that thoughts aren't going to magically disappear just by focusing on the breath.

Meditation,

Maybe we have some opinion and some idea about how meditation should be.

And so letting that be part of your meditation as well.

When you see that yourself,

When you're trying to get to a particular place going,

Oh,

I wish this meditation were more peaceful,

For example,

Just seeing yourself in that space trying to do that.

And this is part of the observation.

This is in fact mindfulness.

So you notice that something's going on in the mind.

You gently observe that.

You notice that it's there.

You accept that this has come into the mind that I have been distracted.

And then with willpower and with determination,

Gently letting go of that thought,

Letting go of the distraction and reorienting the attention,

Coming back to the breath,

Coming back to the sounds,

Coming back to that grounding point,

Whatever it is that you've chosen to hold you in the present moment.

Then you'll notice that there is a kind of power in the present moment.

We may not be aware of how much rumination is happening all the time.

So this is a process of learning about yourself.

So you will begin to notice as you meditate this rumination that happens constantly and through observation of our rumination,

We can begin to unravel how we think about things in our day to day lives.

So with that,

Let's go ahead and get into our practice today.

So feeling free to sit comfortably wherever you are would encourage you for this practice if you are okay to do so to sit as sitting will help bring some alertness into the practice to help us stay focused in our focus attention practice.

And if you like you can allow your eyes to close.

And if that isn't comfortable for you,

You can always choose to hold a gaze somewhere perhaps one meter in front of you on the floor.

So sitting up straight and tall.

Let's bring a sense of dignity and purpose and resolve into our intention.

Noticing the body.

And so whatever position we've chosen to be in just coming into stillness,

Allowing the body to rest here in this posture,

Alert,

Awake,

And alive.

And so whatever object you're going to choose today,

Beginning to bring your attention to that could be physical sensations of touch.

Maybe it's the sensation of breathing.

Maybe it sounds on this recording and around you.

So just choosing whatever is the best object of meditation for you today and allowing your attention to rest there in this moment.

And so if you have chosen the breath,

Noticing the continuous movement of the body with the breath.

And so this is one reason why the breath may be chosen more often is that there is this constant shift this constant change in the body.

It must happen all the time as this is what keeps us alive.

And so seeing how the very process of life itself is held in the breath.

So,

Feeling as the air moves into the body via the nostrils,

If your lips are closed through the sinuses,

Through the trachea,

Filling up the lungs.

And as the diaphragm moves down feeling how the abdomen pushes outward,

The skin of the abdomen stretches out.

And then as we breathe out,

Noticing the reverse of this process happening.

The abdomen relaxing,

The rib cage coming back relaxing,

The lungs getting smaller,

The air going backwards through the trachea,

Through the sinuses and out the nostrils and seeing if you can notice the quality of the air,

The cooler air as you breathe in,

The warmer air as you breathe out.

And so if you've chosen some other object of meditation,

That's okay too.

Not worrying about it.

Just sticking with whatever is comfortable for you,

Whatever is easiest for you to keep your attention held on to.

And so where is your mind now?

Are you still on your object of meditation or have you wandered away?

And so if you have wandered away,

Not being hard on yourself,

Remembering that this is natural.

So gently letting go of the distraction and reorienting the attention back to your object of meditation.

Okay.

Aha.

And so if you are on the breath,

Just continuing following this in breath,

This out breath,

This in breath,

This out breath.

Keeping each one with beginner's mind as best you can.

Knowing that right now is only happening right now.

It's unique and it's never going to happen again.

It'sHal Rocky mentioned it.

And so each thought that comes up,

Knowing that there's a reason that it came up,

Knowing that your mind has all kinds of things inside.

And so just using it as a little bit of information about yourself each time you notice that distraction happens.

So instead of resisting it,

Pushing away and going,

Oh,

Gosh,

I wish I hadn't been distracted instead being thankful,

Noticing what information this distraction is giving you about yourself.

And then of course,

Letting go of it as you refocus the attention back to your object of meditation.

And so now,

We'll slowly begin to draw our practice to its natural close.

So maybe taking a moment to thank yourself for having taken this time today to do this practice and to be here with everybody else who's on this practice right now.

So maybe giving some gratitude to yourself,

Giving some gratitude to everyone else.

And maybe having some intention to continue doing practices like this regularly,

As it is a way for you to strengthen yourself,

Not only mentally but physically as well.

And so for today's practice,

I won't close it with a bell.

And let's just slowly transition from this stillness into some movement,

But seeing if it's possible to keep seamless present moment awareness as we make that transition.

So whenever you're ready,

Feeling free to open the eyes to move the body in any way you like.

And so as we transition out,

I just like to remind you that your mindfulness,

Your ability to drop into the present moment exists at all times.

You can be in a difficult,

Stressful situation,

Begin to notice your emotions.

And in those moments,

If you've practiced enough,

You may by default,

Go back to observing the breath and discover that there is actually a lot of power in coming into the present moment when the mind wants to create all kinds of stories,

Especially when strong emotions are present.

So in this spirit of transitioning and not using the bell,

Just realizing that this present moment awareness is available to you at all times.

You just have to remember and drop into it.

So thank you for joining and encourage you to thank everybody else who's come here.

Feel free to write it in the in the chat.

And how are you feeling now?

So if you're comfortable to share how this meditation has gone for you today,

By all means write something about it.

Tell everybody else because chances are,

Whatever it is that you're experiencing,

You're probably not alone,

That other people who are joining might also have had that experience.

So after you've thanked yourself,

Maybe thanked each other,

I would encourage you just to give a few well wishes to each other in your mind.

May you be happy.

May you be healthy.

May you be safe.

May you be at peace.

And of course,

You can extend these wishes to yourself.

Learn how to be compassionate towards yourself as well.

May I be happy.

May I be healthy.

May I be safe.

May I be at peace.

So thank you for joining today.

And feel free to stick around if this discussion that you're having is getting rich.

By all means,

As you may know,

Insight timer circles when the meditation is over,

The circle doesn't immediately kick you out of the meditation session.

And the other great or interesting thing perhaps is that whatever you've written here doesn't get recorded.

So this really is a present moment experience.

So what you're writing here doesn't go into the main circle.

When you close this meditation,

It's gone.

So you can really feel free to share.

And of course,

When you close and when you go into the main circle,

You can feel free to share a bit about what happened there if you like.

But just to let you know that this is a different,

Separate space from that main circle.

So I hope that this time was supportive and useful for you.

I hope you have found this guidance helpful and encourage you to keep up your practice.

So be well.

And I hope to see you again soon.

Bye bye.

Reviews

Quite a long intro, I was looking for a longer meditation 🙏

Thank you Ryan. I enjoyed my session. It was peaceful. 🥰❤🦜🦜