MIDL 15min 01 / 20: Grounding Your Attention

15 Minutes of Mindfulness is an introductory insight meditation series by Stephen Procter that will help you develop mindfulness and calm in your daily life. It is helpful to think of insight meditation as a physical exercise for your mind.

Your mindfulness training exercise in this first meditation is to strengthen your mindfulness and observational skills by being aware of different sensations within your body and observing when your attention habitually wanders to thoughts, sounds, etc.

Please take the time to leave a review and feedback. I look forward to hearing about your experience with this mindfulness exercise and offering guidance to any questions about your meditation practice.

With kindness,
Stephen.

Transcript

And during this meditation you'll develop mindfulness by being aware of different experiences within your body and observing whenever your attention moves away from them.

If you just start out by taking your meditation posture either seated or lying down,

Then allowing your eyes to gently close over,

Allowing them to relax,

Aware of any sounds around you,

Simply allowing the flow,

The change within the sound to hold your attention.

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Now take a few slow,

Gentle breaths to allow yourself to relax,

Feeling that relaxation coming into your body.

As you relax,

Notice how your body feels heavier.

With slow,

Gentle breaths,

Soften,

Relax into that feeling of heaviness.

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Now for your first training in mindfulness,

Keep that feeling of relaxation,

Of heaviness of your body within your mind,

And see if you can notice any time your attention wanders away from it.

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Has your attention wandered?

Maybe it has wandered to a thought,

To a memory,

To a sound.

If it has,

That's okay,

Simply acknowledge it,

And gently bring your awareness back to your body,

To what it feels like just to be here.

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Now bringing your awareness back into your body,

Becoming aware of any feeling of warmth or coolness within your body,

Just keeping them gently within your mind.

For your second training in mindfulness,

Keep the feeling of warmth or coolness within your body,

Gently within your mind,

And see if you can notice any time your attention wanders away from them.

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Has your attention wandered?

Where has it wandered to?

Acknowledge it,

And gently bring your awareness back into your body.

Softening,

Relaxing awareness into your body with some gentle slow breaths,

Relaxing into the feeling of heaviness,

Into the feeling of warmth or coolness,

Becoming very present within your body.

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As you relax more deeply,

Start to be aware of the place where your body touches the chair or the floor,

Aware of that feeling of touch.

Noticing any experience of pressure,

Of hardness or softness.

For your third training in mindfulness,

Keep the experience of your body touching the chair or the floor within your mind,

And see if you can notice any time your attention wanders away from it.

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Has your attention wandered?

Where has it wandered to?

Simply acknowledge it,

And gently bring your awareness back to the place where your body touches the chair or the floor.

Softening,

Relaxing into it with some slow gentle breaths,

Relaxing into the feeling of pressure,

Becoming very present just here.

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Now bringing awareness back into your body,

Becoming very present within your body again,

Opening your awareness to any sounds around you and allowing those sounds to come into you.

And when you're ready,

You can gently open your eyes.

Thank you for spending this time meditating with me.

Take care of yourself and have a wonderful day.

Reviews

Thank you so much for this jewel! I’m sure it will help me a lot with my focus and state of mind! Thank you, again!❤️

such a beautiful reminder to relate to the body with gentleness 🙏

I think every meditation by Stephen Proctor is amazing! This one is great if you’re a little short on time. I think the act of recognizing when your mind wanders is extremely hard but very important.

Beautiful meditation . Much love and gratitude to you for creating it .❤️🙏

One to come back to when my mind is jumping around. Thank you

I find all of Stephen’s guided meditations very helpful. His kind and well timed comments help me refocus and improve my practice. Thank you 🙏🏻

As always, such a soothing voice with his profound ability to reallly get you to the place of mindfulness. Thank you Stephen.😊

Great pace and soft, kind voice. I'm feeling more grounded, present and relaxed afterwards. Thank you!

Thank you 😊
Good pace, and ques. Always feel better when present in my body.

A great way to see how often my mind wanders when I am trying to focus on something. Thank you for showing me with such kindness.

I am very grateful for these shorter sessions with the instruction to use daily for a week before moving onto the next one.

Makes it nice and clear to follow. Also the length is less intimidating and easier to fit into my day, which means I’m more likely to do it! 🙏💖

Great way to initially learn or reconnect with guiding principles. Thank you!

Five years later and i am still revisiting these. Thank you, Stephen

Very good practice. Thank You.

I am so glad I found you. Good meditation for a noisy mind. Will be a daily practice for me.

Awesome, allowed to become noticeably more aware of my body after the meditation.

Excellent simplicity. Gratitude for creating and sharing 🙏

Very simple, basic meditation. Just right amount of instruction.

Thank you, very helpful to get the little reminders to check in if you are still aware 🌻

I sooooo appreciate all your guided meditations- they seem to work for me better than any others - I always come back to yours and wonder why do I even bother to venture elsewhere - Thank you!