MIDL 15min 14 / 20: Flickering of Attention

New to MIDL? 15 Minutes of Mindfulness is an introductory series to the MIDL 52 Mindfulness Meditation Trainings. 14/20 is the MIDL Mindfulness Training in the ability of observing the small movements or 'flickering' of attention away from the meditation object to train the First MIDL Pillar of Flexible Attention. Practice daily for one week before moving to the next exercise

Have a question? Insight Timer Group: MIDL Mindfulness in Daily Life with Stephen Procter. Private question? Send me a message.

Transcript

Hello,

My name is Stephen Proctor.

During this mindfulness exercise we'll be using a technique to watch the flickering of attention towards thoughts and sounds.

This is done as an exercise,

A training for MIDL mindfulness in daily life.

Start out by taking a meditation posture.

Now gently fold one hand in the other and sit it in your lap.

Be aware of the touch of those hands.

Now close your eyes over lightly.

Relax your jaw and place your tongue behind your two top teeth.

Now gently take a deep breath in and as you're breathing out just allow yourself to relax.

Now start to be aware of the feeling of just sitting or lying down.

Be aware of the whole of your body.

Start to notice the feeling of heaviness in your body and also be aware of the place where your body touches the chair or the floor.

Anchor your awareness in the feeling of heaviness and touch.

Now gently bring your attention to the place where your hands are touching each other.

Start to notice the sensations involved in touch such as pressing,

Hardness or softness,

Warmth or coolness.

Now we're going to set up the conditions to watch the flickering of the mind,

The flickering of attention.

I want you to gently keep the touch of your hands in mind.

Relax and see if you can observe the movements of your attention.

Did you notice your attention move?

If it's shifted from the hands come back again,

Reestablish your awareness in the touch,

The hardness,

The softness.

Now relax and see if you can notice a little flickering,

The movement of your attention.

Has your attention moved?

Do not focus on where your attention is moved to but rather see if you can notice the movement itself.

Reestablish your awareness within your hands,

The touch,

Hardness,

Softness.

Relax your mental grip on your hands and see if you can observe these flickerings of the mind.

Has your attention moved?

Now bring your awareness into the whole of your body.

We're going to do the same exercise but through observing the touch of the breath at the tip of the nose.

Again,

Do not try to hold on to the breath but instead notice the little movements of attention away from it.

Now gently bring your awareness around the top of your lip,

The tip of your nose.

Relax and allow your breathing to move freely.

Start to notice that when the breath comes in you may feel movement or coolness there.

Start to notice that as your breath goes out you may feel movement or warmth there.

Tune into the changing sensations of the breath as it comes in and as it goes out.

Now relax your mental grip on the breath at the tip of the nose.

And see if you can notice all the little movements,

Flickers of attention away from your breathing.

Did you notice little movements of attention to thoughts or sounds?

Now gently come back to the breathing at the tip of the nose.

Tune into the sensations of the breath as it comes in and as it goes out.

Now relax and see if you can observe those little movements of attention away from the breathing.

Did you notice little movements of attention to thoughts or sounds?

Now bring your awareness back into your body.

Ground your awareness within your body in the heaviness and touch.

Ground your awareness within your body in the heaviness and touch.

Widen your attention,

Be aware of any sounds around you.

Hear them but don't listen to them.

Feel the sounds to come into you.

Now when you're ready,

You can gently open your eyes.

Be aware of seeing,

Be aware of being in the room.

Take care and goodbye.

Reviews

It was a bit hard to stay focused solely on the sensations of my hands without distracting thoughts popping up at first, but I was able to notice this happening very quickly and bring myself back.

I was just wondering, when you say flickering of attention, do you mean from the hands or the breath to distractions like thoughts and memories, or to other sensations of the hands or breath, such as warmth or pressure?

Day 1. I was constantly drifting off without noticing. Could only remember what I was supposed to be focusing on by your verbal reminders. 🙈.
What does the tounge on the 2 top teeth do? 🤔
Day 2. Wandering mind. Wandering mind. Not yet possible to get the flickering. I only notice after my mind has wandered and with your prompts. 🙈
Should I keep repeating the meditation daily until I can manage to notice the flickering, even if it takes longer than the suggested 1 week? ☺️
Day 3. Day 4. Day 5. Day 6. Day 7.

I can tell that this exercise will need a lot of practice! While meditating I do often notice that my attention has been hijacked by a thought. But to catch that distracting thought in the act of taking my attention is much harder.

A very useful exercise, to become very mindful of where my attention goes. This is an exercise I will be returning to. Namaste 🙏

I am grateful for your teachings 🙏 Beautiful practice.

Thank you for this one. It took me awhile (several times, spaced in time with life and other meditations) and perhaps I am beginning to perceive that this flickering is just part of being? First perception of it in this light. I had less judgements I think. Shall do this one some more, it’s opening for me. Thank you so much, Stephen.

I really appreciate this technique of observing my mind to understand how it influences my perceptions. Thank you.

Good attention training

I really enjoyed this and have found it to be one of the most difficult exercises to date. I can't really isolate the flickering of my mind. despite a week of trying (I will continue practising this particular exercise)
It's like my mind (ego) knows what I'm trying to do and is prohibiting this observation to stop me from being completely free of it. What fun !

Thank you

I’m deeply thankful for your work and teachings, Stephen. Following the MIDL training as you suggest it (everyday during one week the same lesson before moving on to the next) has brought consistency and growth to my practice. I can say that this year I finally learned what it feels like to meditate and I owe it to your teachings. My sincere gratitude and best vibrations to you and all your loved ones at these holidays. Have a great year ahead! 🙏🏻✨

This is a very helpful practice. Flickering is such a great word to describe the shifting of my focus. I found that Focussing on the start of that movement was paradoxically very helpful in holding my attention!! I will add it to my downloads!! Thank you Steve. Many blessings at this special time. ⭐️✨

Thank you. Watching the mind’s attention wander off and then return to a focus point is such a fascinating process. I enjoyed the space you gave in between instructions - and the clear spaciousness in my mind in those moments. I will return to this one again 😊

I like the wording of “flickering” of attention. Made it easier to spot! Hard to let go of “mental grip” on the object of focus. Great exercise thank you

Thank you. I can see how this will be an interesting exercise once I’ve done it for long enough and can see the thought flickers forming. I think I’m obtaining a basic understanding of why we do this; I.e. we are trying to get to an understanding of where our thoughts start, but then after that is what I’m trying to grasp. Once we can see the flickers of our thought starting, how does this help us, especially since we are here to welcome all though and note it. I’m sure the future sessions may help expand.

Beautyful! What a warm and gentle voice and a lot of space without chatter. Thank you very much!

Still struggling with large attention shifts on some days. But the practice is helping me identify what is happening sooner.

Perfeito. Nem percebi o tempo passar.

This series is amazing! Helping me refresh my pracricdv

Are year ago when I first did this particular exercise I have no idea what “flickering of the mind” meant. Now I begin to understand.

Good for training more continuous attention or following attention rather