MIDL 15min 20 / 20: Calming Mental Activity

New to MIDL? 15 Minutes of Mindfulness is an introductory series to the MIDL 52 Mindfulness Meditation Trainings. 20/20 is the MIDL Mindfulness Training the ability to calm mental activity through the proccess of Softening Into any desire to do to train the Third MIDL Pillar of Allowing Stillness. 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 meditation exercise,

We are using the MIDL technique of calming or mental activity.

If you just start out by taking a meditation posture.

Now close your eyes over lightly.

And start to be aware of what it feels like just to be here.

Now allow your breathing to happen naturally.

And control it in any way.

Being aware of the full length of each breath.

As it comes in through the tip of your nose,

Through your chest,

Deep down into your belly,

And as it goes all the way back out again.

Feeling the flow of the complete breath throughout your body.

All the way through into the spine.

Allow your attention to sink within your body around the area of the center of your chest.

Allow your awareness to sit within in a relaxed way in this place.

Allow your awareness to sit within in a relaxed way in this place.

Now at this point dissolve all effort.

Now at this point dissolve all effort.

Now at this point dissolve all effort.

Don't mentally do anything.

Try toiker for more time.

Just be aware of the gentle movement of your body as it breathes.

As it expands outwards and contracts inwards back in again.

As it expands outwards and contracts inwards back in again.

Anytime that you find that you mentally engage,

Do anything.

Relax that doing,

Soften that doing.

Just be present.

Just be.

Just be.

Notice any mental tension that arises from mental activity.

And soften into it,

Into not doing.

Just be.

Now move your attention to between your eyes.

Feel that point.

Notice any mental tightness or tension you can experience there.

Allow it to relax.

Allow yourself to sink within that point.

Just be.

As you hold your attention between your eyes,

You relax all doing there,

All activity.

You'll sink deeper and deeper into stillness and peace.

Just be.

Keep relaxing any desire to do.

Sitting in the beauty of just being.

Relax.

Now turn your attention towards the feeling of your body.

The feeling of heaviness throughout your body.

Stop being aware of any sounds around you.

Hear them,

But don't listen to them.

And when you're ready,

You can gently open your eyes.

Be aware of seeing.

Be aware of being in the room.

Thank you for spending this time meditating with me.

Be kind to yourself.

Take care.

Goodbye.

Reviews

Thank you for another wonderful guided meditation. Letting go of the need to control my thoughts was a lot more easier than I thought it would be.

I've learned a lot from these guided meditations, thank you again for making them free for everyone. I'm very glad to have found them when I did.

Thank you for the series. It enhanced my practice and helped me for another step to a mindful fulfilled life. Thank you for your guidance and support. I had so many question during these 20 weeks and realized they are part of my mind pattern. So I keep practicing. 🙏🏿

Blissful tranquility...gratitude. This program has been incredibly beneficial.

Excellent meditation guidance. I found itbtook a while for me to emerge from the negotiation. I noticed a desire, an attachment, to stay in the state I attained.

The between the eyes thing was amazing! No one has ever asked me to do that before - I had no idea there was so much tension there. And now it's gone. 😀

Thank you 🙏 Stephen, so very much. I am grateful for these 20 sessions

Beautiful how this simple but effective meditation allows to open a space inside of us. Thank you for your voice and the instructions which are clear, non-invasive, an incredible invitation to be present in the moment. Grateful 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼

Thank you Stephen.

Softening into non mental activity is an interesting concept. As I am learning I’m trying to understand what the idea of softening here means. Does it mean to ignore or to dull the thought processes or does it mean something different to everyone?

Very nice wish it was longer

I still have a long way to go, but this series really helps me feel like I’m heading in the right direction. Thank you for doing this. I am grateful 🙏🏻

Last day of the last session. Thank you so much.

Thank you Stephen for this wonderful series. I will continue to work with these instructions. I am about to begin reading Analyo’s commentary on the Sattiphatana sutra. This combination should keep me on a good path. Do you have any favorite books?

Thank you for this meditation serie. I apreciate the voice, the silent spaces. They are excellent to improve our meditation learning. Thank a lot! Mary.

This shorter MIDL series has been great! I've worked through it, one meditation every day for a week, and I feel sad that it's over. I'll have to try to get the longer MIDL meditations into my life.

A really powerful and rejuvenating meditation that quitened my mind.

i like it. thank you.

Excellent! The instruction is basic and helpful and many silences to allow me to fully enter into my meditation.

I loved this. Thank you.

Very helpful for me. Gave me permission to meditate in a way that felt natural for me.