Let's practice a concentration meditation together.
This kind of practice is useful for sharpening your focus as well as giving your mind a rest.
If you ever feel overwhelmed,
I invite you to try this practice.
First,
Let's establish a solid posture.
Just now,
Let's practice sitting down.
Our meditations can be done either sitting,
Standing,
Walking,
Or lying down.
Sitting tends to be quite stable.
So our feet are flat on the floor.
If you're sitting cross-legged,
This means that your knees are firmly on the floor,
Or as close as is realistic.
You can support your knees with cushions if that helps.
We're creating a triangular base between our knees and our sit bones,
Our pelvis.
Our upper body rises up from this triangular base,
Hands folded in the lap,
Or if you'd like to use a mudra,
That's just fine.
Chin is long and upright.
Shoulders fall down from the ears gently.
The chin is tucked downward slightly.
And the mouth is closed,
With the tongue resting in the roof of the mouth.
Your eyes can be open or closed,
Whichever feels most useful to you.
If you have them open,
Try to soften your gaze.
We're not trying to look at anything as much as just let some light in.
It can be useful to sway side to side,
Maybe backwards and forwards a little bit,
To find your optimal balance point.
Take a few moments to settle into this sitting posture.
And we're breathing normally.
See if you can bring your attention to the lowest point of your breath in your body.
This might be in your lungs,
Perhaps your stomach.
Feeling your breath entering and exiting,
Noticing how your body changes as you breathe.
On your next in-breath,
Count in your mind number one.
And when you breathe out,
This is number two.
Breathing in,
Three.
Breathing out,
Four.
And so on,
All the way to ten.
Once you reach ten,
Go back and start at one again.
Our goal is to develop our concentration and focus.
We're breathing and counting.
If you notice that your mind has wandered,
Well done.
That's what minds do,
And you noticed it.
Gently bring your focus,
Your attention back to your breathing,
Starting again at one.
If you feel any pain or discomfort in your body,
Try paying attention to it for a moment.
See if this changes it at all.
If you feel it would be more useful to you to move and release that pain,
That's just fine.
Please do so gently and slowly.
Our goal here isn't to suffer for the sake of meditation or for anything.
Our goal is actually the opposite.
We're using our meditation to stop ourselves from suffering.
We do this simply by breathing and counting.
Some days it might be very easy to get to ten many times.
That's fine.
Other days,
Maybe one or two is as high as is doable.
That's just fine too.
Neither are a sign of your progress.
Our true practice here is training ourselves to return to our anchor,
Return to our breathing whenever any sort of distraction arises.
In this way we learn,
Or perhaps remember,
How to not be affected by the outside world so much.
Our attention will fly around a bit,
And that's just fine.
We're practicing bringing it back to our focus,
Back to our breathing and counting.
If a sound comes up,
You just bring your attention back to your breathing and restart your counting.
That's fine.
If it's particularly difficult to focus,
Perhaps putting a hand on your belly as you breathe would help,
And focusing on that sensation.
If it doesn't feel useful to you to look inside of yourself or pay attention to what's happening,
That's just fine.
Perhaps establish an anchor right at your nostrils,
Right before your breath goes in your nose.
Just feeling the breath going in and coming out again.
You are in control of your meditation practice.
Make it whatever is most useful to you.
Sometimes after a few moments,
After a few minutes,
Our mind might feel very calm.
Perhaps our head feels empty.
That's just fine.
Return to your breathing and counting.
Other days your mind might feel like a whirlwind or a storm.
And that happens too.
That's just fine.
With a bit of kindness,
Bring your focus back to your breathing and your counting.
And as this meditation session comes to a close,
Bring your awareness to the edges of your body,
If this feels useful to you.
And now perhaps a nice stretch.
Any sort of movement to get rid of any tension,
To wake your body up a little bit.
And take a moment to look at your body,
To be aware of it.
How does it feel now after practicing this concentration meditation?
How does your mind feel?
Reflecting in this way after practicing can be very useful.
And now moving on to the next part of your day.
