#10 Notice Your Progress

Session 10 - In this session, you will be asked to focus on your breathing again. This time you will be told to appreciate how much progress you may have made on your meditation practice since session 1. You will be asked to reflect on how you feel meditating compared to how you felt a few sessions or even weeks ago. If you notice the small victories, you'll likely to be less hard on yourself. And more likely to be proud of the effort you are putting into your meditation practice.

Transcript

Welcome to session 10. Notice your progress. In this session we're gonna once again build on the technique that we've been learning over the last few weeks except this time I want you to proceed with an awareness of the progress that you've already made in your meditation practice so far really trying to notice how the meditation might feel different to how it felt when you first started to meditate a few weeks ago. In noticing all of the subtle ways in which you're making progress you're much more likely to recognize that you're moving in the right direction and to continue with your practice over the long term. So starting with your eyes open try to sit with a relaxed but alert posture keeping your back straight. Take a moment to check in with yourself see how your mind feels see how your body feels and then just take three deep in breaths through the nose and out through the mouth in and out in and out in and then just gently closing your eyes on the out breath. Notice the feelings of heaviness you might sense in your body the weight of the legs your torso your arms and your head feeling the pull of gravity and start to notice any sounds that might be present at the moment. And then start to notice the sensations related to breathing. You can follow the breath at the nose the chest the belly wherever you feel it most clearly today. You'll probably know at this stage whether you like to count or use the calm mantra to help you concentrate. And then if the mind wanders as always just put a smile on your lips and in your mind congratulate yourself and just gently return back to the breath and maybe just noticing whether this process celebrating forgetting feels any more natural than it did in the first few sessions. It's important to remind you that thinking will never really stop that's not the aim of meditation. The aim is simply to become more aware of your thoughts and at this stage in your practice I'm sure your mind is still very busy but perhaps you are noticing your mind wandering more than you used to or perhaps the periods of attention on the breath last a second or maybe two seconds longer than they used to at the start of the course. These are all baby steps in the right direction and if you continue to practice you will gradually make progress. Mind wandering will become slightly less frequent over time and the practice will continue to feel more natural. Sometimes when people begin meditating as the weeks pass they start to notice their mind wandering more and more and they wrongfully think that they're actually going backwards that they're getting worse but if you're noticing that your mind is wandering or if you're noticing that the mind is busy that in itself is progress. And as always remembering to not be frustrated or angry whenever the mind does wander trying to cultivate a positive constructive and happy attitude before returning your attention back to the breath and noting that while your meditation practice is still probably in its early stages if you can keep a constant awareness of the progress you are indeed making it will make meditation more enjoyable and it will probably reduce the chances of you getting frustrated at a perceived lack of progress. Then just letting go of all effort completely allowing your mind to be free to do whatever it wants to do. Notice any sounds smells or sensations related to sitting and as always before you open your eyes just checking in with your mind and with your body see how you feel see if you feel the same or different to how you felt at the start of the session and then when you're ready just gently opening your eyes and before rushing off just taking a few moments to stretch out take stock of your surroundings and congratulate yourself for taking the time to practice today. Have a great day!