Hello,
And welcome to the session.
Today's going to start with a short talk,
Followed by a guided instruction.
We're going to be looking at mindful breathing,
Or focusing on the breath as a meditation object.
This is the easiest to grasp,
Or the quote unquote,
Simplest way to practice mindfulness meditation.
You simply take a seat,
Get comfortable,
And draw your attention to the breath,
Wherever it's most strongly felt.
When your mind wanders,
You just bring it back to the breath.
Sounds simple enough,
Right?
But when we actually practice in this way,
Very quickly our mind wanders.
It starts planning.
It starts remembering.
It starts thinking about anything but the object.
In this case,
The breath.
Let's just try it for 15 seconds and see how we go.
Take a seat.
Get comfortable.
Close your eyes.
And draw your attention to the breath.
Let's begin.
So how'd you go?
In just 15 seconds,
Did your mind wander?
And if it did wander,
Did you notice it wandering and return it back to the breath?
It's important to realize that the act of meditation isn't the focus on the breath.
It isn't an empty mind.
It isn't the absence of thought.
Mindfulness meditation is becoming aware of our mind as it is for what it is.
In this case,
It's becoming aware when it wanders.
So rather than getting upset with yourself or annoyed that you're,
Quote,
Not doing it right when you notice your mind wandering,
That is in fact when you are doing it right.
Yes,
We're trying to maintain focus on the breath.
We're trying to increase our ability to get into the present moment.
Advanced mindfulness practices go deeper and work with other objects and have more nuance.
But before you can go into all of that,
It's advised that you learn or rather train yourself to be in the moment.
Let's try it for 30 seconds.
Let's see what happens.
Once again,
Get comfortable,
Close your eyes and draw your attention to the breath,
Entering and leaving.
Wherever you feel it most,
Draw your attention to the sensations of the breath.
If it wanders,
Notice it wandering and gently bring it back to focusing on the breath.
So how'd you go?
As the duration of these silences increases,
You will certainly start to notice your mind wandering.
That's normal.
It's nothing to be ashamed of.
It's nothing to fight against.
It's nothing to worry about.
Because remember,
When we notice our mind wandering,
That is the practice we're aiming to achieve.
It's not about maintaining perfect focus.
It's not about emptying the mind.
Those things may come with practice,
With time.
But our goal is to just notice what the mind is doing.
And when you notice that it's wandered,
That's a good thing.
You've noticed what your mind is doing.
You set it a task.
You say,
Hey,
Focus on the breath.
And yeah,
The breath is relatively boring.
It's not that engaging.
But it's constantly available and it's constantly changing.
Therefore,
It makes one of the best anchors in which to tie our focus to.
Over time,
Your focus will improve.
But it's important to realize that each session will be different.
If you're having a good day or a bad day,
Your ability to focus will change.
If you've had stress or something good happen,
If you're sick,
If you're tired,
If you've had some sort of inebriation or coffee or some certain foods,
If you've exercised,
Any number of different things will impact your ability to focus in one given session.
So hold to yourself that you can only have the meditation you're having,
This session alone.
Your goal,
Once again,
Is to recognize what your mind is doing.
If it wanders,
Gently return it back to the breath.
Let's try it now for one minute.
Once again,
I invite you,
Close your eyes,
Draw your attention to the breath wherever you can feel it most.
If your mind wanders,
Gently bring it back.
Let's try it now for one minute.
So how'd you go?
My personal practice at the moment is 20 minutes of silent meditation in the morning,
First thing,
And 20 minutes of silent meditation at night.
I make sure to practice before I touch my phone,
Go on social media,
Or basically do anything else.
The first thing I do in the morning,
After I sort of get myself ready,
Is meditate.
And similarly,
I do the same thing in reverse at night.
I meditate,
And then I go to bed.
It's a great way to cap the day.
But what I've found is,
With these longer sits,
The 20 minutes,
Some sessions are or feel like they are hyper-focused.
Other sessions feel like they drag on,
And it's a struggle to get through.
Other sessions,
My mind wanders,
I don't catch it,
And all of a sudden the 20 minute time is up.
The point is,
Each session is equally valuable.
You can only have the meditation you're having.
I get some comments and feedbacks and questions from my personal clients talking about having a great session.
They say something along the lines of,
My mind was clear,
My mind was super-focused,
Or it just felt absolutely amazing.
And they describe this feeling of revelation,
Or joy.
And then they say,
Is that right,
Is that correct?
Perhaps.
But it's important to realize that all of those feelings they're describing,
The clarity,
The joy,
They're all feelings that aren't the breath.
It's very easy to feel,
Sometimes,
When we meditate,
This feeling of wonder,
Or joy,
Or elation.
Revelation.
Amazement.
Positive feelings.
And don't get me wrong,
It's great when they occur.
But they too are a barrier to mindfulness.
They are not the present moment.
Your mind is wandered,
It's lost its focus.
So over time,
The more you practice,
Become aware when your mind is getting lost in good feelings.
Because if you can master your mind when it's both good and bad,
When you notice it wandering into pleasant,
Or unpleasant,
Or neutral,
Or the past,
Or planning,
Or whatever,
You're well on the way to a stable and mindful existence.
And that's the whole goal.
Let's extend the time now to a two minute sit.
We're going to sit in silence for two minutes.
When your mind wanders,
No matter what it wanders into,
For two minutes,
We're just going to gently bring our focus back to the breath.
It wanders,
We bring it back.
It wanders,
We bring it back.
Let's do it.
Let's begin.
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So how'd you go?
It's interesting to consider what we're trying to do.
By tying our attention to the breath,
We're trying to anchor ourselves in the present moment.
Every time our mind wanders,
No matter what it wanders into,
Good feelings,
Bad feelings,
Thoughts,
Emotions,
Moods,
Memories,
Planning,
And what else other than that sensation of the breath or whatever we chose as our focus.
That is not the present moment.
That is not right now.
It's almost like we're constantly resetting our focus back to the moment.
Telling ourselves,
Telling our brain,
Telling our mind,
Telling our attention,
Now.
Be here now.
This is what matters.
Right now is what matters.
This one moment.
The problem is that this one moment keeps slipping.
I know that when I'm practicing,
I focus on the breath,
But then I'm thinking about my focus on the breath.
And it's like I realize I'm breathing in when I'm sort of still conceptualizing,
Contemplating,
Feeling,
Evaluating the breath that I was just breathing out and vice versa.
It's like I'm lagging behind the present moment.
Our goal is to focus on the senses as they're coming in right now.
Not reanalyzing,
Not interpreting,
Not contemplating meaning,
But just feeling,
Purely feeling.
There's an analogy here to sound.
A sound comes,
We hear it,
And the sound goes.
If we can truly embody that process,
That's pure mindfulness.
But what typically happens is the sound comes.
We hear it,
We think about it,
We apply meaning,
We remember other times and other things.
It happens almost instantaneously,
And most often without our internal compulsion,
It just arises.
So our goal is to just observe it happening.
Observe the breath,
Observe the sound,
Observe whatever it is that is arising right now.
So to end this session,
We're going to play a little bit with sound.
Close your eyes,
And I'm going to ring a bell.
And I just want you to note when the sound ends.
And just raise your hand slightly,
Just to acknowledge when that sound ends.
So I'll ring a bell,
And when the sound ends,
You raise your hand.
That's it.
GONG Let's try that again.
And remember,
We're not thinking about,
We're not trying to interpret,
We're not trying to conceptualize.
All we're doing is listening clearly and acknowledging when the sound ends.
GONG So how'd you go?
This session we started with a focus on the breath.
Observing the sensation of the breath entering and leaving the nose.
That's what we chose to anchor our attention to.
Remember,
Your goal isn't to empty the mind.
It's not to facilitate or foster good feelings or a change of mental state.
It's to observe reality as it is for what it is right now.
We're not trying to trip out.
We're not trying to zone out.
We're not trying to blank our minds.
We're just trying to observe what's happening.
Observe the breath.
Be here now in the present moment.
If you're practicing silent meditation,
And your mind wanders,
And you notice it wandering,
That's a good thing.
You're doing the meditation.
Just gently return your focus back to the breath.
And remember,
You can only have the meditation you're having if it felt good or bad,
Chaotic,
Controlled,
Focused,
Whatever.
The fact that you're doing it itself is the win,
Is the representation of the good session.
So we're going to end this session with one more minute of silence,
Followed by a bell.
So the audio will go silent,
And at the end of that one minute,
I'll ring a bell.
And I just want you to,
When the bell comes,
Listen to the end of the sound.
Let's begin.
Thank you.
And if you have any questions,
Please either leave a review on this meditation and ask there,
Or check out some of my courses,
And in the classroom you can ask there as well.
I'll get back to you with an answer,
Or I'll make a guided session or a talk specifically for you.
Have a great day.
