Increase Your Mindful Focus

In this session we practice 'Labeling For Mindfulness'.

Focus your attention on the sensations of the breath at the nose. If you notice your mind wandering or lost in thought, gently and lovingly return it back to the breath.

When you notice your mind has wandered, label it "thought", "sensation", "memory" etc. Choosing the category of distraction (not the specifics) and then return your focus back to the breath.

If you cannot label it specifically, use the label "cloud" as in a cloud of overwhelm.

Labeling can help you to notice where your mind is and return it to focus.

Transcript

Hello and welcome to the session, I invite you to take a seat or lie down and get yourself comfortable, We can close down the eyes if you wish, And just begin by taking some slow, Calm, Deep, Sighing breaths in through the nose, As you're taking these deep breaths just allowing your body and your mind just to settle into the session, Releasing any surface level tensions, Thoughts or feelings that might be arising, Taking another slow deep breath, And then allowing your breath to return to its normal rate, And turning your attention towards it, Really trying to capture the totality of the breath in your mind, Mindfulness is the awareness that arises from purposely paying non-judgmental attention to the present moment, We pick an anchor, For example the breath, And when our mind wanders and we realise it's wandering, We bring it back to the breath, That is the practice, We're not trying to empty the mind, Just to witness where it is in any given moment, Today we're going to introduce the concept of labelling, When you notice your mind wandering, When you notice that it's lost or distracted, Simply label it, And there's two options we're going to explore, The first one is just to label wherever you've ended up, Wherever you've noticed the mind wandering, As distraction, Your mind wanders, You realise that it's wandering, And you say in your mind, Distraction, As in it's wandered into distraction, Then gently and lovingly you return your focus back to the breath, It wanders off into distraction again, You label it as distraction, You bring it back, Let's try this first option, Just for one minute, So you're welcome to continue exploring that first option, Your mind wanders into distraction, And you simply label wherever it's wandered as distraction, Then gently and lovingly bring it back to the breath, The second option is to state or name the kind of distraction, The category of distraction that your mind has wandered into, You realise you've become lost in thought, When you realise that, You say thought, Or perhaps you've become lost in memory, So you say memory, You don't go into depths of the specifics of the thought or the memory or whatever label you're applying, Just the broad category, You become distracted listening to a sound, So you'll say sound, Or a bodily sensation, So you'll say sensation, Just the broad category, The idea of labelling is that it allows you a little bit more ability to focus upon the idea or catch yourself in the distraction, So for the next minute let's try maintaining our focus on the breath, And if our mind wanders into a distraction, Simply label it, Then gently, Lovingly return our focus back to the breath, Let's try it now, With labelling, Particularly with this second version, Sometimes you'll find yourself lost in feelings that are overwhelming, Or that contain multiple different things, When that happens, I like to label all of that as a cloud, As in a cloud of overwhelm, Sometimes it's too much to pick apart the component parts, But there's just a lot going on, So focusing on the breath, Mind wanders somewhere, It's a cloud, Okay, Bring it back, Our goal with our practice is to become aware of where the mind is, And then to gently refocus it back to the breath, So if you find that labelling helps you with that task, Continue to use it during this session and during any other mindfulness based meditation practice, Your mind wanders, You bring it back, That's it, But maybe perhaps labelling where it's wandered to can give you the ability to be more aware of where your mind is at any one state, So picking the way you would like to label, We'll try for one more minute, Let's begin, So in this session we explored mindfulness with the addition of labelling, You pick a point of focus and anchor, Traditionally it's the breath, Your mind wanders somewhere and you label it as distraction, Or perhaps thought, Or sensation, Or memory, Or mood, And you bring it back to the point of focus, That's it, That's the practice, But what you might be finding is that the deeper we go into mindfulness, The more we become aware of how easy it is for our mind to become lost, To become distracted, And indeed if you're just starting out with mindfulness, It might seem like you're more distracted now, Your mind's less focused now than before you began, The reality is that your mind was always like this, You're just getting more ability to recognize where it is at any one state, And the awareness is showing you how bouncy the mind is, This is something that happens for everyone, But the good news is, Is that the awareness of it is further motivation to continue practicing, And the practice is the way through, Our mind wanders, We bring it back, Our mind at once, The ability to focus the mind, But more importantly, The ability to recognize where the mind is, We recognize that the mind has wandered, It's like oh, It's over there, Cool, That's the practice, Let's bring it back, Again, And again, And again, With my experiences down multiple different paths, I'm convinced that mindfulness is the core practice that is necessary for spirituality, For healing, For therapy, For everything, Recognizing where the mind is, Bringing it back to focus, In this moment, Being here now, So thank you for joining me in this session, And I'll see you next time.