Mindfulness And The "Letterbox" Analogy (+10 Mins Silence)

In this session we practice "Mindfulness Recap + the "Letterbox" Analogy" followed by 10 minutes of silence.

Begin with a traditional mindfulness practice of focusing on the sensations of the breath at the nose. If you notice your mind wandering, gently and lovingly bring your attention back to the nose.

The goal of mindfulness is to maintain focus upon the breath, but also to notice when your mind is wandering and gently/lovingly return it back. This is the practice, it is not about emptying the mind.

Letterbox analogy: Focus on the breath is akin to focusing upon a letterbox across from a busy road. There are cars, trucks, people and all kinds of distractions. Keep focusing on the letterbox.

If you realise you have hopped into a car and are riding down the road (lost in thought) hop out and return back to the letterbox.

Transcript

Hello, Welcome to the session, I invite you to take a seat or lie down and get yourself comfortable, You can close down the eyes if you wish and just begin by taking some slow deep breaths in through the nose, Just taking a moment to feel the sensations in the body, Note the thoughts in the mind and just in your next slow out breath releasing what can be released, Now allowing your breath to return to its normal pace, Turn your attention to the sensations of the breath at the nose, Really pay attention and try and capture every aspect of the breath, As it comes in, Pauses at the top and as it releases, Pausing at the bottom, Really paying close attention to the sensation of the breath at the nose, Noting where this feeling is strongest for you, Inside the nose, The tip of the nose, Perhaps on the lips, Noting the details of the breath, A little bit cooler on the way in, A little bit warmer on the way out, If you notice your mind wandering or discover that you become lost in thought, Just gently, Lovingly, Turn your focus back to the breath, Our goal isn't to empty the mind and although we're trying to maintain our focus upon the breath, Our goal isn't even that, The goal of mindfulness is to become aware of what is arising in this moment, What is your mind doing, We place it upon the breath, Help it to focus upon the breath, But then it wanders, Our goal is to catch it wandering, That's the point, Mind wanders, We bring it back to the breath, Mind wanders, We bring it back, The act of becoming aware that you have wandered is the practice, Once again returning your focus back to the breath, We can approach this practice by way of analogy, You could imagine that the breath, Focusing upon the breath, Is you standing across from a busy road, Looking at a letterbox, The letterbox is the breath, And the road, The road is full of traffic, People walking, Bikes and cars and scooters and trucks, All different varieties, Very interesting, You're maintaining your focus upon the breath, Your focus upon the letterbox, But then a car comes and catches your thoughts, You're following it along, You realize no, Although that's an interesting car, Focusing back upon the letterbox, We don't get mad, Don't get upset that we got distracted by that car, This pedestrian, We should return our focus back to the letterbox, In the same way if our mind gets distracted by thoughts or moods or feelings, External sensations, Feelings within the body, It's okay, We lovingly return our focus back to the breath, Today we're practicing basic mindfulness, The traditional focus or anchor is of the breath, The nose, It's always available and it's ever-changing, But you can practice mindfulness with any anchor, Anything you feel, See, Touch, Taste or smell, Internal visualizations or thoughts, Almost anything, An action that you're doing, You pick the anchor, You focus fully on that anchor, Your mind wanders, You bring it back, I'm just reminding you that that is the goal, The goal is to notice where the mind is, Just gently bring it back, There are two main benefits, One, Develop the ability to focus upon an object, Your focus will improve, But that benefit is useless without knowing where your mind is, You might be able to focus, But if that focus changes without your awareness, Not great, So the major goal of mindfulness meditation is awareness of where the mind is at any one time, Your mind wanders, There's awareness, You bring it back, Focusing on the anchor, Again and again and again, So thank you for joining me, I'll see you in the next session, But if you like, We can spend 10 more minutes in silence together and choose to practice mindfulness meditation or any practice you like, If you are doing mindfulness meditation, You may find that your mind wanders for an extended time, That's okay, The moment you notice it, Bring it back, Let's begin, So if you'd like to maintain the meditation, You're more than welcome to do so, For everyone else, We're just gonna gently return back to our bodies, Back to the session, Back to our day, I believe that mindfulness is a core skill, Knowing where your mind is, What it's doing, In any moment is deeply and truly life applicable, We don't meditate to be good at meditating, We meditate so that our life can improve, Right, If you know or if you have the ability to be mindful on the meditation mat, In everyday life you will start to be mindful, You will note where your mind has wandered, If there are instances or circumstances where your emotions or your thoughts are shifted, Someone says or does something, Be better able to catch where your mind is going, Rather than become mindless, We return back to the analogy of the letter box in the cars, When we're mindless it's akin to us hopping into the car and going off, Get captured by the thought and taking down some path, The more mindful we are, The sooner we realize, The sooner we're like, Oh I'm not supposed to be in this car, You hop back out and back on the focus on the letterbox, Or even better, You realize that the car's coming and you're interested in it, With a broad awareness, You notice it but then you allow it to pass, In the same way in everyday life, People will say or do things, Stuff happens, That will shift where your mind is focused, You're aware of that and you can return it back to whatever you need to be doing or want to be doing, This is why I focus so heavily on mindfulness, Focusing of the mind, Awareness of the mind together, Gives you the ability to do most every other thing, So thank you for joining me, I'll see in the next session.