Hello and 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,
I'm just beginning by taking some slow deep breaths in through the nose,
Just taking a moment to scan the body,
Scan the mind,
Just releasing any surface level tensions and when you're ready allowing your breath to return to its normal rate and turning your attention towards it,
Today we'll be practicing mindfulness meditation,
Exploring a point of focus,
Beginning with the breath,
When our mind wanders we're gonna gently and lovingly return it to that point of focus,
Let's try that now,
Really focusing deeply on the sensations of the breath at the nose,
If you notice yourself wandering into thought or mood or sensation or distraction,
Label it,
You notice the thought,
You could say thought and then return your focus back to the breath,
You get lost in a memory,
Say memory,
Bring your focus back to the breath,
I want to remind you that the goal of the practice is not to have an empty mind,
The goal of our mindfulness practice is to become aware of where the mind is at any one time,
We do that by focusing our mind on the nose,
Our mind wanders,
We realize that it's wandering,
We bring it back to the point of focus,
The act of realizing that our mind has wandered somewhere is the practice,
So I encourage you to,
In the moment of discovery that your mind has wandered,
Check your attitude,
Notice what you feel,
Is there a bit of annoyance or disappointment,
Some other sort of negative emotion there,
If so,
Acknowledge it,
But also realize that this is the practice,
Capturing where your mind is,
Bringing it back to the point of focus upon the nose,
Really feeling the sensations of the breath at the nose deeply,
Capturing the entirety of the breath,
Noticing where you're feeling the sensations the most,
Noticing the difference of temperature,
Cooler on the way in,
Warmer on the way out,
Noticing which nostril the air is traveling up,
Feeling it all,
We're deploying our focused attention upon the breath at the nose almost like we're looking through a microscope,
Really focusing deeply on those sensations,
But we're also keeping an aspect of broad awareness,
99% of our mind is on the breath,
But 1% is tracking,
Noticing potential things that can distract us,
There's a thought,
There's a sensation,
There's a memory,
In our broad awareness we're just tracking the things that are arising and falling away,
And in that way we're able to maintain our focus upon the breath,
Focused attention upon the breath,
Broad awareness of the potential distractions,
Something arises in your broad awareness,
You label it,
But maintaining your focused attention upon the breath,
And a technique to enhance your focus,
If you find your mind is bouncing,
Is to add a count or a label to the breath,
As you breathe in,
You could choose to mentally label it in,
In,
In,
And as you breathe out,
You label it as out,
Out,
Out,
In this way we're adding an additional tool,
Point of focus to the breath,
It may help to maintain your focused attention upon the breath,
Or you could also try counting,
Each breath you label as one,
Then two,
And three,
And so on,
All the way up to ten,
If you get to ten,
You begin again at zero,
If at any time you find yourself lost in thought and forgetting the count,
Once again you start back at the start,
So let's try,
Let's try that now,
So in this session we explored mindfulness meditation,
With the tools of focused attention and broad awareness,
Labeling,
And counting,
We practice mindfulness meditation formally,
On the meditation mat,
So we can bring the benefits into our life,
Our goal is to become aware of where the mind is,
Notice if we become lost in thought or emotion or triggers or overwhelm,
And then return it back to a point of focus,
Like the breath,
Or whatever it is we're supposed to be doing,
It is a core skill,
One that is necessary for most all other meditative practices,
Spiritual traditions and psychological therapeutic approaches,
Awareness of the mind and the ability to focus transcends,
And the deeper you go with the practice,
The more subtlety you will start to discover,
So thank you for joining me in this little exploration of mindfulness meditation,
Have a good one,
But if you like we can sit together for ten more minutes,
Ten more minutes of silent practice,
Where you can explore mindfulness more deeply,
Using any of the techniques and tools we discussed in this session,
Or any other technique or practice you would like,
Let's begin,
So if you'd like to maintain the meditation,
You are more than welcome to do so,
But for everyone else,
Just gently returning themselves back,
Back to their bodies,
Back to the session,
Back to the day,
Today we explored mindfulness meditation,
It's important to remind you of the goal,
The goal of mindfulness is not to empty the mind,
The goal of mindfulness is to become aware of where the mind is at any one place,
We become aware that we've become lost in thought,
That's good,
We've discovered the truth of where we're at now,
We bring our focus back to the point that we've chosen,
The anchor,
Traditionally the breath,
But it could be on anything that we've chosen,
Our mind wanders,
We bring it back,
That's how we practice mindfulness,
We do so so we can bring the benefits of this practice off the meditation mat and into our day,
More we're aware of where our mind is going,
The more choice we have in the moment,
That choice,
That mindful choice allows us to live a more value aligned life,
A life where we're less responsive,
Reactive and more purpose-driven,
Calmer,
More connected,
Mindfulness is the awareness that arises from purposely paying non-judgmental attention to the present moment,
The mind will wander into thought,
Into feelings,
Into memories,
Into pain,
Into pleasure,
Into whatever,
We acknowledge it,
Gently,
Lovingly bring it back to focus,
Thank you for joining in this session and I'll see you in the next one.
