Using Labels To Enhance Mindfulness

In this session we practice 'Mindfulness Meditation (using labels)', followed by 10 mins of silence. Start with a traditional mindfulness practice: choosing a meditation object and focusing on it. When your mind wanders label where it went, eg: thought, memory, sensation, sound etc. Then with love and compassion, return your focus back onto the anchor. Use the labels of 'distraction' or 'cloud' as a catch all, or for when you are not sure what distracted you. Labels can help you to better notice the contents of your consciousness.

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 slowing down the breath and taking a moment to check into the body, Noticing and releasing any surface level tensions that might be present and turning your attention to the mind space, Noting any lingering thoughts, Memories, Moods, Emotions, Just allowing them to slip away, To pass. Today we're going to be looking at mindfulness meditation, Adding the idea of labeling. So we'll begin with the basic mindfulness meditation instruction, You pick an anchor, In most cases the breath, And you turn your attention towards it, So let's try that now, Really deeply feel the sensations of the breath entering and leaving the nose, If you notice your mind wandering, Gently, Lovingly, Return it back to the sensations of the breath at the nose, Our goal isn't to change anything, To alter anything, It's just to become aware, Our mind wanders, We bring it back, We noticed ourselves getting lost in thought, Mood, Sensation, We bring it back to the sensations at the nose, Just feel the breath moving, That's the basic practice of mindfulness meditation, But we can add something known as labeling, We maintain our anchor upon the breath, But when we catch our mind wandering, We label it, We label what we got lost or what we found ourselves focusing on instead of the breath, Your mind wanders and you realize you're lost in thought, So you label it thought, Or mood, Or memory, Or sensation, Or sound, The act of labeling gives you a better chance of being able to bring your attention back to the breath, Back to your anchor, Your mind wanders, You label it, Bring it back, If you notice yourself distracted, If you notice you've stopped focusing on the breath, Label what you got distracted by and then gently, Lovingly return your attention back to the breath, Sometimes you don't know how to label what captured your attention, In those cases, You might just label whatever it is as distraction, Or you might find that there's a combination or an overwhelm, When that arises for me, I call it the cloud, As in sort of a raging cloud of different things, If you find yourself lost, If you find yourself distracted, Label it and gently, Lovingly return back to the sensations of the breath at the nose, It's important to remember that the goal of mindfulness meditation is not to empty the mind, It's not really even to stay focused on the breath or the anchor, Really it's to become aware of the contents of consciousness, To notice where the mind is, So when you catch your mind lost, Distracted, That's the goal, You're doing it, Now yes, Over time you will develop focus, You will get better at maintaining a single point, But the goal of the practice primarily is to notice where the mind is and then bring it back, That's why we say gently and lovingly return it back to the breath, If you don't berate yourself, Bring yourself down or criticize yourself when you notice yourself lost in thought, It's actually the thing you're looking to do, It's better to capture yourself to realize your mind has become lost in thought, Returning it back to the breath, Than it is to be unaware that you've become lost, So one more final time, We turn our attention to the sensations of the breath at the nose, If we find ourselves lost in thought, Emotion, Memory, Sensation, Sound, The cloud, Distraction, We label it and gently, Lovingly return it back to the sensations of the breath at the nose, So I want to thank you for meditating with me, And just remind you that the goal of mindfulness meditation is to become aware of where the mind is, It's not to empty the mind, It's not to never become lost in thought, Those states may be possible, But for all intents and purposes, Our goal is to become aware of where the mind is, Then gently and lovingly return it back to the breath, This practice will begin to transcend off the meditation mat, We don't meditate to get better at meditating, In the same way that we don't exercise to get better at exercise, We exercise so that our body is healthy or so that our skills and strength improves when we're not exercising, In the same way we meditate so that our mind, We are more aware of our mind and our mind is more focused when we're not meditating, Throughout our day, You'll start to see moments of anger, Of jealousy, Of fear, Of joy, Of love, Of happiness, You'll start to notice the contents of your consciousness and be able to make better choices, Rather than just falling in, You'll give yourself that mindful pause and be able to choose what to do instead, Practice daily and that will start happening for you, So thank you for joining me and I'll see you in the next session, But if you like we can sit in silence together for 10 minutes, We can practice mindful labeling or any other practice we would like to try, Let's begin, So if you'd like to maintain the meditation, You're more than welcome to do so, Feel free to continue for as long as you like, But for everyone else I'd like to say thank you for joining in, For meditating together, For practicing mindfulness, Every session you do is a win, It's not about how focused your mind was or how often you catch it lost in thought or distraction, The win is the session you do, If you do the meditation that's a good session, Simple, So thank you for joining in, Thank you for turning up, Thank you for sharing this space, I'll see you in the next one, Catch up.