What Is Mindfulness Meditation?

Mindfulness Meditation is the act of purposefully paying non-judgmental attention to the present moment. To begin meditation, focus on the sensations of your breath. When you notice that you are distracted, gently return your focus back to the breath. Sounds simple enough, however, the beginning meditator quickly runs up against a plethora of questions, concerns and insights. This talk aims to inform and empower all who wish to start a successful mindful meditation practice.

Transcript

Mindfulness is the act of purposely paying non-judgmental attention to the present moment.

To begin practicing mindful meditation is quite simple.

You choose a meditation object,

For example,

The sensations of the breath entering and leaving the nose.

Take a seat,

Set a timer,

Close your eyes and focus your attention onto the breath.

If your mind wanders,

You just gently return it back to focusing on the breath.

Then you repeat the process of catching your mind wandering and gently returning it to the sensation of the breath for the duration of the session.

Anything that draws your attention away from the breath is considered a distraction.

All distractions should be acknowledged and then let go of,

And then you are to return your focus back to the breath.

Potential distractions include memories,

Emotions,

Moods,

Thoughts,

Sleepiness,

Excitedness,

Boredom,

Real world sounds,

Physical sensations,

Basically anything that draws your attention other than the breath.

It is necessary here to dispel a couple of myths.

The goal of meditation,

Mindfulness meditation at least,

Is not to clear your mind.

Thoughts,

Emotions and other mental phenomena will arise.

Your job as the meditator is to notice when you get distracted and then gently return your focus back to the breath.

I will now go a little bit deeper on some of these concepts,

But for all intents and purposes you are ready to start your meditation practice.

If you practice daily,

Even for a small amount of time,

You will reap the benefits of increased focus,

Mental stability and clarity.

Over time you will also develop deep insights into the nature of your mind.

This will have wide reaching and positive ramifications.

Now traditionally mindfulness meditation is practiced using the breath as the object of meditation,

As the point of focus.

This is because the breath is with us no matter where we go.

It is at least partially automatic and it is constantly changing.

This nature of constant change allows it to serve as a good focus point to hone our mind when developing mindfulness.

Unfortunately,

Breath work has a couple of limitations.

Number one,

It needs to be performed in a stationary position.

This can lead to muscle cramps and sleepiness that will hinder beginner practitioners.

Number two,

Its sedentary nature can cause the practice to feel separate from everyday life.

This is an issue as the real goal of our practice is to bring mindfulness into everyday life.

Number three,

For some people focusing on the breath can be a cause of mental duress,

A trigger if you will.

Thus breath work for them can be prohibitive to the establishment of a practice.

I will soon break these issues down and offer some alternatives,

But it's first important to note that anything can be used as a point of mindful focus.

Beyond the breath,

We can use sounds,

Either environmental or from a soundtrack,

A mantra repetition,

Physical sensations,

For example the wind or pressure from the ground on our feet,

Or visually observing something like a candle,

A flower,

Or a portrait.

Advanced practitioners can even use physical pain and mental phenomena themselves,

Including thoughts and feelings of joy,

Tiredness,

Distress,

Boredom,

Elation,

And other such mental phenomena as their meditation object.

So really,

You are free to choose whatever you would like to focus on in your practice.

Just be aware that some things are easier to start with than others.

Anything that is loud,

Strong,

Or emotionally stimulating,

For good or bad,

Will be a hinder,

At least initially.

But remember,

Our ultimate goal is to take our practice into everyday life,

So even if you choose one object as your prime focus,

It's ideal that you eventually practice with others.

With this in mind,

Let's break down some of the issues that we may come across in our meditation practice,

And discuss some of the solutions that will enable us to continue our practice.

Dealing with tiredness and physical discomfort.

Technically,

The feelings of tiredness or physical discomfort should be treated like all other distractions,

Gently acknowledged,

And then let go of,

Followed by your return to the breath.

Unfortunately,

Beginners can become overwhelmed by pain,

Or accidentally fall asleep without realizing it.

This is not ideal,

And personally,

I don't advocate gritting it through unbearable pain.

Sure,

If it's a minor annoyance,

Treat it as a distraction.

Doing so will teach you valuable lessons.

But when it becomes too much,

Gently and mindfully move.

That means paying attention to your desire to move,

Paying attention to the act of moving,

And then paying attention to the changing sensations as the pain leaves,

Then gently returning your focus back to the breath.

Similarly,

For small amounts of tiredness,

Treat it as a distraction and move on.

But to combat extreme tiredness,

You could try taking some deep and fast breaths to reinvigorate your mind.

Once again,

Be sure to do this in a mindful manner,

Paying attention to your actions and their results.

You could also try changing your meditation position to one that is standing,

Or by practicing mindful walking.

This would mean changing the meditation object to the sensation of your feet as they touch and leave the ground.

The second issue for beginning mindful meditators is a failure to bring mindfulness into everyday life.

There is a risk of portioning of our practice into one small part and then going about the rest of the day totally mindlessly.

This defeats most of the point of our practice.

There is an analogy here to lifting weights.

We don't lift weights in the gym just to be able to lift more weights in the gym.

No,

We do it so that our bodies are healthier and more functional in everyday life.

We exercise in the gym to get benefits outside of the gym.

Similarly,

We should meditate on the mat to get benefits off the mat.

To ensure that we are being mindful throughout the day,

We can take the following actions.

First,

As we finish our formal practice,

We can set the intention to maintain a level of mindfulness throughout the day.

Saying to ourselves,

I'll bring my mindfulness practice into my day and then,

As we rise,

We do so mindfully,

Paying attention to our inner state and intentions as the world floods back in,

Rather than immediately talking to someone or checking social media.

We can also integrate mindfulness into our day by linking regularly occurring environmental stimulus as triggers to take a mindful breath.

For example,

Whenever you touch a door handle,

You are to take one moment,

That's one mindful breath of attention.

This will cause you to be briefly mindful on multiple occasions throughout the day.

A third major issue of breath-focused mindfulness meditation is that it can be triggering or anxiety inducing.

For some people,

Breath work simply doesn't work for them.

For these people,

The act of focusing on the breath is so overwhelming that it can be detrimental.

This could be caused by past life events or from a variety of mental health complications.

Traditional teachers not aware of these kind of inner worlds and issues will regularly tell their students to treat these feelings in the same way as I have previously described,

By acknowledging them and letting them go and then to return their focus back to the breath.

Whilst this advice may be technically or traditionally correct,

It could be totally counterproductive to a new meditator or even one with many hours under their belt.

It's my view that,

Like physical pain,

There is an upper limit that can be reached.

So if you find yourself having a panic attack during a meditation session,

Perhaps consider changing the object of meditation to something that is less triggering for you.

For example,

The physical sensations coming from the feet,

Sounds coming into the ears,

Or the light coming into your eyes from a chosen visual stimulus.

Remember,

Any object can be used to practice mindfulness.

We don't need to martyr ourselves to extreme emotional or physical pain to get the benefits.

For most people,

Doing so will cause us to despise meditation and then to ultimately quit.

This isn't ideal at all.

I want to close with a couple of suggestions for getting the most out of your practice.

Meditate daily.

I started with one minute per day and grew up from there.

More is better of course,

But like exercise,

Something is infinitely better than nothing.

So do what you can with the time that you have.

Remember that practice makes perfect.

Your goal is to return your focus back to the object of meditation,

Not to clear your mind.

So don't get down on yourself for failing when you notice your mind wandering.

Really,

That noticing is the success that you're looking for.

By noticing your mind getting distracted,

You are being mindful.

You are paying non-judgmental attention to the present moment.

In this case,

The workings of your mind.

Finally,

Don't hunt for the benefits of meditation.

With time,

They will come.

There is always a lag between actions and rewards.

So meditate daily.

One day you'll have the realization that you are just doing better.

You'll notice that you've been arguing less,

Feeling calmer and maintaining better relationships.

You'll have more energy.

You'll have more focus.

You'll start to see your priorities and actions shifting towards things that are more in line with your values.

But that's enough talk from me.

It's time to meditate.

Reviews

Thank you for giving a perspective that works with daily life in a way that is nourishing and specific.

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