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 Just begin slowing down the breath 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 And 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 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 Well,
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 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 And 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
