We live in turbulent times, with terrible wars, economic and political uncertainty, and the background climate crisis. On a personal level, many people are experiencing anxiety, not getting enough sleep, and feeling stressed and agitated. Even if we only experience these symptoms occasionally, in this state, we are more prone to being distracted by unintentional thoughts as well as reacting automatically, which damages our well-being as well as our ability to think clearly and respond skilfully.
When we meditate, we reverse this momentum, slowing down the whirlwind of activity to access a gentler, more aware, peaceful, and expansive sense of who we are. Rather than being lost in thought about the past or future, we’re anchored in the present; aware of and appreciating our body and senses, reconnecting with the peace, and potential that’s always available behind every moment of experience.
Meditation has been practiced for thousands of years and can be found in all major religions. There are many different types: watching the breath, listening to an internal repeated sound or mantra, chanting, and inner contemplation.
Within mindfulness, there are mainly two types of meditation: focused and open:
- Focused meditation helps build our attention and concentration skills as well as our awareness of the present-moment experience. The intention is to hold our attention on an object like the breath, physical sensations, or sound and to bring our attention back to the object when our attention is drawn away to something else. Focusing “one mindfully”, on one thing at a time, is a practical example of using this skill informally during the day.
- Open monitoring meditation is about being open to whatever arises in our experience, whether this is a thought, emotion, feeling, sensation, or sense perception. Whatever arises, the content is noticed in open, expansive awareness without reacting, grasping, resisting, avoiding, liking, or not liking. Whatever arises is allowed to play out and release back into the natural background of experience. An example of informal open monitoring during the day is to notice and allow whatever arises on a walk, passing thoughts and emotions, sights, sounds, smells, and the movement of your body.
Although open monitoring is a more advanced practice that becomes easier with consistent focused attention practice, we often use both forms of meditation. Regular meditation trains our attention and expands our awareness. It also brings emotional stability, and mental clarity, and allows us to respond more skilfully, be more creative, notice more, and access useful insights and intuitions.
No one is ever a perfect meditator, and everyone experiences difficulties with meditation at some point. Our minds will always wander. Although automatic thoughts can be useful, providing solutions to difficult problems, insightful, and creative, they can also be limiting, depleting, and negative. By practising mindfulness meditation, we’re able to notice when this happens and experience fewer negative automatic thoughts. Apart from eating healthily, regular exercise, and getting enough sleep, neuroscientists found that regular meditation practice contributes to brain health and performance, including improving memory and learning.
Some meditation tips include:
- Like brushing your teeth, you will experience much greater benefits if you manage to weave consistent practice into your daily routine. After a while, you will feel not ready for the day without it.
- People have been doing this for thousands of years and all of them got better with consistent practice.
- Meditate somewhere that is comfortable, where you will not be disturbed.
- If you are pressed for time, it’s better to meditate for 2-3 minutes than none.
- Before you start each meditation set an intention for how you are going to dedicate this special time.
- If you have thoughts and anxieties about how long you have been meditating, try using a free mobile phone app like Insight Timer, which has a timed bell that you can set.
- Be kind and gentle with yourself and let go of any self-criticism about difficulties with your meditation – it is not a competitive sport.
- The goal is not to stop or block thoughts. One of the key skills is to notice, as soon as you can, when your attention has gone off in thought, then gently bring your attention back to the intention you set at the beginning.
Whatever your reasons for cultivating mindfulness, whether to reduce stress, anxiety, low mood, or improve performance, relationships, creativity, health or general well-being, you will experience a faster and more noticeable impact, when you establish a daily meditation routine.
Suggested weekly practice
- Experiment with meditating for ten to fifteen minutes in the morning for a couple of days, followed by a day without, and see what difference that makes.
- Our minds will always wander, so don’t get too critical or discouraged if sometimes you find that you’ve been off in thought rather than meditating.
- Noticing that your mind has wandered is a significant step. Millions of people are not aware that this is what happens to their attention.
Guidance
Find somewhere undisturbed and sit in a comfortable, dignified, and upright posture, where you can remain alert and aware.
There are two guided practices for this session. You can close your eyes, or lower your gaze while the meditations play.
- Play the settling practice, then read through the session content, which you can print off if that helps.
- Then play the second practice to explore both focused attention and open monitoring forms of meditation.
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