The How of Mindfulness Meditation
Five ways of coming to your senses.
Your body is present. Is your mind?
Mindfulness meditation is a very simple form of meditation that explores life as it is occurring in the present moment, without being attached to pleasant experiences or resisting unpleasant ones. The goal is to attain both calm and insight.
Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakens. — Carl Jung
A typical meditation consists of focusing your undivided attention on your breath as it flows in and out of your body. Focusing on each breath lets you to notice and observe your thoughts as they arise in your mind and learn to let go of them.
You’ll soon realize that thoughts come and go of their own accord; that you are not your thoughts. You’ll watch as they appear in your mind, seemingly from thin air, and watch again as they disappear, like a soap bubble bursting. It’s a pretty profound insight that thoughts and feelings (including negative ones) are transient. They come and they go, and you have a choice whether or not to act on them.
“Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” ―Viktor Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning
Coming to your senses.
There are many, many ways to get to mindfulness, and five of them are summarized here:
- Breathing. You just focus on the nature of your breathing, in and out. As thoughts arise, don’t try to fight them. Just acknowledge them, like a calm observer from a distance.
- Physical sensations. Mindfulness can also be rather quickly attained by focusing on physical sensations within the body. How does the seat feel underneath you? What about the clothes on your back — can you feel them? Listen to the sound of the furnace or air conditioner. When you really pay attention, and come to your senses, the
- Postures. Like a walking meditation. Or Yoga. Yoga is a moving meditation that’s all about being present to whatever is going on in your body, in your mind, in your emotions, in your heart.
- Mantras. It’s sanskrit for “an instrument of the mind.” Repeating a mantra, like a word or sound or phrase, over and over can quickly silence the mind of extraneous thought, and lead you into a deep meditative state.
- Visualization. This one is kind of fun. The sky’s the limit, literally. With visualization meditation, you create a peaceful place in your mind and explore it.
To expand on just a few of them, lets first look at conscious breathing, the most widely used and practice approach to mindfulness meditation:
The Breath.
Let’s just do it. Try it out. Sit and breathe. Theory is great and all, but you’ve really just got to experience things to understand.
Sit down in a comfortable, quiet space. On a pillow on the floor. Or on a chair. Just don’t get so comfortable that you drift off to sleep ☺. Minimize the distractions. The breath needs to be the primary focus; a place to take refuge in during the meditation if thoughts wander. Close your eyes, or not. Just as long as your awake and comfortable. Commit to sitting for three minutes to focus just on your breath. Breath in and out.
On your first couple of breaths, notice the sensations associated with breathing: the expansion and contraction of the lower chest or abdomen with each in-breath and out-breath, one breath at a time. (You can place a hand on the stomach to help feel these few breaths better). Then breathe naturally without controlling the breath. Count your breaths slowly from 1 to 10 and back down again.
As thoughts show up in your mind, don’t get discouraged. Don’t even try to resist. Just acknowledge them, like a calm observer from a distance, and let the thoughts pass on by. You may be surprised by the restlessness of your mind. And by how hard it is to sit still. Every time that your mind wanders, gently bring your focus back to the breath.
Follow the changing sensations continuously from the beginning to the end of the in-breath then from the beginning to the end of the out-breath. Feel the movements in your body, tingling, pressure, vibration, lightness, heaviness, warmth, coolness. Try not to miss the end of both the in-breath and out-breath. A desire to seeing the end helps sustain the attention on the object.
For those of us blessed with a little extra mind-wandering distractibility, there’s a meditation technique you may want to try. It involves focusing on your in-breath and letting your mind wander on the out-breath. The idea is that all of us have a little mind-wandering now and then, even during meditation. This technique just feels a little more forgiving. Rather than punish yourself for having lost focus, you simply acknowledge your thought and then return to focusing on your in-breath. The focus is on the return.
It’s an analogy can apply to life. Make one small choice each day and then move to the next day. The next day, if it is not done, simply recognize that and make that choice again the next day. Do not punish yourself, because then you’ll never go back to making those choices.
Mantra du jour: I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and doggone it, people like me.
Mantra meditation is another common form of getting to mindfulness. , It involves repeating a mantra (a sound, word or phrase) over and over, until you silence the mind and enter a deep meditative state. The mantra can be anything you choose. Some good mantras to start with include words like one, peace, calm, tranquil, and silence. If you want to use more traditional mantras, you can use the word “Om” which symbolizes omnipresent consciousness.
In Sanskrit, the word mantra means “instrument of the mind.” The mantra is an instrument which creates vibrations in the mind, allowing you to disconnect from your thoughts and enter a deeper state of consciousness.
Silently repeat the mantra over and over to yourself as you meditate, allowing the word or phrase to whisper through your mind. Don’t worry if your mind wanders off, just refocus your attention and return to repeating the word.
Visualization.
Visualization is a fun one. Another popular mindfulness meditation technique where you create a peaceful place in your mind and explore it, until you reach a state of complete calm. The place you visualize could be a personal sanctuary, like a warm, sandy beach, a quiet forest or even a comfortable sitting room with a rug and a crackling fire.
Once you have entered your sanctuary, allow yourself to explore. There’s no need to “create” your surroundings, they are already there. Allow them to come to the forefront of your mind.
Take in the sights, sounds and scents of your surroundings — feel the fresh breeze against your face, or the heat of the flames warming your body. Enjoy the space for as long as you wish, allowing it to naturally expand and become more tangible. When you are ready to leave, take a few deep breaths, then open your eyes.
Know that you can come back to this same place the next time you meditate to visualization, or you can simply create a new space.
Body scan
Do a body scan. Doing a body scan involves focusing on each individual body part in turn and consciously relaxing it. It is a pretty simple mindfulness meditation technique where you can relax the mind and the body simultaneously.
Close your eyes and pick a starting point on your body, usually the toes. Concentrate on whatever sensations you can feel in your toes, and make a conscious effort to relax any contracted muscles and release any tension or tightness. Once the toes are fully relaxed, move on to your feet and repeat the relaxation process.
Continue along your body, moving upwards from your feet to your calves, knees, thighs, buttocks, hips, abdomen, chest, back, shoulders, arms, hands, fingers, neck, face, ears and top of your head. Take as long as you want.
Once you have completed the relaxation of each individual body part, focus on your body as a whole and enjoy the sensation of calmness and looseness you have achieved. Focus on your breathing for several minutes before coming out of your meditation practice.
Living mindfully in a tech-crazed urban jungle.
Practice mindfulness in your everyday life. Meditation doesn’t have to be limited to strictly defined practice sessions, you can also practice mindfulness throughout your day to day life. For example, in moments of stress, try to take a few seconds to focus solely on your breathing and empty your mind of any negative thoughts or emotions.
You can also practice mindfulness while you eat, becoming aware of the food and of the sensations you experience as you eat.
No matter what actions you perform in your day to day life, whether it’s sitting at a computer or sweeping the floor, try to become more aware of your body’s movements and how you feel in the present moment. This is living mindfully.
Where is this meditation journey going to take me?
One constant characteristic of humanity seems to be that we’re all searching for happiness. The problem is, real happiness doesn’t come from external circumstances. It can only be obtained from within.
What are the next steps? Well, progress towards compos sui — becoming master of our selves.
Compos sui = Master of One’s self.
The natural progression of meditation practice is being able to take a look inside and figuring out what’s going on in there — your strengths and weaknesses, what you like and don’t like, what works for you, what kind of relationships you want in your life, what you want your working life to look like, etc.
Then with these insights, the idea is that you set out to make the life you want for yourself. Because now you know who you are. Figure out who you are, decide what you want, then go out and get it.
“This being human is a guest house. Every morning is a new arrival. A joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor…Welcome and entertain them all. Treat each guest honorably. The dark thought, the shame, the malice, meet them at the door laughing, and invite them in. Be grateful for whoever comes, because each has been sent as a guide from beyond.” —Rumi
Mindfulness is about observing the self without criticizing. It’s about being compassionate with yourself and others. It gives you the mental tools to catch negative thought patterns before they push you into a downward spiral. When stress or negativity pop into your mind, rather than internalizing it and taking it personally, you simple observe these thoughts, like clouds in the sky, as they drift past you.
