Mindfulness for Beginners Part 1: Attention & Awareness
Welcome to this 4-part Mindfulness for Beginners series.
Mindfulness is the direct experience of the present moment without judgement or interpretation.
In today’s video Part 1 - we cover the foundations of mindfulness meditation; what is mindfulness and how can it benefit us?
Join the group as we practice and review mindfulness meditation techniques - using the breath in our abdomen as our object of concentration.
Explore the difference between Attention and Awareness - using awareness as a watchful "motion-sensor" to call your mind back from distraction, and using "rewards" to reinforce and strengthen single-pointed concentration as you start to enjoy the peaceful cessation of the minds' chatter.
Meditation should feel rewarding and fulfilling, and not enforced, and I hope this series helps you access this life-changing ability to tap into the wisdom and stillness that you have inside.
Mindfulness for Beginners Part 2: Dullness and Excitation
In this video, we build stability of our meditation practice; stability of practice in terms of creating a sustainable meditation habit, and stability of mindfulness, with awareness frequently “checking in” to ensure your mind remains on the object of attention.
HOMEWORK PRACTICE
To start the meditation, take a few breaths to calm the mind, focus attention on the sit bones/feet on the floor, remind yourself of the benefits of meditation, use your 5 senses to bring attention inwards.
When complete, start focussing on the object of your attention e.g. breath at the abdomen / tip of your nose.
STABILITY OF ATTENTION:
the antidote to dullness is clarity - use the in-breath to bring heightened focus on the object of attention - in this case the breath.
the antidote to excitation is relaxation - use the out-breath to calm-down the over-excited mind. Watch out - as the mind tends to wander most on the out-breath - so it's good to sometimes use a "hook" to keep your mind interested e.g. punctuate the end of your outbreath (you can use a word like “out” or a sensory or visual punctuation).
The focus is not to “grasp” the object of your concentration to the exclusion of everything else, but to be relaxed and curious when exploring your breath. Allow your awareness to acknowledge any background sounds, thoughts, or sensations that are present, and bring your attention back to your breath again.
when your awareness catches your attention wandering - reward it! "label" what your mind attends to, then centre it back on the object of attention.
CREATING A STABLE COMMITMENT TO PRACTICE:
The process to ensure ongoing practice: find a time in the day that works for you, remind yourself of the benefits of meditation, just do it!
Mindfulness for Beginners Part 3: Judgement & Interpretation
In part 3 of our Mindfulness course, we look at mindfulness of the breath, body, thoughts, and emotions, and the importance of building a stable foundation of single-pointed concentration to allow us to notice our thoughts, patterns and behaviours in our everyday life.
We look at then just letting these thoughts go - without judgment, or interpretation; without attaching the narrative of ego, and indulging conceptual stories that keep us in a loop of self-identification e.g. rather than "I AM anxious" we can notice that "anxiety is happening."
We explore how insight meditation (Vipassana) can be used as a separate and complementary practice, to further investigate insights around what our mind attends to, our thoughts, patterns and beliefs - so that we can consciously start to re-program our behaviors and responses.
Mindfulness for Beginners Part 4: Thoughts Arise, Abide, Dissolve.
In Part 4, we become psychonauts - exploring the space of the mind and our objective and subjective experience of the parade of content that goes through our consciousness. We use introspective observation to notice our thoughts as they arise, abide, and dissolve, as well as our emotional response to them. It is a journey of surprise and discovery (move over Netflix!)
see notes to help your practice below!
Notes to help your practice:
1) Start your practice as normal - focusing on the benefits of meditation and drawing your attention inwards through your 5 senses.
2) As you build stability of your attention, add watchfulness as the close companion to awareness, pro-actively noticing when your mind starts to wander/go dull; do a mental check-in every 5 or 6 breaths (whatever feels comfortable) and use the antidotes of clarity / relaxation breath and postural shifts to re-align yourself.
3) When you feel you have the necessary stability - turn your attention towards your mind, opening with the statement said out loud in your mind: "This is the space of the mind. Thoughts arise, abide & dissolve."
4) Watch the objective appearance of content passing through your consciousness, as they arise, abide & dissolve - without grasping, or wishing them to stay or go.
5) Watch the subjective appearance i.e. your response to the content (as positive, negative or neutral). Take your subjective response as the object of your attention, without grasping.
6) Surrender control of the breath, of the mind. Surrender grasping to concepts.
7) Once you have spent sufficient time watching the content and your emotional response, move to watching the gap between appearances. This feels imbued with non-conceptuality, stillness, luminosity.
8) If / when you find your mind wandering, congratulate your awareness / watchfullness for catching it, and bring yourself back to the object of attention, re-saying the statement "this is the space of the mind; thoughts arise, abide & dissolve" and start again.
Final thought
You've seen how thoughts and their stories affect us all emotionally and physically. This impacts our mindsets, behaviors, and actions - which in turn impacts the way we turn up in the world and therefore the way that we are received.
Our mind determines our concept of the world. When we change our mind - we change our world - not just for the sake of ourselves, but for the sake of all others too.
Your psychonaut journey is just beginning : ) Enjoy.