Week #1 Progress Check
Hello friends!
For those of us who have begun the journey to mindfulness and are now well into Week #1, I wanted to officially welcome you and offer some insights that may be helpful!
All of the exercises this week are intended to wrest control of the mind from the autopilot, Monkey-Mind mode and to begin cultivating the ability to focus attention on the present moment. This program is deceptively simple! You may spend the first couple of weeks wondering how less than 30 minutes of dedicated daily practice can possibly amount to anything at all. You may feel like you're not accomplishing anything! You may find your inability to turn off the Monkey Mind VERY frustrating. If that is the case, you have already made an important discovery:
The Monkey, not you, is calling the shots!
If that is the case, you have nowhere to go but up! You have nothing to reap but rewards. BUT, you must be patient. You can't just flip the switch and be mindful. (If that was the case, you would have done that already!) You have probably been training the Monkey Mind for decades already. Expecting to be able to spend five to 10 minutes or even five to 10 seconds without the chatter of the Monkey Mind upon your first or 40th meditation is probably completely unrealistic! (You will, inevitably, still have to push the Monkey aside on occasion). Telling yourself to "just be mindful already," is no different than telling someone to "just quit being depressed!" This is why mindfulness training programs at major hospitals and university medical centers across the country all follow an 8-week module. This is brain training. Retraining your brain takes time!
Ok, so a few tips!
Meditations are brain training: They are about procuring focus!
There are meditations to do every week. They are less than 8 minutes, and you are asked to do them a minimum of twice a day. The distinct nuance of mindfulness -- and mindful meditations -- is that you aren't expected to achieve some trance-like state -- a blank state of blind. Mindfulness asks you to direct your senses to the present moment, and there is never any void in the present moment. The present moment is full of color, sound, scents, and sensations! Sometimes there are cookies baking and birds singing. These sensory wonders are your tethers to the now -- everywhere and always!
Use your breath to focus your mind!
The greatest asset in all of your meditations -- anytime, anyplace -- is your own lifeforce. . .your very breath! Your breath is there to help you focus.
#1 Feel the rise and fall of your chest -- a broad expansion on the inhale, and a slow, gentle fall on the exhale.
#2 Breathe audibly. The meditations ask you to breathe naturally, and it feels more natural when you are lying on your back to keep your mouth relaxed and closed. That’s ok! When you take a good long audible inhale you can hear the whoosh of the breath enter the nasal cavity. Just putting a little bit more force behind your inhale and a closed-mouth exhale creates a very soothing sound in the back of your throat that fills your ear canal -- a lot like pressing your ear up to a conch shell. If you are doing your meditations in a seated position, it is yogi wisdom that you should exhale through your mouth. Again, exhale a bit more forcefully to create a soft “whoosh.”
#3 Listen for Secrets! Now focus on your breath with such intention and focus as if you are trying to hear a whisper from across the room.
When you focus on your breath, you make it very hard for the Monkey Mind to multi-task!
One last suggestion before I go! If you have tried the raisin meditation, you can give it several more rounds with any other type of dried food or a small bit of chocolate. This is a great exercise to teach children about mindfulness!
Let me know if these tips help, and please share with our readers any other suggestions you may have! Stay tuned for Week #2 exercises which will be posted Sunday evening.
See you next week. In the meantime. . .Enjoy the NOW!
Jennifer King