Introduction to Mindfulness Meditation
Mindfulness Meditation is a form of quiet sitting. We all sit, right? But, quietly? Some of us, not so much. We fidget, we make up reasons not to, we get bored. It happens to all of us, and shows up in meditation too.
Meditation is an intentional way of sitting.
In this way, you sit with the purpose of noticing your thoughts without judging them as good, bad, stupid, or wrong, which is an essential piece of the practice.
Whatever comes through is just... thought.
You also sit with the intention not to change or fix anything.
Sometimes while sitting, you may notice thought behaviors like cyclical thinking.
For example, maybe you beat yourself up for something you've done (or not done) in the past, or worry about the future, or maybe you think you're not good enough, and this thought repeats itself again and again in various forms and takes you into these elaborate stories.
This may be harmful or, at the very least, not helpful. It takes you out of the present moment.
The best way to see how this affects you is to notice the thought without judgment.
The brain produces about 60,000 thoughts per day (crazy, right?) and with mindfulness, you learn to take none of them personally. It's a function of the brain.
With Awareness, you can see where you may be feeding thoughts energy and learn to let them pass through instead.
- A common misconception is that learning meditation will improve one's ability to have no thoughts. It's my pleasure to tell you this is just not true. You will always have thoughts, no matter how good a meditation student you are. Thoughts are part of being a human.
You won't turn thought off, but you can learn to be more skilled and notice them and also notice the sensations that comes with them at them. Maybe when you experience anxiety, you feel it through your chest, or you have shortness of breath. When you feel sadness, you feel a heaviness in your shoulders.
Consistent practice at the beginning makes meditation easier. Over time, you may find that some days you can walk through your entire day as meditation without sitting once.
Benefits of Meditation
Mindful Meditation For Sleep
Mindful Meditation for Anxiety
Mindful Meditation for Stress
Mindful Meditation for Spiritual Growth
Mindful Meditation for Pain Relief
Mindful Meditation for Substance Abuse
How to Practice Mindfulness Meditation
One powerful tool in your toolbox.
It's a good idea to use guided meditation when beginning a practice because you are building a new muscle.
It's hard to sit still sometimes when your mind is telling you to do just about anything else! It will remind you of the laundry, or to call a friend back, clean up the house. If that doesn't work, it may try to convince you that you're not good at meditation and how it's a waste of time. All of this is normal and to be expected.
You may have never fully realized the hold this "roommate" (the mind) has on you until you meditate. It has been running your life up until this point! When you shift into the seat of Awareness and experience it firsthand, it can be pretty far out! That's why people will call it awakening. You awaken out of the illusion that the mind is who you really are. It's normal to be caught in this trap, again and again, every single day, so every time you notice, you're awakening again.
People talking about Awareness can feel clunky because it's hard to put into words. It's experiential. You'll see that when you experience it firshand, you open up to a new way of living as a human Being. The human part (mind) and the Being part (Awareness) are always in a dance, whether we see it or not. When we do see it, life shifts! The joys and sorrows are felt with a deeper Knowing than the mind will allow.
“It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.”
—Henry David Thoreau
Mindfulness does not make difficult times disappear. Instead, it shows you how to interact with the circumstances of your life from a place where you feel more balance and harmony. You may begin to see how the mind creates much of the fuss and illusion. This alone opens up the door to experience more freedom (and joy!) in each moment.
7 Steps To Mindful Living
Mindfulness is meant to be a background for your life, not another thing to put on your to-do list.
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