 |
| benefitsofmeditation.com |
As with mastering any worthwhile
skill, you sometimes have to practice. The word “practice” can have multiple
meanings. In one way, it means putting to use or applying, as in “He practices
what he preaches.” Another meaning suggests repeating a skill or behavior until
you get good at it, as in “He practices the piano.” Mindfulness can be
practiced in both ways. In the following sections, I encourage you to work with
more structured exercises geared to help you practice and eventually master the
skills of mindfulness. It does take some effort, but the results will be well
worth it.
Staying in the present
I’m sure you’ve heard slogans like
“Stay in the present!” or “Be here now!” And for good reason. The reality is
that all you really have is the present. Running on auto-pilot robs you of your
present experience. You fail to appreciate the meaningful details that make up
the fabric of your life. Your automatic behaviors can hijack the present,
leaving you unaware of what’s happening right now. You miss life! Your thoughts
and emotions can also become automatic. Too much of our mental and emotional
life is spent reflexively, looking backward, rehashing the past, lamenting, and
regretting things we said or did (or failed to say or do). And if we aren’t
looking backward, we’re worrying about or planning for what the future will
bring. In contrast, mindfulness invites you to live your life as it unfolds, in
the present.
Breathing more
mindfully
This simple breathing exercise can
help you stay focused on the present.
1.Find a place where you will be relatively undisturbed for a few
minutes.
Set a timer for a length of time that
realistically fits your schedule. A few minutes should work fine.
2.Sit comfortably in a chair or on a cushion.
3. Begin paying attention to your breathing.
Notice where you feel your breath. Is
it higher in your chest or lower in your belly? Do you inhale and exhale
through your nose or mouth?
4.Focusing on your breathing, begin counting upward from one to ten and
then backward from ten to one.
If your attention wanders, you lose
count, you over-count, or you find your thoughts taking you to another place,
gently bring your attention back to the breathing and counting. Simply start
again at one.
So, how did you do? Were you able to
detach and get some separation from your thoughts and feelings? It’s not easy.
Our minds are busy generating thoughts — all kind of thoughts all the time. Our
thoughts and feelings grab us and pull us in. Too often our minds get locked
into our worries, opinions, judgments, and concerns. We need some psychological
distance.
____________________________
Picturing
a day at the beach
Not long ago I came across an issue
of New Yorker magazine with a cover illustration depicting a family — a mom,
dad, and two kids, posing for a picture on the beach while on their vacation in
Hawaii. The resulting photograph showed all four of them glued to their digital
devices. No one looked up. They were oblivious, completely unaware of being
photographed or of anything else around them — the bright blue sky, the swaying
palm trees, the turquoise ocean. For me, this captured the essence of what it
means not to be living in the present.
________________________
Don’t worry if you had to restart
several times. Don’t judge your performance. Cut yourself some slack. The goal
is not to do this exercise perfectly but rather to become aware of how you can
control your attention and focus, stay in the present, and recognize how easily
your thoughts can pull you off track.
Exercises like this one can help you
be more in the present. They can free you from the pull of everyday concerns
and worries. The goal isn’t primarily to relax you or quiet your mind, though
this is often a benefit. The goal of this and similar exercises is to train you
to become aware of what you’re attending to and to become better able to shift
that attention — and eventually to be more aware in the present moment.
No comments:
Post a Comment