How to Meditate Toolkit offers instruction for how to start a meditation practice and includes guided meditations for healing.
What is mindfulness?
Mindfulness is awareness of the present moment with kindness and curiosity.
It is awareness of the present moment, without clinging to it when it feels good, without turning away or trying to escape it when it feels uncomfortable, and without wanting it to be otherwise. We can practice mindfulness formally, with sitting meditation, mindful eating, walking meditation, writing meditation, or photography meditation, or informally, by applying the principles and practices of mindfulness to activities in our everyday life.
How to practice mindfulness meditation with the How to Meditate Toolkit:
If you’re already feeling busy and overwhelmed, start small, with 5 minutes per day, and begin with listening to guided meditation recordings. (see below for recorded meditations)
The two beginning types of practices that I teach include:
1. Concentration meditation – awareness of breathing and awareness of sound
2. Open awareness meditation
How to Meditate Toolkit for Concentration Practice
Awareness of breathing
I’d like to invite you to begin the practice by finding a place to meditate where you won’t be interrupted. Consider finding a comfortable seat that allows you to be alert but relaxed. If you feel comfortable, I’ll invite you to close your eyes, and if you prefer to leave your eyes open, consider choosing a spot two to three feet in front of you on which to focus, and relax your eyes into a soft gaze.
I’d like to invite you now to turn the attention to the breath, noticing the coming and going of the breath in and out of the body, the rise of the chest and the belly with the inhale and the lowering of the chest and belly with the exhale. If you have a difficult time getting a sense of this, it may help to place one hand on the chest and the other on the belly so that you can really feel this up and down movement of the chest and belly with the breath.
When the attention wanders (and it will, because that’s what everybody’s mind does), as soon as you notice that it has wandered, I’d like to invite you to objectively notice that and then bring the attention back to the breath. This is the practice, over and over again. I encourage you to start small, perhaps beginning with about two minutes. Any length of time that you practice is better than none, so if two minutes is all that you feel you have to give to it, keep that up. If you’d like to expand the practice, I’d encourage you to gradually increase the length of the practice to 24 minutes and see how that feels.
Awareness of sound meditation
If you feel undue anxiety with the awareness of breathing practice, I’d invite you to try awareness of sound meditation. This is the same as awareness of breathing practice, except that you rest the attention on sounds, noticing how some sounds come and go and others are steady. When the attention wanders, I’d invite you to notice that objectively, and then return the attention to sounds. This is the practice, over and over again.
How to Meditate Toolkit for Open Awareness Meditation
If you’d like to try open awareness meditation, find a location where you won’t be interrupted. I’d invite you to begin by turning the attention to either sounds or the breath for a few moments to focus the attention. When the attention wanders, I’d like to invite you to notice that with non-judgmental awareness, and then bring the attention back to sounds or the breath.
Now I’d like to invite you to move the attention on sounds or the breath to the background of your awareness as you make room in the foreground of your awareness for any dominant sensation, feeling, or thought that arises. I’d invite you to try to meet whatever arises with an attitude of non-judgment and kindness, without clinging to it, trying to turn away or escape it, and without wanting it to be otherwise. See if you can practice allowing whatever has arisen in your awareness to be as it is in this moment and just observe it. It’s like we’re taking a step back from our experience and practicing being aware of our experience from the perspective of our internal objective witness consciousness.
When you notice that the attention has wandered, I’d invite you to observe this, too, with non-judgement, curiosity, and kindness, and then bring the attention back to sounds or the breath or back to whatever dominant sensation, feeling, and thought has arisen. This is the practice, over and over again.
Studies have shown that open awareness meditation increases creativity, so if you’re a high achiever and creative thinker or artist, you’ll likely enjoy reaping this benefit of the practice as well!
Any length of time that you practice is better than none, so if two minutes is all that you feel you have to give to it, keep that up. If you’d like to expand the practice, I’d encourage you to gradually increase the length of the practice to 24 minutes and see how that feels.
Developing a Regular Meditation Practice with the How to Meditate Toolkit
If it feels right, I hope you’ll give it a try. There’s no right or wrong way to practice. What matters most is the sincerity with which you approach it. With a regular meditation practice, most people begin to reap many of the rewards, which may include an increased sense of peace, happiness, wellbeing, and creativity as well as decreased anxiety and depression, decreased psychological and physical pain.
Wishing you a deeper sense of peace and happiness. Please enjoy the resources below to support you in your practice.
Jen
If you’re ready for a more intensive mindfulness learning experience, schedule a free 15-minute consult with Jen to discuss meditation coaching options.
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Foundations of Mindfulness Practice from the MBSR 8-week course:
Mindfulness is nurtured by adopting the following attitudes in everyday life:
Beginner’s Mind: Try to develop an attitude as though you were seeing things for the first time. See if you can let go of preconceived notions about a person or experience and just be in the present moment as though you were meeting this experience or person for the first time.
Non-Judgment: Try to observe sensations, feelings, and thoughts in each moment without labeling or judging them as pleasant/unpleasant, good/bad, or right/wrong. Try to relate with sensations, feelings and thoughts with interest and compassion.
Acceptance: Try to acknowledge things exactly as they are in this moment.
Non-Striving: Try to practice being without trying to change anything, go anywhere, or do anything.
Patience: Try to have an understanding that life unfolds in its own timing.
Trust: Try to trust your own feelings and perspective.
Letting Go: Try to allow things to be as they are in this moment.
Self-Compassion: Try to develop an attitude of kindness, caring, and compassion toward yourself
You can practice these principles by being aware in your everyday moments. If, for example, you notice that you’re feeling impatient, you might ask yourself, “How can I apply the practice of patience to this situation right now?”
These attitudes are adapted from the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) course.
Jon Kabat Zinn, creator of the MBSR program, talks about mindfulness attitudes:
You may also want to try The Body Scan meditation. The Body Scan meditation is designed to help you become more aware of body sensations and practice noticing them with kindness and curiosity and without judgment and reactivity. It’s also designed to help you relax. It’s an excellent choice for recovering from chronic stress, and it can often help you to relax and fall asleep with greater ease at night.
Sign up for the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction 8-week course here.
ARTICLES ON MINDFULNESS MEDITATION
“How to Meditate Part I –Awareness of Breath Meditation”
JenningsWire: The World of Success. November 6, 2012
“How to Meditate Part II — Mindfulness of the Body”
JenningsWire: The World of Success. December 5, 2012
“How to Meditate Part III: Mindfulness of Feelings”
JenningsWire: The World of Success. April 18, 2013
“5 Things You Can Do to Live a Mindful Life.”
JenningsWire: The World of Success. October 24, 2012.
“Meeting Pain with Mindfulness”
PainPathways Magazine. Summer 2014 print edition
“Finding Joy After Loss”
Psychology Today Blog Guest post for Eric Maisel’s Rethinking Psychology blog. April 2, 2013
If you’re ready for a more intensive mindfulness learning experience, schedule a free 15-minute consult with Jen to discuss mindfulness training and coaching options.
I hope you’ve found the How to Meditate Toolkit helpful and that you’ll feel inspired to develop a regular meditation practice. Wishing you well in your meditation journey.
Warmly,
Jen