What Meditation Really Is

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- Ch: 02 of Mindfulness, A Guidebook to the Present Moment -

‘Be here now.’ – Ram Dass

If you struggled to maintain your focus on the breath with the ‘Basic Mindfulness’ meditation practice, do not worry. That is to be expected and is totally fine. The worst thing you can do here, other than stopping your practice altogether, is to beat yourself up over it.

I want to dig down on step four of the above meditation practice, that is ‘if your mind wanders, gently return your focus back to the breath.’ This instruction contains the real crux of mindfulness meditation. We can say we are meditating correctly when we notice that our attention has wandered. It is the act of noticing distraction and returning our attention back to the meditation object (in this case the breath) that will be the core focus of a lot of our initial mindful work. So, when you are practicing, do not get discouraged if your attention wanders, rather take your noticing of that wandering as a small victory. Each time you notice your mind has wandered, you are improving your ability to focus, and thus your mindfulness will improve.

‘The moment you notice you are lost in thought, watch the thought itself unravel, then notice the next sensation associated with the breath. It is the act of becoming aware of distraction and then vividly aware of the next appearance in consciousness; that is the skill we are training here. So all of those moments that seem like a recognition of failure, are infact the practice’ – Sam Harris, on the Waking Up meditation app.

With practice, your ability to maintain focus will naturally improve. However, there are three techniques, counting, labeling and intention setting, that can be added to the above meditation that will provide you with immediate improvements.

Counting

Counting involves numbering each breath as you are taking it. For example, on your first breath, you make the mental note ‘one, one, one, one’. On your second breath, you make the mental note ‘two, two, two, two’ and so on. Continue this counting up to ten, and then return to ‘one’ and start over. It is advisable that we only count to ten because there is a temptation to ‘get a high score’ or alternatively to lose focus find ourselves lost in thought, counting by rote. Both states are of course counterproductive to attaining mindfulness.

Alternative approaches to counting involve using ‘one’ on an inbreath, and ‘two’ on the out breath, once again up to ‘ten’. You could also choose to use the words ‘in’ and ‘out’ as substitutes to numbers.

I like to use counting at the start of formal sessions of ‘Basic Mindfulness’ meditation to settle into the practice. Once I am successfully able to count to ten without losing my focus, I take it that I am adequately settled into the practice and can drop the counting for the rest of the session. I also use mindful counting in response to anxiety or other symptoms of mental duress. The idea being that ten mindful breaths, work as a quick and easy stop break to troubling thoughts.

Glimpse: 10 Mindful Breaths

Turn your attention to the sensations of your breath, entering and leaving the nose. On your first breath, mentally repeat to yourself ‘one, one, one, one’. On your second breath, mentally repeat to yourself ‘two, two, two, two’. Continue this process up to ‘ten’.

Repeat this process as many times as desired.

Labeling

Labeling involves taking a brief and broad mental note of the kind of distractions that you notice as they arise. For example, you may notice a memory of a childhood birthday party. You would label it as ‘memory’, and then return your focus gently back to the breath. Once you realize that you are distracted, you simply label it as one of the following categories: memory, thought, physical sensation (this includes sounds), or emotion. If you notice it, but cannot clearly define it, label it as ‘cloud’, as in a cloud of jumbled or undefinable mental phenomena.

I like to use labelling when I am struggling to maintain my focus on the breath during a formal session, as well as when I am facing stress, challenging situations, or interpersonal conflict. If I find that the current of my mind is, for whatever reason, exceptionally turbulent, I will start to label my mental phenomena as they arise. This has the effect of both detaching me from the emotionality, as well as forcing me to mindfully attend to the phenomena as it is arising, without being as easily swept away by it. The act of labelling it, takes away its power, enabling me to return my focus to the breath, or the situation at hand.

Glimpse: Labeling

For the next minute, turn your attention inwards. As mental phenomena arise, simply label them into one of the following categories: ‘memory’, ‘thought’, ‘physical sensation’, ‘emotion’ or ‘cloud’.

Intention Setting

Appropriately preparing ourselves and our environment for formal meditation will greatly assist the effectiveness of our practice. The section ‘Meditation Preparation’ will go into depth on this, but for the moment, it is enough to set ourselves an intention prior to beginning. This will be a simple statement, read or internally remembered, that reminds us of what we are about to do, why we are doing it, and what is necessary for success. Use the following words or better yet, make up your own.

For the next few minutes, I will be mindfully meditating to improve my calm, clarity, and focus. I will gently return my focus back to the breath for the duration of the session.without judgement.