Week 3
How to Meditate
Use and develop two skills:
- Focus
- Watching or Awareness
Focus
- The act of applying attention to something
- Simple, sensory
- Focal point becomes our meditation object, or "anchor"
- It keeps us from getting distracted or lost in thought
Why focus?
"That sounds like hard work. All I want to do is relax, not concentrate."
A focal point gives us a vital reference point. It allows us to see when we’re meditating and when we’re distracted. Without focus we tend to drift aimlessly
Focus brings us into the present and allows us to evaluate what’s important. We see more clearly.
Think of your meditation object (the act of focusing) as a tasty bone for the mind. Without it the mind runs off to sniff other dogs, chase birds and mark out its territory. With a bone the mind feels content and is less prone to distraction.
The bone could just as easily be an old tennis ball. As long as the mind is focused on something sensory, it is able to disengage from stressful thoughts, worries and concerns.
Watching (Awareness)
Focus is obvious and effective and works well in short bursts. However, focusing can also be very difficult. This is because our minds are designed to continually evaluate the changing environment. This means that we are bound to notice a continual stream of thoughts and sensations in the background — even when we’re well focused.
Wishing for perfect focus leads inevitably to stress and disappointment.
How to practice awareness
- Monitor the mindstream with a light touch
- Instead of processing and analysing thoughts/distractions for minutes simply notice them and re-focus
Both focus and awareness relax you, but by different mechanisms.
- Focus is a temporary escape
- Awareness puts you in a spectator role where you can watch without getting sucked into the drama
- You'll oscillate between the two in any meditation
- Both are equally important
A Typical Meditation
- focus on the breath
- notice detail
- mind says ‘OK, I've got that an sneaks off’
- mind gets excited and speeds up
- eventually you realise you've lost focus
- oscillate between focus and distractions. As you relax focus becomes easier
- eventually it becomes possible to watch thoughts and distractions without losing focus
- at this point fatigue may emerge – you sink towards sleep
- and it's tempting to let the mind wander/dream
- you're relaxed but find focus difficult
- ½ way there. Body relaxed – mind restless
- for mental clarity you need to stay alert
- when well focused, thoughts can't get a hold
- mind feels delightfully calm, clear and under your control
- once you taste this deeper mental clarity it becomes easier to resist the temptation to drift into thought, fantasy or sleep.
What you may experience
- Relaxation and relief
- Tension and pain or fatigue
- Trains of thought, worries, ideas
- Moments of deep peace, inner quiet
- Random memories
- Near sleep an dreamlike images
- Boredom, impatience and annoyance
- Contentment, calm, delight
- Reviewing experiences and emotions
- Re-experiencing old hurts
- Insights and realisations
- Unusual awareness of body and mind
- Sense of control
- Serenity
- Tuning up – nervous system returning to balance