Clear your thoughts and return to the present using your breath
Mindfulness meditation is deceptive in its easiness. When you read about the how to's with the breathing and sitting still it perhaps feels too simple. There is no way that sitting around and doing nothing is going to help me be productive with my day! Yet then when you finally do try one of our exercises you get frustrated because it is so hard to focus. You get two breaths in and you are thinking about what needs to be done today, an email, a call that still needs to be made, something upsetting that happened today and so on. Wait, now you're hungry or need to use the restroom? This is ridiculous, I am just going to get back to work. These are all common complaints at the start of meditation because we have been trained in the modern world to believe that any time in quiet without actively producing something is invalid. You shouldn't have free time if you aren't where you want to be socially, financially, physically etc, you should always be improving! Somewhere out there someone is just like you but they are working right now while you are resting and that is why they will succeed but you will not.
Sound familiar? While we of course need to be disciplined and vigilant to earn our success, this does not mean that every second of every day needs to be accounted for. It is a common trap and a modern one. When I entered my Ph.D program, I was told by my committee chair to always have a time when work ends. When doing research, it is easy to never stop. There is always another article, another edit, another perspective and it is easy to work all night and head straight to class the next day exhausted. He advised me to stop work at a certain time and hold myself to it. Once that time was there then do something to relax. Note, this did not mean social media or television. While these are easy to fall into, they do not actually allow the brain to relax. Writing a friend, or chatting via phone or text, exercise, cooking, dancing, going out, these things can count. The mind needs rest in order to work better.
Another facet of this was to allow yourself quiet and reflective time. Those who are married to or live with academics have probably seen their spouse or friend go off in a corner and stare off for hours. If they are disturbed they can be anything from irritated to way too talkative trying to explain all the ideas they were thinking about. That is because a large part of study is thinking about what you read or wrote or observed. Sometimes this is direct and sometimes this is subconscious, but the brain needs time to process everything in order to understand properly and respond appropriately. For me this is what mindfulness meditation is. It is the quiet time to think and then to simply not think and allow your subconscious to take over. This is easier said than done which is what we will focus on today.
Today's exercise will be a mindfulness meditation that will help train you to find your way back to breath as you inevitably drift off in thought. You have probably found that during the more complex breathing exercises, if you have tried them, it is easier to maintain concentration than simple breaths. If you have, then you are like me where you need a goal and a recipe to really focus on being in the moment. And while this is fine, we are ultimately hoping to be able to be in the moment just experiencing, not checking off things from a list. So today we are going to focus on bringing ourselves back after drifting off into thought.
Start with your breath. Breathing in slow and deliberate and focusing on your exhale. As you breathe, concentrate on your breath for a few breaths and then start from your toes to your head releasing any tensions. Let the legs relax, finding a comfortable place for the hips, let your spine flatten on the chair, drop your shoulders, unclench your jaw, relax your fists. You have permission to be here now without going or doing anything. When you are ready bring your attention to how your breath makes you feel. Feel your body fill up and empty with air, the belly rise and fall, the heart pulse and nostrils and mouth react. Feel your body's tension drop away even more as you may even hear your neck muscles relaxing as you drop your shoulders further down.
Continue in this place for as long as you can. Eventually you may notice your mind has wandered, or perhaps it even wandered before now and you have gotten lost in thought and the future. Accept the wandering of your mind with forgiveness and bring yourself back to the breath. Do this as many times as you need to throughout this exercise, each time acknowledging that it is normal that your mind wandered. You have not failed or done anything wrong. Just bring your attention back to the breath each time. In mindfulness we are training the mind to learn to acknowledge when you lose yourself from the moment so you can be aware and bring yourself back; so this is actually great training. Reassure yourself and bring it back to the breath, all while being patient with yourself every time your mind slips away, just reconnect to the moment. When you feel ready, allow yourself to finish this meditation. Acknowledge the new feelings in your body after you allowed yourself to be in the moment and further forgave yourself for getting lost in thought. Thank your body and you are ready for the rest of your day.
Do you find it hard to focus on nothing? What helps you bring yourself back to the moment in meditation? Leave us a question or comment at info@bullionite.com