Sometimes we lose sight of the role of presence in our practice. Maybe we were never really clear about how our meditation practice helps us be more present. Here’s one way to consciously weave presence into our practice.
In those moments when we realize that we’ve been thinking and have stopped noticing our breath (either we were lost in thought or naming our thoughts), before coming back to the breath, take a moment to feel deeply into the present… And then return to the breath.
How to feel deeply into the present? Many ways. You can look around at what you can see in this moment, really noticing the colors and shapes around you in this moment. You could do the same with sounds or with your physical sensations. You can pick any one or two of these or all 3 as you feel it. Whatever helps you really notice what’s in and/or around you in the moment.
A colleague shared recently that she has to help her clients stop obsessing over their thoughts because they meditate on them so much they’re obsessed with them!
As someone who was addicted to thinking I totally understand!
I imagine this can happen when we lose sight of the point of meditating, which is to focus on the present, and instead use it as an excuse to focus on our thoughts. This could be easy to do, especially since most of us are addicted to thinking to begin with.
I just looked at several meditation apps and I’d like to share two that I liked. Both of these allow you to track your practice, which I think is a really good way to establish any habit. One lets you take notes and the other lets you track how you’re feeling mentally and physically.
Zen Friend lets you set reminders so you remember to meditate and tracks how many meditations you do overtime. It includes instructional videos for learning Zen meditation, nice quotes, images and meditation bells. It also allow you to take notes & share your activity with friends via Facebook and twitter.
Stop, Breathe & Think includes instructions about various aspects of meditation and offers a variety of guided meditations. It allows you to input how you are feeling, so you can track your emotional state overtime.
To make anything you do more fun, like meditation or working on a project, add in elements of things you like! Add music, go to a beautiful place or dance while you work.
Not sure how to do this last one? Get creative! I have a high counter that I work at that allows me to move.
Here’s to us all having even more fun this new year!
Take this simple challenge for the new year : choose a precious time, a time you’d like to savor every day, like dinner with your family, and challenge yourself to take a mindful breath before starting… Every night for the next month!
Many meditators ask this question, “How do I stop thinking?” Luckily for you, you don’t have to stop! Here’s an inspired idea I had for understanding why not… Enjoy!
In order to let yourself relax during practice, you need to be okay with whatever is happening. If your mind is in chaos, you need to be okay with the chaos. You need to trust that just sitting there and watching all the chaos really works.
Otherwise, you fall into the trap of trying to fix yourself while you practice. Which just creates more chaos!
Tricky.
To let go of monitoring your success during practice (“Am I relaxing? Am I doing this right? Is this helping me?”), you can measure your success by comparing how you are before and after you practice. Give yourself a number, 1-10, for how you are before practice, then practice, and then give yourself a number after you finish. See if the number gets better after, or not.
You can measure the success of anything you like from stress levels to mental chatter. Give yourself a 0 for no stress or chatter and a 10 for maximum stress or chatter.
Before you practice decide what level of stress, etc you’re at and give it a number, then just practice with out measuring or monitoring, and afterwards check in again and give yourself a number based on how you feel now.
During practice you let go of needing to monitor, and over time as you watch your numbers consistently improve you will build trust in your practice… Making the desire to monitor a thing of the past.
If your numbers aren’t improving, that’s helpful information as well. Check in and see if there’s something in your environment that’s effecting you like too much noise. Check inside, maybe it’s time for help from a meditation teacher, friend, book or video. Or it could be time to ask for help from a therapist if you feel like your issues are too big right now.
Try it out and I’m happy to hear how it goes for you. Happy (monitor free) practicing, ElenaMariafoucher.com
Many of us have the sense that there is something mysterious about meditation. We may have heard of enlightenment or levitation or other awe inspiring things and think that meditation must be hard to do if it means you will gain all of these things.
Because of this when I make meditation easy for people, sometimes they think, but this can’t be easy! How am I going to get all of these things if meditation is easy?
The secret here is that what is mysterious about meditation isn’t the practice itself, the mystery is you. The practice doesn’t have to be difficult! Practicing meditation can be easy! The mystery is YOU, not the practice.
So don’t make meditation, the practice of it, the techniques, the actual doing of it be difficult. Doing meditation can be easy.
You are a bit more mysterious. The mystery of meditation is getting to know yourself and discovering all that you are. This process can be fun, frustrating, joyful, painful, and all kinds of other things. It happens over time and unfolds uniquely to you.
Enjoy the journey. Enjoy making the practice simple and easy. Enjoy getting to know the mystery of you.
Having a hard time meditating while sitting on the floor with your legs crossed? How can you make it easier?
Simple. Either don’t do it or sit for short amounts of time & build.
Remember that you can meditate in any position, so sitting isn’t necessary. You can do your ‘sitting’ practice while standing, sitting in a chair, lying down, in downward dog, etc.
If you really want to sit on the floor with your legs crossed, start sitting for an amount of time that is comfortable, like 1 or 2 or 5 minutes, do that for awhile to let your body get used to it and then add a bit more time when you feel ready.
