Welcome to week 2. I'm so glad you're here!
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Slowing Down!
You may be noticing that your mind gets quieter a little more quickly than it did when you first started this experiment. I’m not saying your mind is quiet! It’s just that when we assume the posture of paying attention and we take a couple of Deep Belly Breaths we usually begin to move in the direction of calm.
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ZZ z z z z z...
Are you falling asleep when you sit in meditation? Sometimes our relaxation response is so powerful that when we pause, we get sleepy and miss the point of mindfulness, which is to be alert and more aware!
If you are nodding off when you try and meditate, try sitting with your back away from the back of the chair. Or, try meditating with your eyes open and looking up toward the line where the wall meets the ceiling. You can even stand up and meditate!
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Crazy Busy Monkey Mind!!
If feeling too relaxed and sleepy is not your problem but a whirling chaotic mind is more what you’re dealing with – First of all :
You're Normal!
The mind thinks ...continually....that's it's job. With meditation we are learning how to be in charge of where these thoughts take us.
Today we will work on the skill of coming back to a point in awareness over and over again. This is the antidote for a mind that does not seem to know what stillness is.
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Keep Coming Back...
The practice of Mindful Awareness uses an ‘anchor’ to help us pay attention. An anchor for a boat does not typically hold the boat rigidly in one place – the vessel drifts one way and then gets tugged back, it drifts another direction and gets tugged back again.
In the same way whatever we choose as our meditation ‘anchor’ is what brings our awareness back to the present moment. Our attention will wander away – distracted by any number of things (thoughts, sounds, pain…you name it!) – our anchor is what we come back to once we've noticed that our attention has wandered.
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Are You Breathing? (I hope so!)
Probably the most common anchor in meditation is one's breath – simply observing/feeling the breath move in the body works as a great reminder to be in the present.
Today's meditation gets you started using your breath as an anchor.
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I'll be back in a few days with your next meditation.
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​You got this!
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Dr. Trish​
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