Easy Mindfulness Technique
Mindfulness meditation is all about wakefulness and being present. In our life, we frequently function on autopilot, which means that we are locking ourselves inside our own head and then not aware of what is taking place in our environment. You have most definitely tried walking or taking the bus to work, school or someplace else, and really did not remember much of the travel. You did not pay attention to anything around you. This can be a pleasant experience of taking a minor break from your daily stress and just focus on your thoughts, but it also means that you may not be able to notice possible opportunities there may come your way, and you may therefore miss out of something wonderful.
In mindfulness you will learn to be aware and focus only on your inhalations and exhalations and the different sensation connected to that. You will also have to remember to only focus on NOW and not on the past or the future. You will learn to be present in this very second. So do this guided exercise to help you become present.
Mindfulness Exercise
Step 1
Pick a suiting location where you can perform your meditation and a time where you know that no one will interrupt you when you meditate. Practice this mindfulness meditation for 10 to 20 minutes. Pick a way to sit or lie that you are comfortable with and take a minute to calm your mind and body before beginning the meditation.
Step 2
Close your eyes and start focusing on your inhalations and exhalations.
Unlike a lot of other types of meditation techniques, you will not take control of your breathing or breathe consciously. You should instead watch your breathing. Pay attention to your inhaling and exhaling and the way the air fills your body and expand your stomach and chest. Pay attention to the sensations in your body like the temperature of the air and the feelings in your body. Be mindful of these sensations but do not judge them in any way. You will only observe the situation.
Step 3
Remember to only focus on the present, and on the breath that you are taking right in this moment and how that feels now. And when you breathe out, you will no longer think about that breath but instead on the one that you are inhaling right now. You also have to remember to relax your mind and body while meditating. Try to be still in your body and allow your mind to find peace and just enjoy the moment of serenity.
When you finished with your meditation and feel like you are ready to end this mindfulness meditation technique, gradually open your eyes and take a nice cleansing breath.
This type of meditation is an amazing technique for relaxation and it helps you to quiet your mind and body in a very simple way. So if you feel like you want to find a way to learn to relax and reduce stress and negativity in your life, you should try mindfulness meditation. There are several great benefits with meditating on a regular basis and it can help you improve your life mentally physically and spiritually. It can give you a feeling of serenity and control and make you feel a lot more balanced and steady. Beside this type of meditation there are other great relaxation meditation exercises such as Imagery Technique, Body Scan, Breathing Exercise, Grounding Meditation, and many more.
Learn more at Guardian Angel
Source: http://meditation.ezinemark.com/easy-mindfulness-technique-7d342bfc1859.html
Author:
Jessica T.
I have always been interested in meditation and spirituality and that is why I have chosen to write about it and sharing my knowledge. I have to say that I am no expert on the field but are simply sharing what I know and maybe it can help you.
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Very helpful!,
In my life I have had a tendency to over think things and have found that often the simplest solution is the answer to life’s problems. For years I have struggled with ADHD and a mind that races 900mph all the time. I have suffered from numerous bouts of depression, restlessness, anxiety, and a general sense that most of my life has been wasted waiting for something good to happen. Despite a high degree of intelligence and creativity, I have felt unable to make any progress son the projects I know would change my life for the better. After repeated attempts to discuss these issues with my doctors I had almost given up hope when I heard professor Mark Williams on the public radio program Science Friday discussing his book. I ordered the book and have begun to follow the 8 week plan and already I can see major changes in my mood, attitude and general happiness regarding my life. I am better able to focus on my work and get much less overwhelmed in public. Things like wild, loud, obnoxious kids at the grocery store, crying babies in restaurants or inconsiderate people in public amplified by my ADHD would cause me to become angry to the point I would freak out in public. This has not been the case since I have started the 8 week program.
I HIGHLY recommend this book as a means of not only calming your thoughts and to help you focus on your life and the things that truly matter, but more importantly to maximize your happiness and enjoyment of the years you have left to you. This is truly the easiest way I have seen to change your thinking and turn you from someone who is “pre-living the future and re-living the past” to someone who can effectively live in the moment.
My only complaint is that I purchased the book and it did not come with a CD of the guided meditations. A friend of mine ordered the audiobook which came with the audio guided meditations and I found this helped with my meditation. If you begin to include the CD with the book I’ll change this to a 5 star review.
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|If you are stressed (and who isn’t nowadays), you need to read this book!,
Initial Review 12/14/2010:
Let me begin by saying that I have always been a huge skeptic about mindfullness, meditation, and anything else along those lines. That is until I began seeing all of the new scientific research on the subject and the new theory of brain plasticity…how people can literally change their brains no matter how old they are. This research was enough to convince me to give mindful meditation a try. Staying with the theme of the science of meditation, I chose The Frantic World book because the program was created by a team of phD scholars from respected universities, such as Oxford, Cambridge, UMass, etc. Interestingly, the main author of this book, Mark Williams, was a skeptic when he started researching the subject as well. Not any more.
I am currently on week eight of the plan and I can tell you that I absolutely have noticed a difference. Not only do I feel calmer in situations that used to bother me the past physically, but I am also learning how to treat myself with more compassion, get out of autopilot and break many of my bad habits, and how to face my fears head on rather than avoiding them and actually making things worse. I have gone from a complete skeptic to someone who plans to continue to practice mindfulness for the rest of my life.
I’m not going to sugarcoat things and say that it’s easy to find the time to meditate. It’s not. One has to work hard to make sure that they find the half hour or so per day that they need to dedicate to the practice. That’s not easy with work, kids, and life in general. I promise you though that it’s definitely worth the time that you put in. I’ve never written a product review about anything on Amazon or any other site for that matter before. I am writing this review in the hopes that others out there who are struggling with stress, anxiety, etc read it and give mindfulness shot. Incorporating it into my daily life passively as well as actively meditating for short periods of the day has helped me tremendously.
Update 1/17/12:
Let’s see if I can update my review using the comments section. Bear with me because I’ve never tried to do this before. I completed the entire Frantic World course several weeks ago. I definitely believe that it was beneficial. Do I still get stressed out from time to time? Of course. The idea behind mindfulness is not to make one live in some unrealistic, nirvana-like world…thought that would be nice :). To me it seems as though the goal of mindfulness is to help people deal with life’s inevitably stressful situations more easily and quickly than they would have in the past. I think that incidents which would have dragged me down into a huge stressed-out mess for a prolonged period of time a year or so ago no longer seem to have the power to do so.
I am still continuing to do the mindfulness practices that were outlined in the book, particularly meditations four and seven. The first being a more general meditation using breathing and sensing the body and the second directed towards self-compassion or as the book calls it “befriending.” Those two are my favorite, though from time to time I do practice meditation one and two, which are essentially body scans.
I plan to continue meditating. Though I rarely meditate for more than 20 to 30 minutes per day, I have not missed a single day since I started the practice. I believe that every little bit helps. It takes a long time to master any skill. Let’s say that one meditated for 20 minutes every day for the entire eight week program. That seems like a long time right? Well, in reality one who has diligently done this meditation has actually only meditated for a total less than twenty hours. When one considers the popular modern-day theory that it takes 10,000 hours to truly be an expert at something, it looks like there is a long way to go. So what’s my point in all of this rambling? I guess that my point is that mindfulness’ benefits seem to accumulate over time. One will definitely benefit from taking the eight week Frantic World course, but don’t just expect to do it for eight weeks and poof be magically stress free from then on. I’m sure that people who do this will experience some benefit, but I think that mindfulness is more of a life-long pursuit. The more one does it, the more benefit they will receive. Am I right? Who knows? I’m certainly not a psychologist or neuro-biologist. I’m just a normal family man who has read a lot on the subject of mindfulness over the past several months.
Speaking about reading, here’s a list of a couple of other books that I have found helpful in this process. They more emphasize the practice of mindfulness in every day life, rather than purposeful meditation. Hopefully anyone who is reading this will find them helpful as well:
Just One Thing: Developing A Buddha Brain One Simple Practice at a Time – Rick Hanson…
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