Mindfulness Meditation (Week 8)

Mindfulness Meditation derives from Vipassana, otherwise known as Buddhist Insight Meditation. You will find it taught as a secular or as a spiritual practice depending on your teacher. Mindfulness is often defined as a core skill that centers around your ability to be fully present in the current moment. Mindfulness meditation defines further what "fully present" means when it goes into examining the sensations in your body, focusing on your emotions, and providing insight into your ways of thinking.

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Opening to Now

People coming to mindfulness for stress reduction (as opposed to self-awareness) often have a false idea that their goal is to keep clearing their mind.  The goal is actually to be able to focus the mind and, when lost or distracted, be able to realize it and bring that focus back.  And this focus matters. 

In previous entries, you have walked through the very basics:

1. Using the Breath as Home ​
2. Working with the Body 
3. Working with Your Emotions
4. Working with Your Thoughts
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Take the time to really work through each of these components as you build your practice.  

What to Initially Expect

New meditators frequently experience some very similar things.  It's good to have a little bit of an expectation so you know what normal looks like during this experience.  Students often report:

1. Your Compassion Renews. One of the first things many students notice is that they become re-sensitized to the world around them. Watching the news goes from being a benign passive experience to something causing tears. All of that defensive build up to keep the world out gradually falls away. Empathy for others and being more sensitive to the good and bad of the world around you naturally occurs.
   
   
2. Your Past Garbage Surfaces. When negative events happen or we experience difficult emotions they can be dealt with or shoved down beneath the surface.  If they are shoved down, your mental clutter can keep those undealt with issues successfully out of your view for quite some time. When you suppress negative experiences it becomes a lot like getting shot with buckshot. All that shrapnel goes in and then slowly works its way out and clears over time. When you give your mind space, those undealt with issues now have room to surface so they can be worked through. 
   
   
3. Your Worry and Anxiety Lessen. Many students report they feel more centered or more in control of their own emotional regulation. Quieting your mind and becoming more in tune with your body, emotions, and thought-processes creates a less shakeable internal state. When your internal stress level is lower, it means you are more able to handle negative events when they happen. Meditation will often increase your tolerance for the stressful events around you.

As you begin this practice, really take the time to learn each of the pieces.  Be prepared for some mental shifting as your mind becomes healthier. You may experience these three initially common experiences or you may not. Everything depends on the individual.

Mindfulness meditation teaches a very important skill: To stay and not runaway from what is happening in the present moment. This is a fundamental skill and a hard one to learn. Our minds love being distracted, particularly if the present moment is uncomfortable in any way.

We will build further on these concepts next week.

​Sundays – Practice Skills and Activities
Daily skill practices and further information to help you grow in your meditation practice or increase your emotional intelligence skills.