Focused Attention Meditation - Long

So settling into a posture that maximizes comfort and alertness.

Settling into this moment.

Into this body,

Into this mind.

What's here.

As we start to prepare for a meditation.

This attentional focus meditation is supporting our ability to concentrate on what we want to concentrate on.

I'm so inviting you to find an object of meditation that resonates with you.

For most of us the encouragement is for that object to be the breath.

It's the in breath and the out breath.

Maybe noticing how deep or shallow it is or how fast or slow it is.

But not everyone's comfortable with the breath.

And if that is the case with you then inviting you to find a object of meditation that does resonate with you that's with you every moment of the day.

So some people use a part of the body like the palms of the hands or the soles of the feet.

So can we be there with those raw elements of say touch or lack of touch or warmth or coolness,

Moisture,

Dryness.

So part of the body can be an object of meditation.

And then another object if you prefer is sound or lack of sound.

So even that lack of sound has a certain kind of ringing to it.

Sound of silence.

And if sound arises it's kind of like a story unfolding that we may or may not have a whole lot of control over.

So what is arising in the soundscape but being there with the raw elements of it like the pitch like how high or low it is or its volume or if it's close or far away.

So avoiding giving the sound meaning like it's a bird or a truck or a clock but more just noticing is it regular irregular how loud or soft is it.

So we're just there with the qualities and characteristics of that sound or lack of sound.

So just seeing what object of meditation resonates with you the most and if you're comfortable with the breath the invitation is to select it is that's the most common object of meditation and where a good amount of the research has been done but if it isn't comfortable with you it's it's perfectly fine to use an alternate anchor point that has also been used frequently as well.

So settling in to bring awareness to that object of meditation if it's the breath really focusing in on the sensation of the in breath and the out breath maybe noticing it at the tip of the nose or the mouth where it's first entering the body and last leaving it.

So the object of meditation is a part of the body it's bringing awareness to those sensations.

So your feeling of touch or lack of touch or comfort discomfort we're not judging the sensation in any way it's not good or bad it just is what it is and can we allow our body and our mind to be just as it is in this moment and if your object of meditation is sound seeing what's arising in the soundscape how loud or soft is it how near or far away is it so whatever the object of meditation is just spending some time being with it allowing the thoughts to settle out kind of like how leaves would fall from a tree so that all that's left is the branches in the trunk so all that's left is our thoughts settling out is this awareness of this object of meditation of this breath or this part of the body or this sound and so if the mind has wandered by now away from that object of meditation you're likely in the company of just about everyone listening so it's not the same where the mind went did it go to the future did it go to the past did it go to somewhere pretty familiar that the mind often goes or did it go to a place it's never been before and so when the mind wanders we're not judging it for having wandered we're just noticing it has exploring where it went with curiosity knowing it's telling us a little something about how we are today and knowing that we're training right now our attentional control and our ability to place our mind where we choose to the invitation is to bring it to the next level the invitation is to bring it back back to that object of meditation that we're training on back to this breath back to this part of the body or back to the sound or lack of sound this meditation being pretty long you know it's like 45 minutes or so okay we almost luxuriate and this time that we've carved out for ourselves or we've got nothing to do and nowhere to go we're just stopping and calming resting and healing and simply being here with this breath or this part of the body or this sound those other thoughts or eyes just noticing them flagging them it's okay that they arose that's what the mind does and letting them go coming back back to this breath and this body and this sound so so so if you like perhaps working with that mindfulness quality of kindness or friendliness towards ourselves and so noticing if there's any kind of like harshness or judging going on with how well we're doing or where our mind is and you know in many ways when we're with ourselves like this it's like when we're with anyone in an open way as we often come to understand them better and so want to become more friends with them and so how can we offer kindness and friendliness to ourselves as we're engaging or not engaging with our breath or this part of the body or sound just coming to be with the mind and the body with the sense of kindness or friendliness as we're here with that object of meditation that we've chosen so if you've ever waded into a pond you might have noticed that the mud gets stirred up a bit while we're walking around in there and the water gets cloudy and then after we've been out and the water's still that mud settles back out and leaves behind that clear water and it can be similar with the sitting meditation where if we sit here in stillness and friendliness kindness just there without object meditation over time sometimes without us even really trying all that hard the thoughts can settle up which can leave behind a clear mind and simply hear breathing existing with this breath this part of the body and this sound so so just knowing if the mind wanders a million times we bring it back a million times and each time we notice that the mind has wandered that itself is a moment of mindfulness because we're here now having seen that and can we even celebrate it like yeah there i am it's interesting about where i've gone where the mind's gone and i've been training right now and i'm inviting that mind with kindness but maybe firmness too to come back back to that object of meditation that we've chosen the breath the body or sound so so so so one approach that can invigorate our attention is to look for something fresh and new within that object of meditation so say if it's the breath perhaps noticing an element of it a place that it's being felt in the body that you haven't spent time with yet today maybe it's the sensation of the breath and the diaphragm or between the ribs or if you're with a part of the body maybe it's noticing if that sensation is steady or if it's changing moment to moment and if the object of meditation is sound perhaps also noticing if it's a steady sound like maybe a clock ticking or steady silence or if the sound varies moment to moment so i'm inviting you to look for elements of freshness way of engaging in with that object of meditation that is new for you today bring that freshness and interest that can help with the attention control and the awareness on the object that we'd like to place our awareness on so so so so knowing that around the world right now thousands of people are doing meditations like this so that whatever you're experiencing you're very likely in the company of others who have also carved out the time in their day to care for themselves in this way to be with themselves and to foster their attentional focus so that they have it there throughout their day whether it's engaging with their family members their loved ones their community their work their pastimes can they be right here for this life as it unfolds moment by moment and here we are with them training ourselves to be right here right here with this breath that's never been breathed before right here with this particular sensation of the body that has never been felt quite in this way before right here with this sound that's never been sounded at this moment before so so so so so if you'd like starting to work a little more with my phone's quality of concentration so can we be there with an object of meditation with what's called effortless awareness so that we're not like grasping for it and really pushing and we're also not too loose we're got just the right amount of efforting going on and focusing in on concentrating really being there with that breath or that part of the body or that sound or absence of sound so so so i feel like just doing a quick scan of the body checking for two elements one is how comfortable the body is and the other is how alert it is we want to maximize both at this phase in the meditation you know with kindness to the body and the mind we can always with mindfulness shift our position in some way if it's called for to shift it to either be more comfortable maybe say if a foot is falling asleep or something or maybe to shift it to be more alert say if we've been lying down or something we might want to shift into a sitting or a standing position if it's called for just checking in with the body and it's feeling for comfort and alertness and if any shifts would be of benefit offering the body those shifts so so so so so so if you like taking a moment to just check in with the emotional tone seeing what kind of feeling is there knowing that the feelings are good information and important to listen to and understand and that they may inform what would be an ideal way to engage with the meditation practice in this moment for example into the feelings are they encouraging us to offer more kindness to ourselves in this moment or are they offering us to encourage more like firmness you know sometimes we need to pull back and offer kindness and other times we need to be firm it's kind of like how we are maybe with you know our children or people that we mentor and with ourselves so what are the emotional tones sharing with you right now and what is the skillful response to them as we're engaging here still with this you know decently long training that we're on right now training ourselves to be right here right now with this object of meditation this breath or this body or this sound so Sometimes with these kinds of meditations I think about dedicating about 80% 90% of my awareness to the object of meditation like the breath or the part of the body or sound and then the other 10 or 20% of my attention is dedicated to like monitoring.

It's monitoring the thoughts,

Emotions,

Physical sensations because there's wisdom in all things all three of those wisdom and what my thoughts are telling me and what my emotions are sharing and how my body is in this moment so I can tweak it and keep it fresh and keep it alive and keep it productive.

And so can we be here you know if you like to try that you know 80 to 90% of your attention on that object of meditation and then the other 20 or 10% just on monitoring the thoughts emotions physical sensations.

Part of the definition of mindfulness is what they call remembering which is remembering our wisdom in this present moment so if we're blocking off our wisdom just to be there you know with that object of meditation we're maybe losing the ability for our wisdom to come in so what is your wisdom sharing right now that's coming from the thoughts emotions physical sensations and how can it be brought into this very moment as we're here with this breath and this body and this sound.

So knowing that we're in the last few minutes of this meditation practice just seeing what arises and the thoughts emotions as you hear that and seeing what kind of intention you'd like to bring into these last few minutes.

What will make it the most fruitful meditation as we're here with that object of meditation of the breath or part of the body or sound of the absence of sound.

So so So as this meditation is starting to come towards a close inviting you to just check in with the mind and the body and to see how it's feeling at this point in the meditation compared to before we began.

Just looking at that without any judgment with kindness curiosity it's just data coming in doesn't need to be good or bad it just is what it is.

And then taking just a few more moments to anchor in to that anchor point or that object of meditation that's here with us every moment of the day.

Being there with that breath or that part of the body or that sound knowing it's here for us whenever we need it.

So so so And then as you're ready bringing that mindful awareness as you shift towards the next part of your day or evening just seeing what would be the skillful next step and inviting you to take that step.

So