Hi and welcome to The Daily Insight.
My name is Hugh Byrne and I'm a meditation teacher here on Insight Timer.
This 10-minute meditation is designed particularly for those beginning a meditation practice,
But it may also be helpful for more experienced practitioners.
Take a few moments to relax the body and the mind.
Take a few full deep breaths and let your awareness come into the body and relax and let go on the out-breath.
Nice deep full in-breath,
Releasing on the out-breath.
Imagine you're releasing all the stresses and the cares of the day as you breathe out.
With your eyes closed or open with a soft,
Unfocused gaze.
Invite a smile or a half smile to the corners of your mouth and your eyes and visualize meeting everything you experience with a welcoming expression of a smile.
Sitting in a way that's both relaxed and alert.
Bring your attention to the sensations of breathing,
The feeling of breathing in and breathing out.
As you breathe in,
Know that you're breathing in.
And as you breathe out,
Know that you're breathing out.
Allow the breath to be just as it is without trying to deepen it or change it in any way.
If it's helpful,
Make a gentle note of in for the in-breath and out for the out-breath.
Or rise and fall as the chest and the belly rise and fall.
You can establish a home base or anchor wherever the breath is most noticeable to you.
Or where you experience most ease with the breath.
It might be at the chest or the belly or at the nostrils where the cool air enters and the warmer breath is released.
Let your attention rest in the direct experience of your breathing.
When you become aware that your attention has moved from the breath into thought,
Perhaps planning your day or remembering a conversation or having an internal dialogue or daydreaming.
Pause and gently bring your attention back to the breath.
In breath,
Out breath.
If you become aware that you're being pulled into a certain kind of thinking,
Planning the future,
Remembering the past,
Problem solving,
Worrying,
Daydreaming.
You can make a mental note of planning,
Daydreaming,
Problem solving,
Worrying.
Just noting the kind of thinking.
And you can pause and gently bring your attention back to the breath.
In breath,
Out breath.
It's helpful to remember that thinking is not a problem in meditation.
It's not a problem in mindfulness meditation.
Simply note when you're lost in thought or your attention has moved from your focus and incline your mind back to the breath or whatever you're using as a focus for your attention.
Could be sound,
Could be bodily feelings.
But just coming back to that,
That home base.
In this way,
When we notice the mind has moved from the breath into thinking and we come back,
We're training the mind.
We're not failing at meditation when we get lost in thought.
We're actually building the muscle of attention when we notice that we've gone off and we come back.
You could think of it as like doing physical exercise.
The more we repeat lifting a weight,
The more it strengthens the muscle.
In the same way,
The more we come back,
The more we focus our attention on the breath or the body or on sound.
And then when the mind wanders,
We come back.
We're really building that muscle of attention.
You could look at it as strengthening pathways in the brain that help us to be more present,
More fully here,
Rather than lost in thought,
Lost in stories.
