MIDL 04/36: Insight Meditation: Observe Attention Move
Stephen Procter guides you in the insight meditation skill of creating a reference point of mindfulness of your body and relaxing control of your attention so that you can observe the habitual movement of your attention. As insight develops your mind will begin to understand the autonomous (anatta) nature of attention and begin to let go of identification and control in all aspects of your life, allowing you to access the joy and happiness of letting go. Support articles and instructions for this guided meditation can be found in the Free Online MIDL Insight Meditation Course by checking Stephens Procter's teacher profile.
Transcript
During this mindfulness training we'll be developing the skill of observing our attention move.
Start out by taking your meditation posture and for this training lightly hold one hand within the other and rest them in your lap.
Now close your eyes over lightly and start to be aware of what it feels like just to be here.
Becoming aware of any sounds around you.
Allowing the change within the sound to hold your attention.
Now slowly bringing your awareness into your body.
Into the experience of just sitting here.
Becoming aware of the experience of warmth,
Of coolness within your body.
Feeling gently in mind.
Also become aware of the touch of your hands.
Feeling the pressure of your body as it rests on the chair on the floor,
Grounded.
The experience of your whole body just sitting here.
Just allowing the chair on the floor to take the full weight of your body.
Giving up all effort in your body.
Now I'd like you to keep the experience of your body just sitting here in mind.
And see if you can notice any time your attention wanders away from it.
If not,
Take a deep breath.
As your attention wandered,
To a thought,
To a sound,
To a sensation within your body.
Just acknowledge it and bring your awareness back into your body,
Into the experience of just sitting here.
The warmth,
The coolness,
The touch,
Holding them gently in mind and see if you can notice any time your attention wanders away from it.
The warmth,
The coolness,
The touch,
Holding them gently in mind As your attention wandered,
If so that's okay,
Just acknowledge it and gently bring your awareness back to your body.
Just sitting here.
Now I'd like you to slowly bring your awareness to the touch of your hands.
Become aware of the experience of pressure where your hands join,
Where they contact each other.
Hold the touch of your hands very gently in mind.
Relax and see if you can notice where your attention moves to.
See if you can observe it move.
Has your attention wandered?
Maybe it's wandered to a thought,
To a fantasy,
To a sound.
Always acknowledge where it has wandered to and gently bring your awareness back into your body,
Into the experience of just sitting here,
To the touch of your hands.
Only keeping the touch of your hands gently in mind,
Not hanging onto your hands mentally.
Allow your attention to wander from your hands so you can observe it.
Igualize within an blewism is not an서도 of a soul,
But any other unity.
As your attention wandered,
If it has,
That's okay.
Just acknowledge it and gently bring your awareness back into your body,
Just sitting here.
The warmth,
The coolness,
The heaviness,
The touch.
Your whole body,
Just sitting here.
Just feel the warmth,
The coolness,
The heaviness,
The touch.
Just feel the warmth,
The coolness,
The heaviness,
The touch.
Now relax your chest and belly and allow your breathing to flow freely and naturally within your body.
Not placing the breath anywhere,
But feeling it as the flow of sensations within your body.
Now use your breathing and the experience of your body as an anchor point for your attention,
From which to observe your attention move.
Gently being aware of your body just sitting here,
Of the movement of your breathing within it.
Feeling them very gently in mind,
Relaxing and allowing your mind to wander,
Allowing your attention to move.
Seeing if you can notice the moment your attention moves and where it moves to.
Gently being aware of your body just sitting here,
Of the movement of your body.
Gently being aware of your body just sitting here,
Of the movement of your body.
Has your attention wandered?
Where is it wandered to?
Just acknowledge it and bring your awareness back into the experience of your body just sitting here.
The warmth,
The coolness,
The touch.
Feel your experience of the breathing as it moves within your body.
Recording that experience gently in mind,
Relax and allow your attention to wander.
See if you can observe it move,
See where it wanders to.
Gently being aware of your body just sitting here,
Of the movement of your breathing within it.
Has your attention wandered?
To a thought,
To a sound,
To a sensation within your body.
Acknowledge where it's wandered to.
And gently bring your awareness back into your body just sitting here.
The warmth,
The coolness,
The touch.
Now start to open up to any sounds around you.
Bring those sounds to come into you.
And when you're ready you can gently open your eyes.
Thank you for spending this time meditating with me.
Take care of yourself and have a wonderful day.
And goodbye.
4.9 (646)
Recent Reviews
Chris
August 4, 2025
Thank you for this helpful meditation on observing attention.
Nova
May 27, 2025
I love this meditation so much. Such good brain training for every day life. Thank you for sharing Stephen.
Marit
February 2, 2024
Great practices so simple bit yet so deep and difficult to master 💫
Ellen
March 6, 2022
As always, simply Perfect - I am so at peace after listening to all of your meditations - Thank you so much for being.
China
January 22, 2022
Good focus practice - I especially like relaxing the focus to notice where my mind goes, then bringing it back to the focus. Really good.
Todd
April 12, 2021
So grateful for this course. Great for beginners and the experienced
One
February 7, 2021
Sound gentle guided meditation excellent for beginners and longtime practitioners. Thank you.
Amanda
December 8, 2020
Again, very clear, listenable and just such a great practice. Thank you again Stephen 🙏🏼🙏🏼
Janna
September 14, 2020
keep coming back to this one. thank you so kuch!
Bart
March 27, 2020
Good guidance, helps reminding to focus again. Keeps on being difficult not to get distracted. Thank you!
Vivek
October 25, 2019
Most of the time I find my attention going to work and work related person. Rest it will get diverted to background sound or body sensations. Can we limit this? And if we are observing these wandering of attention, then what does it mean to us and meditation as whole? I am having this question
Mark
September 15, 2019
Thank you for helping me identify the subtle workings of my mind....if only it would remain stationary for more than a few moments...but that’s ok, just a happening to watch.
Justin
July 6, 2019
Wonderful week of observing the mind wonder. Thank you!
Mostafa
July 6, 2019
I see my attention moves very fast. I can't trace it. For example I focus on touch of my hands then I hear a sound. My attention moves to the sound and then rapidly coming back to touch of my hand. I don't know exactly but I can feel (maybe) 10 moves per second. I can't recognize more of them. I just feel it that my attention moves very fast and coming back to touch.
Davide
April 13, 2019
So far my favourite MIDL training
Eugène
December 21, 2018
Nice practice Again! My Attention in This practice But even more in daly Life is often to a thought of winning games. And especially how to win those games. I call it myself a little obsession. Difficult to let go of thoughts about how to win. I am a soccer coach And find hard to relaxt in times And even wenn I am doing other things then soccer my mind Goes to that. It is Oke But in those thoughts I feel often a stress respons of my body. And feeling This stress all day long. Even wenn I go to bed. Therefor sleep little Because of it. And feel quite burned out a lot of the time. I even find the stress as a Good And Nice feeling. That gives my mind the attracties to This aswell. And is difficult to get out of This circle. I Will practice more And more And observe what Will happen.
Henrietta
August 11, 2018
Very interesting. I love how your exercises expand on the normal instructions one hears, like focus on the breath, notice when your mind wanders etc. This is a process of filling that out, expanding the experience so we really develop it. Thankyou once again, Stephen
Sandy
July 18, 2018
This is great guidance as usual. It’s funny how the mind works. This meditation instruction is to lightly ground attention in the body and see where the mind wonders to. When I am told that my mind is allowed to wonder it acts like a stubborn child and sticks like glue to the meditation object. Well I guess that is the thought that came to mind. “Why is my mind not wondering “🙃
Cédric
April 12, 2018
This really is a wonderful session. This one and the two or three previous sessions helped me make giant steps on observing and understanding how my thoughts move and where they are located (both during the session and my daily life). I must say that the fact that I've been sick with a flu (which makes my brain work more slowly and/or differently) recently makes it even more interesting... A really big thank you for providing this series of meditations which allows to discover more and more about myself and my inner processes.
joHn
February 10, 2018
I've come back to this exercise, and several previous exercises. They are all important, but for me this particular skill seems fundamental. I wrote that first line, those two sentences, months ago. I am now working my way through the series again and I find that this is the right thing for me to be doing. Although Stephen clearly states and emphasizes what is important in this lesson, I had still missed it. When I come back to go through these exercises the third time, I expect that I will find other points of instruction that I will then be ready to notice.