In the first part, I elaborated on the kind of exercise: Focused Attention, Open Monitoring or Generating Positivity.

After that, you can ask youselve: Where do I focus on?

Observing sensory experience

First things first: when you are meditating, you make a shift from “doing” to “observing”.

Doing is:

• Thinking about the past
• Thinking about the future
• Analyzing, labeling, judging, comparing
• Making decisions
• Taking action

Observing is:

• Directing attention to sensory experience
• Being non-judgemental
• Zooming in or out on a particular sensation
• Noticing subtle sensations – disentangling a vague sensation into small disctinct components.

A “fuzzy itch” may consist of a bit of warmth, a bit of tingling (which is sharper in the center), a vague border.

A simple “in breath” may consist of a cold sensation of air at the nostrils, some tension on your belly as it rises, etcetera

Okay, so now we know what we mean by “observing sensory experience”.

Where do you focus on?

With a Focused Attention meditation, this is always a single thing. Examples are:

1. The sensation of air flowing through your nostrils as you breath
2. The movement of your belly as you breath
3. A particular sound, such as the ticking of your clock
4. A mantra

When you are doing a “Open Monitoring” meditation, you do not specify a single object, but rather an entire category of sensory experience. Shinzen Young has done a wonderful job at defining different categories:

Answer these three questions:

1. Which modality?
Visual, auditory or somatic? Somatic includes touch, feelings, gustatory (smell) and olfactory (taste).

2. Subjective or objective?
You can distinguish between internal, subjective sensory experience and external, objective sensory experience.
There are internal mental images, and external sights.
There is internal mental talk, and external sounds.
There are internal feelings (i.e. emotion), and external touch sensations (i.e. clothing).

3. Active or restful?
Each of the aforementioned categories has an “active” and a “restful” flavour.
Touch is active – Relaxation is restful.
Sounds are active – Silence is restful.

So you have 3 x 2 x 2 = 12 different categories, summarized below:

You can do an open monitoring meditation with one or multiple categories. For example, you can use focus on all sounds; (sound,talk,silence,quiet). Or you could focus on all active categories (Sight,Image,Sound,Talk,Touch and Feel). Or on restful categories (Blank, Silence, Relax).

Focused Attention often has a single category: Breathing would be “touch” and a mantra “talk”.

Generating Positivity always uses active, subjective categories: Images, Talk and Feelings. You try to remember and generate positive images, thoughts and emotions. Answering “Where do you focus on” involves determining the flavor of positivity. This can be compassion, loving-kindness, gratefulness or forgiveness.

Go meditate!

With this information, you can add some variety to your meditation. Just change your focus!

So if you always doing Focused Attention on the breath, try a Focused Attention on a sound!
If you are observing your body (“The Body Scan”), try a focusing on restful states: Can you notice and label “Blank” (=seeing the blackness in front of your closed eyes), “Relax” (=feeling relaxation in your body) and “Silence”(=actually hearing the silence?)

In the third and final part of the series, I will discuss the last question: Which labels do you use? Because in every meditation, you are observing and noticing sensory experience. Each time you notice a particular experience (such as a distraction), you label it…. and there are different ways of doing this!

Stay tuned!

and.. as always.. do not hesitate to comment :)
Do you like these theoretical articles? Or do you like the practical more? Are the articles too long or too short? You tell me! (Bonus question: Who are your favorite meditation teachers?)

• When end your meditation, try to maintain the concentration and wakefulness
• Do little mini-meditations during the day (30 seconds – 3 minutes)
• Pick one simple task to do consciously, such as washing your hands or doing the dishes
• Make deliberate effort to slow things down (avoid hurrying and running around)
• Try to meditate during other tasks: Can you notice distractions when working or studying? (Literally, when you college stops by to ask you a question, mentally label “distraction”)
• Take a deep breath before each meal, and take the eat the first tree bites slowly and consciously

With “consciously” I mean switching from “thinking” to “experiencing”. In other words, instead of directing your attention to your thoughts, you direct your attention to sensory experience. Instead of processing (logical) information, you process sights, sounds and feelings.

You can do this even right now. Rather than just reading and thinking, try to feel your body. Where is your attention now? I guess it is in your head. So perhaps you can try to feel your body resting in the chair, and your feet on the ground. How is your body feeling? Tired? Awake? And are there any sounds? Are you listening to music? Can you hear the computer humming?

Actually take a moment do answer these questions, if you did not do that already. Make sure to experience the answer for a couple of seconds to each of these questions. Do NOT answer these questions quickly, because then you will stay stuck in “thinking mode”. Investigating your sensory world like that helps you switch from “thinking in your head” to “sensory experience outside your head”.

——————-
The meditation app is almost ready, by the way! Is there anybody interested in testing an early version?

Q: I keep dosing off when I meditate. What can I do?.
A: Here are a couple of tips when you are feeling drowsy:

1. Is the time right? There are some times when you are just sleepy, like:
When you just woke up.
At the end of the day
After a meal (after-dinner-dip)

2. Position
Of course, when you are lying down, or in a really comfortable chair, it is harder to stay awake. Can you sit upright with a straight spine in your chair? If you notice you are falling asleep, you can straighten your spine and take a couple of deep breaths.

With these two basics in mind, you can tweak the meditation a bit.

What kind of meditation are you doing? If I know what you are doing, I could suggest some tweaks to help you stay alert.

As a general guideline, it is best to do a “Focused Attention” meditation if you are sleepy, or have little concentration.

There are many different versions, but they all go like this:

Pick an object of attention, such as your breath. Then, do the following:

1. Direct Attention (to the air flowing in and out of your nostrils)
2. Sustain Attention (keep watching the breath, try to notice the subtleties and how each breath is different)
3. Notice distractions (label your distractions)
4. Let go of distractions (return to your breath)

With this meditation, you can do a couple of things to stay awake:

1. You can “do” more so you “relax” less.
2. You can make the meditation more interesting.
3. There are some tricks to notice distractions sooner, so you stay more alert.

Here is how to do that:

• Count your breath: From 1 to 10. If you are distracted, just start again at 1.
• Count your thoughts/distractions.
• Make the object of attention more precise. If you are watching your breath, you can zoom in on the sensation of air flowing trough your nostrils. If you are watching your body, you can zoom in on a single body part.
• Keep your eyes slightly open, with a soft gaze (but you already tried that!)
• Notice distractions more “aggressive”: Instead of just acknowledging the distraction without any words, you can mentally say “a distraction”. You can also try using simple words, such as “future”, “fantasy”, “past”, “groceries”, “work”. Or you could even try speaking the words out load.
• Also label your object of attention. After each label, you should experience it for a few seconds. For example:

“Breath” … (few seconds) …. “Breath” … (few seconds, you have a thought) … “past”.. (direct attention to breath, feel the breath) …. “Breath” … (few seconds) ….

If this does not work, you could try a walking meditation. Let me know if you want any instructions for that!
Okay, so these are a LOT of tips. Just try a few things to see what works for you! And let me know which tips you found the most useful for you!

Now what do you do?

a) Acceptance: It is alright to scratch. You need to be kind to yourself, listen to your body, and just scratch if it wants to be scratched.

b) Discipline: This is a meditation where you are supposed to sit still. Moving it NOT allowed, so you just have to endure the itching sensation. Even if it means going trough heaven and hell – you can practice equanimity with this (staying calm and maintaining composure under stress, or, in this case, an itch)

There is a delicate balance between acceptance and discipline, which can be hard to find if you never experiment with this yourself. It’s not that you get this right once and never have to worry about it. Balancing means that you constantly have to readjust yourself.

Where are you now? Too accepting, or too harsh?

Read on and figure it out:

Upon closer inspection, having discipline requires a lot of acceptance. It is much more difficult to embrace the full experience of an annoying itch, than it is to accept that you just moved and scratched.

Although, this is for everybody different. Some people might find it very difficult to scratch, because they become judgemental and think they have “failed” the meditation. For those people, their progress can be found in scratching and being non-judgemental about it.

Other people might find it very difficult to stay with the intensity of an itch, and they quickly resort to scratching. They would benefit more from allowing themselves to scratch.

For some people, “accepting what is” might be a way to avoid confrontation. It’s the easy way out — why risk a conflict when you can just accept things as they are? Well – get this: true acceptance also includes the consequences of any conflict you might get. Acceptance does not need to compromise assertiveness.

But take this too far, and you become a bully: you resist what is happening now, and you try to force or control people. You can’t force yourself to remain calm under that itch! You can only try!

True acceptance requires two things:
- Acceptance of what is happening NOW (i.e. not scratching, no venting, or blowing of steam on others)
- Acceptance of the consequences what you are going to do (i.e. not afraid to be firm and harsh towards others when needed)

The same goes for discipline: On one hand, these self-imposed rules serve to limit you. On the other hand, it gives you freedom letting an itch guide your behavior (scratch).

In the end, nobody can tell you what your balance is. You need to find out for yourself.

Here is how:
1. Extreme Acceptance: Do a meditation where EVERYTHING is okay.
2. Extreme Discipline: Do a mediation where you focus on your breath, and don’t move your body! Not a single INCH! (Or centimeter!)

Note that extreme discipline does not necessary require extreme effort; you should still aim for a relaxed yet attentive state of mind. The difference lies in how you handle distractions: Acceptance is warm, welcoming and explorative. You are very kind towards yourself. Discipline is less explorative and kind, but equally warm and welcoming: You just really try your best to sit still and motionless. When a thought, feeling, or urge to move comes up, you *do* acknowledge and notice them – you only resist the urge to REACT to them (important!)

Try this out: a very accepting meditation, and a very disciplined meditation.
One of them will probably open your eyes to a new way of doing things.

If you discover you are very disciplined and strict, try emphasize acceptance more.
If you discover you are very accepting and mellow, explore where a little discipline might bring you.

Good luck, and let me know what you discover in the comments!

(PS. I tend to be more a disciplined kind-of-guy!)

(PS2. I might edit this post – its still somewhat vague. What do you think?)

Stop everything you are doing.

And before you can stop something, you must be aware of it.

So before you start your meditation, acknowledge and accept every sensory experience you are having right now.

1. Feel your body. Both the outer touch with your clothes and the ground, as the inner feelings you are having. Relax if you are tensing anything.
2. Hear. Both the sounds around you, as any internal dialogue you might have. Stop any active inner speech. (You are still allowed to have thoughts!)
3. See. Both the blackness when having your eyes clothes, as any mental images you might have. Relax your eyes into a soft gaze.

This makes you aware of any unconscious resisting, and helps you accept what is happening right now. You cannot direct your FULL attention to your meditation if you are still busy doing other things.

Common examples are:

1. Tensing your body.
2. Trying to NOT hear a loud sound.
3. Still busy having an internal dialog.

Exploring what you are experiencing right now is a meditation in itself. The longer you observe, the more subtle things you start to notice!

Before every meditation, just take a minute or two to acknowledge the most obvious touches, feelings, sounds and sights.

How do YOU start your meditation? Share it in the comments!

About the upcoming app: I’m almost good to go — I just need to record the audio and I’m ready to show it to you! I’m giving free acces to my subscribers, to get some early feedback and iron out any bugs it might have.

And if you would stop to notice what you are actually doing, you would perhaps do things differently. This helps you make your life easier, better, or just more fun.

I could ramble about the theory of meditation, and you learn a lot of theory about meditation… but that does not make you happier!

That’s why I decided to share a “moment of clarity” I had this week – which was a benefit of meditation practice.

This stuff only works if you GO and practice it. You only need 15 minutes a day! You cannot learn about meditation and expect to get “it”.

I live in a flat, and I share the front door with all the occupants. A friend came for dinner, and I was walking her to the door. There was a girl carrying a computer. She had her hands full and she was fumbling to open the door. I opened the door and she thanked me.

As I stood chatting at the door with my friend, she walked past a couple of times. Each time, I held the door open for her, but she always quickly hurried away, saying she had to go and that she was in a hurry.

It seemed like she wanted to get away from me!

This caused a lot of thoughts: “She is unfriendly”, “She does not like me”, “She is just in a hurry, perhaps stressed because it is already getting late and she seems to need to carry a lot of stuff inside”.

Normally, these thoughts pass unnoticed, in the back of your head, and you just assume they are true. I would have gone back inside and forgotten all about it.

Well, not today! This time, I noticed these thoughts, and I considered that I was perhaps taking things a bit to personal. Maybe it is not all about me! (Seriously, people are so pre-ocuppied with themselves… ! And I was being no different!)

So I went back inside to get rope and scissors. With some MacGyver skills, I was able to devise a clever way to keep the door open. When she saw that, she thanked me again, and this time, she had some time to chat.

It was a nice chat, she turned out to be very friendly, and I’ll probably see her again sometime.

This is not about how being nice will get you something in return. It’s about having a little bit more clarity in your life, which allows you to do things a little bit different, which can make you a lot happier.

She told me she didn’t have much time, because she was moving. She broke up with her boyfriend two months ago, but still had been living together all that time. “Oh shit! That must have been though”, I thought. And I said that. In fact, she continues, he is upstairs! He didn’t like to be left alone, because he was helping her with the computer. Tat is why she was hurrying!

See, it is not always about me. But if I don’t notice what I am thinking, how am I supposed to realize that?

Tips:

I can highly recommend keeping a little journal for these moments of clarity  – as they’ll motivate you to keep practicing. (Something that can be very difficult, as your mind has mysterious ways of resisting meditation..!)

If you experience trouble meditating daily, and find yourself coming up with all kinds of excuses (not enough time, don’t like it, makes me restless, etc) you can always just label that as “The Resistance”. Again, by noticing it, it loses its grip over you and you can make a different choice.

If you like a little challenge, try to notice thoughts that are “only about you”. Both by yourself, as with other persons. Perhaps you can find a little freedom by considering that it’s not always about you – if you catch such a thought!

About my experiment…

A few days aren’t enough! I have been working real hard. Being tired. Sleeping early. I cheated a few times (I chatted, listened to an audio talk, and ate some pepernoten…) I draw once! I only had a few moments in which it was confronting to be with myself, in silence. Those were golden moments, because I saw clearly that I was seeking ways to avoid being with myself (eating, doing something, etc).

Anyway, the experiment continues… I let you know more if I have more experience with it!

Other news: App prototype

I have been working hard to set up a first app. Expect to hear more on Monday!

Oh and one last thing: do you like the new background? It’s has a much better feeling don’t you think!

Normally, after a day of hard work, I relax browsing the internet or watching a serie. Something that does not require too much mental effort.

These activities can be a bit mind-numbing, so I thought, let’s be mindful and just sit and enjoy the silence.

I found this to be incredibly hard…

There was an irresistable urge to do something. I gave in and made some tea. While I was doing nothing (except sipping my tea), I noticed that I was restless. And a feeling of sadness overwhelmed me.

“Here I am, sitting on my couch, alone, sipping my tea, and staring at a white wall.”

A clock is ticking, but the hour and minute hand are missing. I can only see the seconds ticking by. (Oh, how zen of me to remove those hands!)

I noticed how tired I was. Hmm, not strange considering how much I am working. I went to bed early, still feeling sad, and that was the end of it.

I concluded:

It’s confronting to be alone with myself — and it shouldn’t be that way!

The mechanics of NOT distracting yourself

I noticed all these things I wouldn’t notice if I had distracted myself. I would have stayed up too long, because I wouldn’t notice I was tired. I wouldn’t have noticed I felt sad. As I explained in my last blog post, doing nothing was not the cause of my sadness – it only made me aware of it! (Although another time, it actually could be the cause of the sadness!)

This experience was in stark contrast with my experience after my 10-day silent meditation retreat. Back then, I actually enjoyed doing nothing! All these distracting, mind-numbing activities just seemed silly to do!

Of course, after sitting 10 days in silence,  I was very mindful, and many unprocessed emotions had been dissolved. There weren’t much skeletons left in the closet.

After a few months of hard work finishing my bachelor thesis, there have been plenty of mindless moments in which emotions and tension could build up in my body again.

So, I’d figured it’s time to unwind again. Since I can’t go to a retreat right now – I will have to do it in my free time.

It’s actually quite simple, I just have to stop distracting myself.

As a personal experiment, I am going to live a week without distracting myself in ANY way. 

My top distractions:

1. Reading blogs, forums or other random stuff on the internet.
2. Instant messaging with friends (gmail chat, whatsapp, etc)
3. Checking e-mail more than once a day.
4. Watching series or movies on the computer.
5. Snacking or eating when I’m not hungry (Solution: stop buying snacks!).
6. Facebooking (Solved: I deleted my account – although I do have a facebook page you can like!)
7. Watching television (Solved: I don’t have a television)

Going all the way:

There are also less mind-numbing ways to distract myself:

1. Reading a book.
2. Listening to music.
3. Texting friends.

So, what is left for me to do, if I want to relax?

1. Just sit in silence.
2. Meditate.
3. Play a musical instrument (guitar or keyboard!)
4. Draw, paint, sketch!
5. Go exercise.
6. Household tasks, such as cleaning or doing the dishes.
7. Take a nap, or go to bed early.
8. (Visit friends, or call them)

That is still plenty of stuff to choose from!

 Benefits?

1. When I can’t avoid myself anymore, I will be more connected to myself and my emotions. After working with them, which might cause some discomfort, I will probably have more inner peace and be more centered.
2. Distracting yourself consumes energy and makes you tired… stopping this will free up lots of energy! (Distractions are sometimes the cause of feeling mentally exhausted, instead of the result!)
3. More creativity. During the retreat, I had almost no new impressions, yet I had much more inspiration!
4. More focus and clarity in my thoughts – as I’ll be more aware of what is going on!

We’ll see how much comes true after my experiment ends!

Join me!

If you like, accept the challenge and join me!

Of course, you can also do an easy version:

1. Make a list of your top distracting activities.
2. Each time you are about to start such activity, do a mini-meditation of three minutes.
3. Ask yourself: what is the intention behind distracting yourself?
4. Optional: Each day, apart from your daily meditation, do nothing for 5 minutes, and see how you feel.

I will post friday how my experiment is working out for me!

See you later!

Mark Nis

PS. Dutch readers, check out these 3 minute mini meditations: Ademruimte 1,2 or 3.

In fact, the less relaxed meditation makes you feel, the more relaxed you will become afterwards…!

Sounds strange? Read on and I will explain!

On one hand, practicing concentration might cause feelings of joy, curiosity and calm to arise. This causes you to feel very relaxed!

On the other hand, the increased clarity might cause repressed emotions to resurface. These repressed emotions might cause you to feel restless, uneasy, or tense… quite the opposite of relaxation!

When this happens, beginners sometimes conclude:

“Meditation doesn’t work for me, I only feel more stressed”.

This would be equivalent to a marathon runner who concludes:

“Running doesn’t work for me, it only makes me feel completely exhausted!”

We all understand how physical exercise works: you need to challenge your body to become stronger. After draining all your energy during a run, your body is tired and sore — but it when it recovers, you will have a little bit more strength and endurance.

Meditation works very much the same. By enduring feelings of restlessness of discomfort, we train our bodies to be more calm and relaxed. Moreover, meditation does not make you feel uncomfortable, restless or uneasy. It only makes you aware of your restlessness.

This is a huge and important difference!

In daily life, we often avoid confronting our emotions. We distract ourselves with television, facebook, social activities, etcetera. We, as human beings, like to keep things simple, and if distracting ourselves makes us stop feeling bad, why not?

Because distracting yourself only makes you unaware of your feelings – it doesn’t dissolve them!

Every emotions needs to be felt, otherwise it is repressed.

After a while, we forget what caused the negative emotions (or we were simply to unware to notice it in the first place!), and we are left with some vague, undefined negative feeling.

Like, you just not feeling it. Something is not right, but you can’t say what….
You can’t fix it, because you don’t know what’s wrong… so what do you do?

Meditate!

The solution is simple: your emotions just want to be felt, and this is what you practice when you meditate and observe your restlessness.

Key to just observing your emotions is NOT reacting.

This means pure feeling, without reacting by thinking, tensing your body, breathing more shallow. Your body is conditioned to think, tense, and breathe shallow. When you deliberately notice thoughts (and return to your feeling), relax your body (when you notice it tensing), and breath naturally (when you notice more shallow breath), you TRAIN your body to be more relaxed, and you process that supressed emotion.

This is the skill of equanimity: the ability to maintain composure under (emotional) stress.

With every bit of restlessness you feel, you deal with a little bit of suppressed emotion.

This allows you to feel more relaxed and calm afterwards! Don’t expect any magical bursts of relaxation after your meditation, but if you are mindfull, you might notice that you are just a little bit more calm and relaxed!

Really try to notice these little benefits, because it will help you keep motivated!

Do you feel more relaxed when you meditate, or do you feel restless? Let me know in the comments!

You just wanted to check facebook, and before you know it, you liked a page, clicked a link, and you find yourself watching a youtube video….

You ask yourself:

“How did I end up here?”

and silently, you answer:

“Argh, I just got distracted…. Again!!”

This is where I come in:

“WAIT! Did somebody say distracted?!”

Meditation is the perfect tool to handle such distractions. Also, an important part of meditation is using applying it in your daily life.

So try the facebook meditation challange today!

I wrote earlier that a Focused Attention Meditation consists of:

1. Direct attention: To your breath
2. Sustain attention: Make contact to the physical sensation of your breath, at say, the nostrils.
3. Notice distractions: When a thought occurs, or you lose contact with your breath, acknowledge the current experience by labeling it with a simple, single word, in a matter-of-fact tone.
4. Let go: Redirect attention back to your breath, letting go of the distraction.

The Facebook Meditation Challenge simply consists of applying these steps to facebooking.

Directing & Sustaining Attention:

First, ask yourself: What are you doing? In fact, answer right now: How did you end up reading my blog? Was this your original intention? (thanks!) Or did you somehow end up here? (Hope you like it here!)

So, just as with meditation, you have to choose an object of attention you will return to. This can be anything: Checking events, writing messages, posting photos, or just getting a quick update from your friends.

Now, as you are facebooking, keep doing your intended task. Especially “reading updates from your friends” can be hard, as before you know it, you are chatting, clicking links, and watching videos….

If that hapens, then

Notice the distraction & Let go

Exactly the same as with ordinary meditation, acknowledge your distraction by labeling it. Perhaps try to remember the train of thoughts… eh … clicks that lead you here.

Then let go and return to reading status updates (Warning: This can be difficult if the youtube video is very entertaining!).

Tips & Conclusion

This exercise works well if you just did a breathing meditation, with emphasis on noticing distractions. A great way to do this is to count the number of distractions you have.

I occasionaly do this exercise myself (that is, when I had facebook) and I find it quite suprising and enjoyable to notice how quickly I get distracted. And what distracts me. And how I make all these quircky jumps, from one thing to the next. That really makes you understand the monkey-metaphor:

“the mind is like monkey, jumping from branch to branch”

Try it out and tell me what you think!

There are so many different meditation practices…!
Can you keep track of all the differences?

After this post, you can!

You only need to answer three questions:

1. Which kind of exercise is it?
2. Where do you focus on?
3. Which labels do you use?

Which kind of exercise is it?

There are only three different exercises:

1. Focused Attention
2. Open Monitoring
3. Generate Positivity

1. Focused Attention

Focused Attention is the basis for every other meditation. It trains all three skills of concentration, clarity and equanimity; but it is especially good for developing concentration.

This exercise helps stabilize your attention, and is therefore required for the other practices.

After a busy day, your mind if often restless, chaotic and full of distractions. This exercise will help you calm down and focus. Once you mind has settled down a bit, you can practice open monitoring or generate positivity.

The instructions are:

1. Direct attention (to your breath)
2. Sustain attention (connect to your breath and experience the physical sensations)
3. Notice distractions (label thoughts you have as they come and go)
4. Let go of distractions (don’t react to your thought with another thought)

2. Open Monitoring

With open monitoring, you have no explicit object of attention. Since you have nowhere to return to, it is much easier to get lost in distractions. That is why you need to ensure your attention is stable first using Focused Attention.

Open Monitoring especially builds clarity by noticing what you are experiencing now. It also trains equanimity when you resist the temptation to react. Reacting simply means you engage in the thought or feeling you are experiencing.

• If you have an itch, you react by scratching.
• If you have a thought, you react by having another thought.
• If you have a feeling, you react by thinking about it.
• If you feel uncomfortable, you react by moving.
• If you feel good, you react by getting excited.

Instructions:

1. Maintain an open awareness
2. Notice thoughts
3. Let go of thoughts (don’t react)

3. Generate Positivity

Whereas Focused Attention and Open Monitoring both observe your current experience, Generate Positity tries to actively create a positive experience.

Basically, it is a Focused Attention exercise in which the object of attention is something you think, rather something that is happening right now.

Instructions:

1. Find a positive feeling
2. Direct attention to that positive feeling.
3. Sustain attention to amplify the positive feeling.
4. Notice distractions (negative thoughts)
5. Let go of distractions (negative thoughts).

Notice that you should not resist negativity, or view it as unwanted. The point of the exercise is not to get rid of negativity, the point is to notice positive sensations, and focus on them. You can’t help it if your mind happens to bring up something negative! But you do have choice in how you react: You will only add negativity if you resist, complain, are dissappointed or harsh towards yourself. That is not the right attitude! The right attitude is to be patient, accepting and forgiving. Welcome any negative thought, but after you labeled and experienced the negative thought, gently return towards the positive thought.

You didn’t mention my meditation technique!

Sorry, then it is not meditation!

Sometimes, when I mention meditation, people tell me about HoloSync, hypnosis, relaxation techniques, visualisations, spirit guides, etc…

While a visualisation can be object of attention, and while meditation might help you relax, meditation is not about learning to visualize, practicing relaxation or entrain your brain waves.

Meditation is a mental exercise to develop concentration, clarity and equanimity. These mental exercises involve

• directing and sustaining attention,
• connecting to sensory experience,
• noticing and labeling what is happening.

Additionally, some variations might include mantra or visualisations, but this is only used to complement the aforementioned mental activities.

Later, I will delve into the other questions: “Where do you focus on?” and “Which labels do you use?”. I’ll also elaborate each of the three exercises…. so stay tuned!

In the meanwhile, tell me: Which kinds of meditation exercises do you practice?
And quiz question: Which kind of exercise is a walking meditation?