AAA Summary of Meditation
Steps for Mindfulness Based Breathing to help any Problem Introduction and Expansion
A. What is this? This is an approach to helping mental health and physical problems having an emotional component by systematically learning about what the feelings and bodily sensations are that are causing, driving and maintaining our problems. Find out what they are, then deal with them using mindfulness fortified by being applied to breathing, until they are weaker, easier to deal with, or they go away.
B. A new way to deal with problems: When the thinking mode of the mind is no longer helpful, switch to the experiencing mode using mindfulness. Mindfulness is when we are still only in the present moment and we accept and feel an experience, before we use thinking comparing past and future.
C. The thinking-doing mode mind: As good a thinking is in helping many things, it often changes and distorts the original motivating and driving feelings and bodily sensations that cause and keep our problems going. The thinking mode thinks, pulls us out of the present using past and future, reacts emotionally and judges, keeping us away from the negative, and wants more of the positive, and tends to ignore the neutral. In the process it can put layers of thinking-emotional distortion on the original feelings and body sensations that are motivating us and fueling our problems.
D. Mindfulness an example of the experiencing-being mode of mind: Mindfulness keep us only in the present, doesn’t use thinking at all, but uses the experience the “knowing” that comes from not emotionally reacting based on positive, negative or neutral, but accepting equally everything, called equanimity, then allowing its wave like nature to unfold, and then feels-senses the associated emotions and bodily sensations associated with any thought-emotion-body sensation unit of mental experience. Mindful knowing is this present moment acceptance with equanimity, allowing, and experiencing by sensing and feeling. This knowing with equanimity can make all the difference when nothing else seem to help.
E. Mindfulness based breathing: Applying mindful knowing with equanimity to breathing makes mindfulness more powerful because it is easier to maintain and sustain, for it develops increasing concentration, that may calm the mind and relax the body. The process is sounds deceptively simple, apply mindfulness at each step of breathing over and over, to develop increasing concentration and mindfulness, and when distracted return back to the breathing, and repeat the process. When you have enough concentration and calm of mind, substitute your problem for the breathing and use mindfulness to experience, understand and help it.
F. What make this simple process so difficult? The nature of the thinking mind resists by wandering, causes massive distractions based emotional reactions, pulling us out of present moment focus, into the past and future, not allowing us to accept emotionally what is happening, but to move away from it if it is negative, and go with it if it positive, and to ignore what seems neutral. It breaks our concentration on the breathing, or anything else, and makes our mind think and wander, emotionally react, avoid, want more, ignore, over and over, very very quikly , often out of our awareness, working on auto pilot.
G. What is the solution to this problem? You only need learn to do one thing, mindful breathing for itself and as applied to formal mindfulness meditation. For in doing mindful breathing in and out of meditation everything that can be experienced will come up, including your problems or special issues, as distractions, and if deal with properly will be helped in the process. Mindful breathing becomes the anchor and reminder of mindfulness, and the training ground to develop the mental muscle of mindfulness, that in the process will be helping any problem, and when you are ready, can be applied more specifically to anything to understand and help it more intensely.
H. Warning, warning! This is an approach that is based on experiencing, and must be practiced. The practice is the really teacher, it will help you learn, convince you of what help it may be, and teach you how to apply to anything that needs help. You will read, learn , think, practice, apply, and do again and again, based on what you experience in the practice. Try to practice mindfulness always, practice mindful breathing whenever you can, and do formal meditation on a scheduled basis, if you want maximum benefits.
Part 2 Outline to practice step for mindfulness based breathing or mindful breathing.
Say worried thoughts make you tense and you can’t sleep. You focus only on feeling the emotion of worry, and then feeling your tense body, as you keep the fueling thoughts and new emotions that have been causing the sleep problem in the back of your mind. Doing this over and over, the worry will get weaker, your tense muscles will relax, and you will be better able to sleep. Similarly if your angry and have a head ache, you would feel the anger, then sense and feel the head pain, while keeping your thinking and other feelings in the back of your mind. This is easy to describe and understand, but it can very difficult without the regular practice of mindful breathing.
1. Slow down, stop what your are doing, and become Aware of the fact the you are Breathing by taking a few slow, deep and long breaths. Get comfortable with feeling the breathing in your body, as you breathe over and over.
2. Use any posture that promotes relaxation and alertness, if sitting the spine should be erect not stiff, eyes open or closed. Let go of any muscular tension you may feel. This can be done walking, waiting while waiting ,standing or driving, trying to sleep.[Use ABCDE- Awareness of Breathing for Concentration, Distractions ,Experienced with Equanimity]
3. Stay only in the present moment as all of your focus is put more specifically on feeling the physical sensations of breathing, over and over, which will cause more and more calm and concentration. Try to not fuel your problem with more thinking or adding emotions to it. Put your thinking and any new reacting emotions on a mental shelve somewhere in back of your mind, as you always try to keep your focus on the breathing in the front of your mind.
4. Don’t try to control the breath, or think about it, or expect anything special, just allow your total present moment focus to follow the breath, allow your awareness to rest on it, accepting it with emotional balance or equanimity, for what it is, experiencing its wave like nature, as your continue to feel it, over and over, and again and again. This is mindfulness,-present moment awareness, accepting it, feeling it without thought-, applied to breathing.
5. It may be helpful to label or name because this helps focus while stopping thinking by saying silently “ breathing in, breathing out” or “ in and out”, or use any counting method that works like “ one as breathing in, two as breathing out, etc”. If there is a place you feel the breath most use that as a point of focus. Notice on the in breath concentration increases, and on the out breath, a letting go, and relaxation. “ in more focused, out more relaxed” There is not right or wrong labeling or counting, what ever fits and keeps you focused, use trial and error. Continue to do this until you are Distracted or ready to deal with your Difficulty.
6. It is normal, to be expected and part of the process, that no matter how hard you try, sooner rather than later, you will be Distracted by your problem or anything else, when it displaces the breathing in the front of your mind. Don’t ignore it, or avoid it, or give in to it, this is emotional balance or Equanimity. Treat it like you treat the breathing and everything else, but only temporarily until it weakens, or passes so you can return back to the breathing . Use mindful awareness stay in the present moment, don’t use thinking, accept it with equanimity not being pushed or pulled by its emotions but, feeling its emotional qualities. If needed label or “note” silently or out loud, “thinking, thinking”, “worry, worry”, “anger, anger”, “pain, pain”, or whatever fits and works for you.
7. This awareness with equanimity actually weakens the Distraction or your problem even though you are not working on it directly, also it strengthens concentration and mindfulness. If you a distracted , pulled off focus 1000 times, you respond with awareness and equanimity, 1000 times, and thus increasing your mindful awareness and ability to-Accept, Experience, and Let go of the emotions-of the difficulty, in 1000 small steps, as is the power of concentration. As the Distraction gets weaker or goes away, try to shift your Awareness back to again feeling the sensations of Breathing to develop more and more Concentration which will make you calmer, and give your more time to deal with your problem or Difficulty or more Distractions with mindful Experiencing when you are ready and able to focus on it more specifically and intensely. Name it, feel it, let it go, then back to the breathing, over and again.
8. Anywhere along or anytime if your get confused, lost in you mind, get distracted, have too much thinking, or get too emotional go back to feeling the breathing sensations to regain focus and stability, as an anchor, home base, and a resting place to refuel for more concentration &calm. Practice these steps over and over to develop powerful and useful concentration and mindfulness, whenever you can so you are ready when you need to use it for any issue.
Part 3 Starting Mindfulness based breathing-learning to breath in a new way.
A. In practicing this you will be using two basic skills of mindful knowing and developing concentration.
B. First the “knowing factor” which is applied mindfulness the being aware, of anything like the breathing sensations, staying focused on them, as you accept them with no emotional biasis called equanimity, allow it to unfold, stay with it, as you experience it by feeling-sensing it, and then letting it go, for then next breath or experience.
C. Second it the “focus factor” the developing of concentration and the resultant calm mind by paying attention with mindfulness to one thing, first the breathing sensations over and over, and again and again. Sometime you it will be easier to develop concentration other times it will be easier to be mindful, if you not sure be mindful, the concentration will follow.
D. Below are some exercises to help each. The basic sequence is knowing, using labeling if needed, then feeling, staying with the experience for as long as you can, or until you are distracted, or it goes away, and then letting go of it, and then returning back to deal with it or any new experience again and again.
E. This basic sequence is what is applied to any problem, say worry, panic, anger, a negative thought, a physical sensation like a pain, or an annoying sound. Find out what it is, know it, name or label it, feel it, stay with it in doses you can handle, to understand it, weaken it, make it more manageable, or until you are distracted, or it goes away, and then letting it go, no holding on to it any longer than you need to, or can for the moment, and then returning if you need to, for more experiencing.
F. One can see how just doing mindfulness based breathing is an excellent training ground to develop the skills needed to handle any problem with mindfulness. The knowing of the breathing, feeling it, accepting, allowing, over and over develops concentration, when distracted, knowing the distraction, concentrating on the distraction temporarily, name it feeling it, letting it go , to return to the breathing, this returning back build more concentration equal to if not more then the primary focus on the breathing, and repeating the sequence, over and over. Breathing until distracted, back to breathing. The breathing represents a micro universe issues and the problems and mindfulness applied to it is the training ground to study them and help them.
G. Mindfulness is developed by noticing and knowing and paying attention to the breathing throughout the day, and seeing where the mind goes, just this noticing, and knowing over and over. Here one concentrates on being mindful, putting concentration secondary and tries to develop the “knowing factor”. Just pay attention to where the mind goes as you breathe, starting with the breath, using labeling to keep focused and to stay mindful, moment to moment noticing, knowing, accepting, feeling, letting go, for the next mindful moment. It will go something like this, using labels as you follow the moment to moment wandering of the mind, remember the emphasis is on knowing where the mind goes. “Breathing, breathing”, your mind next goes to what you will be doing the rest of the day, labeling “planning, planning”, you go back to the breathing, you mind next wonders if you are doing this right you start “judging, judging”, you decide you are and you feel good about it “feeling good, feeling good”, you go back to the breathing, and notice a pain in your leg, ” pain, pain”, you go back to the breathing “breathing, breathing” This type of exercise indirectly develops concentration and primarily builds up mindfulness or the knowing factor.
H. Concentration is developed by focusing on the sensations of the breathing, noticing the mind wanderings, but as quickly as possible bringing the focus back to the breathing, to develop increasing concentration, over and over. Here one becomes mindful of primarily the concentration and tries to develop the “focus factor”. A simple exercise is to just focus on the breathing sensations, feeling them, accepting them over and over, and seeing how far you can go counting say up to 20 before you are distracted or loose track, going back to the beginning if that happens. Mindfulness is developed indirectly as you are having to notice, pay attention and know the breath as you try to exclude all other things, which you give the briefest mindful glance possible, for the sake of developing higher and higher concentration.
Expansion on Mindfulness Based Breathing to help any Problem, using ABC plus D+E. 1.28.08
The power of mindfulness added to breathing will give you the time, calm and concentration you need to separate the feeling part of your problem, that you will keep in the front of your mind, and the thinking part that you will keep in the back. Say worried thoughts make you tense and you can’t sleep. You focus only on feeling the emotion of worry, and then feeling your tense body, as you keep the fueling thoughts and new emotions that have been causing the sleep problem in the back of your mind. Doing this over and over. The worry will get weaker, your tense muscles will relax, and you will be better able to sleep. Similarly if your angry and have a head ache, you would feel the anger, then sense and feel the head pain, while keeping your thinking and other feelings in the back of your mind. This is easy to describe and understand, but it can very difficult without the regular practice of mindful breathing for concentration, dealing with distractions, and then back to breathing, repeating steps 1-7, over and over.
1. Slow down, stop what your are doing, and become Aware of the fact the you are Breathing by taking a few slow, deep long breaths. Get comfortable with feeling the breathing in your body, as you breathe over and over.
2. Use any posture that promotes relaxation and alertness, if sitting the spine should be erect not stiff, eyes open or closed. Let go of any muscular tension you may feel. This can be done walking, waiting while standing or driving, trying to sleep etc.
3. Stay only in the present moment as all of your focus is put more specifically on feeling the physical sensations of breathing, over and over, which will cause more and more calm and concentration. Try to not fuel your problem with any more thinking or adding more emotions to it. Put your thinking and any new reacting emotions on a mental shelve somewhere in back of your mind, as you always try to keep your focus on the breathing in the front of your mind.
4. Don’t try to control the breath, or think about it, or expect anything special, just allow your total present moment focus to follow the breath, as you allow your awareness to rest on it, accepting it for what it is, experiencing its wave like nature, as your continue to feel it, over and over, and again and again. This is mindfulness applied to breathing.
5. It may be helpful to label or name because this helps focus while stopping thinking by saying silently “ breathing in, breathing out” or “ in and out”, or using any counting method that works for you like “ one as your breathing in, and two as your breathing out, etc”. If there is a place you feel the breath most use that as a point of focus. Notice on the in breath focus increases, and on the out breath, a letting go, and relaxation. “ in more focused, out more relaxed” There is not right or wrong labeling or counting, what ever fits and keeps you focused, use trial and error. Continue to do this until you are Distracted or ready to deal with your Difficulty.
6. It is normal, to be expected and part of the process, that no matter how hard you try sooner rather than later, you will be Distracted by your problem or anything else, when it displaces the breathing in the front of your mind. Don’t ignore it, or avoid it, or give in to it, but notice it, give it some temporary attention, by naming or noting it silently or out loud, “thinking, thinking”, “worry, worry”, “anger, anger”, “pain, pain”, or whatever fits and works for you. This “noting” actually weakens the Distraction. As it get weaker or goes away, try to shift your Awareness back to again feeling the sensations of Breathing to develop more and more Concentration which will make you calmer, and give your more time to deal with the problem or Difficulty or more Distractions with “noting” and mindful Experiencing when you are ready and able.
7. Anywhere along or anytime if your get confused, lost in you mind, get distracted, have too much thinking, or get too emotional go back to feeling the breathing sensations to regain focus and stability, as an anchor, home base, and a resting place to refuel for more concentration &calm.[Practice these 7 steps over and over to develop concentration and mindfulness]
8. Continue to stay Aware of your Breathing until you have enough Concentration to now handle your Difficulty, like anger or fear or worried negative thinking, or headache , with Equanimity which is not being pushed or pulled by emotional charge, not avoiding or resisting it, or giving in to it, but accepting it with emotional balance. Now use mindful experience accepting it, allow it to unfold, and feel the emotions of it and what ever bodily sensations it may have. If you do this over and over, it will get weaker, easier to deal with, and may even run its wave like course, and come, peak and go away.
9. As with the breathing, and distractions, you may label by naming or “noting” the problem, by saying out loud or silently in your head “anger, anger”, or “worry, worry”, or “pain, pain”, or whatever works for you to help stay focused on it, to discourage more thinking and the adding of more emotions to it. Feel it, name it, let it go, for the next present moment. No added thinking or feeling that will attach you to it, making it harder to let it go. Just stay in the present and feel-sense, over and over, it will get weaker, until you can let it go. Practice, practice, and practice and convince yourself.
10. It is as easy as remembering to breathe for concentration and calm, as you keep the thinking in the back of your mind, and then focus exclusively on emotional part of a problem by not avoiding, resisting, or giving in to it, but to accept it, as you experience it by feeling-sensing, naming, labeling, or noting it, if needed, over and over, until get weaker, easier to handle or it goes away.
Introduction to the theory of Mindfulness applied to Breathing or Mindful Breathing 1.27.08
Your usual thinking-doing mind handles problems, especially emotionally charged issues, by more thinking and more emotional reacting , usually by avoiding negative emotions, wanting more of positive ones, and ignoring what it finds neutral, not so interesting. It at the same time pulls you out of the present moment of experience before you have even got to know the problem for what it really is, and starts to use past experience and future needs to help with the problem. This is fine when it works but when it doesn’t it may make the problem worse by fueling the issue with more emotions, making it worse, and more likely to occur again and again.
These kind of issues may benefit from a different approach that, 1. keeps you in the present moment, 2. uses experiencing without thinking by sensing-feeling of the emotions and bodily sensations, & 3. that is not emotionally reactive. Also it would be helpful if can be used over and over again for these problems that are usually re occurring and or episodic in nature, often too emotional for logical thinking-doing approaches alone. For these mindfulness used with breathing or mindful breathing is ideal.
Mindfulness handles problems by keeping you in the present moment only, not using past experience or future wishes, expectations, or planning. It doesn’t use thinking at all but only the direct experience of emotions and bodily sensations of a problem to help it, and rather then reacting to emotions it treats everything the same . It uses equanimity or emotional even mindedness which means it doesn’t avoid or resist negative feeling, or want more or give in to positive feeling, or ignore the neutral or less interesting, but accepts them all equally , allows them to unfold in their wave like nature, as it feels-senses the emotions and bodily sensations involved with the problem.
Mindfulness by itself and used with breathing has great usefulness in any issue of daily living and for mental health maintenance and its problems, for prevention, for general and specific therapy. It has effects in maintaining mental health by fostering a calm emotionally stable mind, a relaxed body, a concentrated, attentive mind with better memory , less anxiety, depression, with control of all emotions, with more intuitive awareness, less emotional overflow to fuel mental and somatic problems. It can be used diagnostically to help one be more aware of what the source of one problems may be especially when the person doesn’t know “what is wrong”, because it tunes you into your thoughts, emotions, and bodily sensations in a new and powerfully diagnostic way, and therapeutically for specific syndromes like anxiety, depression, anger and impulse control, addictions, somatic emotionally charged issues like headaches, skin rashes, stomach-intestinal problems, pain syndromes, trouble with sleeping.
Much of these helpful effects are based on its general properties, that anything that is mindfully experience can be helped. Whatever is pleasurable becomes more satisfying because you are satisfied with what you have in the present moment, not wanting more, thus less likely to result in over indulgences and addictions, the negative become associated with less pain and suffering because your not avoiding it and adding resistance make it worse, and what is perceived as neutral because you don’t ignore it and give it mindful attention becomes more interesting less boring a source of unexpected and new satisfaction. It generally enhances the positive, diminishes the negative as it stabilizes any mental state.
It is the awareness, the accepting, the allowing, the non interfering nature and direct experience of feeling-sensing without thought, without emotional reactions, that causes mindfulness to be so useful, powerful and helpful especially if sustained by concentration from mindfulness based breathing. Mindfulness is easy to describe but hard to do because we are often not even aware that the thinking mind is doing because we are on auto pilot, and doing it very quickly, and as it works it tend to make us more emotional rather than less, with more and more thinking causing mental noise an interference in a sense, and cognitive-emotional distortion with resulting experiential tension and anxiety, as it pulls us further and further away from the present moment experience which is where we should be, or may want to be to help solve the problem.
By applying mindfulness to breathing , we can help these problems of the thinking auto pilot mode of the mind, decrease the tension and anxiety, clarify and reverse the distortions, resulting in diminished problem formation, enhancement of the positive, while stabilizing the mental state. It does this because the mindful breathing slow the mind, makes it more alert, relaxing the body as it builds concentration, and calms the mind, making it less emotional and quiets the mind, making the thinking quieter and quieter, keeping the thinking and the emotional reactions to the thinking in the back ground of the mind, as it keeps the problem we want to help in the front of the mind so we can stay focused on the one thing, the problem, without distraction, & if we do it helps us deal with them, & then allows us enough time to really get to know & help the problem in a new way by no thinking, no emotional reactions, but by feeling the emotions & bodily sensations of the problem.
An amazing fact is that even if one only did mindfulness based breathing meditation everything that could be helped would come in the process, and be helped because it would come up as distractions and difficulty to the process, without doing anything else special. With practice anything a problem or special issue, that could be experienced a thought, feeling, bodily or any other sensations could be the object of mindfulness and thus be helped with more specificity.
Noting, Labeling, Naming as used in Mindfulness
A. Noting also called labeling, naming is used to help one stay focused and to discourage further thinking, as one is trying to be mindful during the day, or in the process of mindful breathing, and in mindfulness meditation.
B. Mindfulness is awareness before we make a thing an idea, only in the present moment, and accepting what it is, as it is, before we change it by thinking and emotional involvement. It is pre idea awareness and experience, not needing or using words, sensing-feeling what the thing is, its strength, and its wave like duration, staying it until it passes, and then letting it go.
C. One becomes aware that one is thinking, normally the thinking-doing mode of the mind, will further think, become emotionally involved, bring up the past and the future with memories and expectations. The mindfulness approach of handling thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations or anything else, is not to see them as separate thing or things, but as a process, a passing event, with a wave like nature, having a beginning, middle and end. One does not get involved to the content of the thinking, or whatever it is, but only focuses on the process of thinking, and the emotional intensity , what body sensations it may cause, and it duration by staying with it, by experiencing it, until it ends, and then letting it go, and then deal with the next mind moment.
D. One would use labeling or noting to discourage thinking mode activity and to keep one focused on the mindfulness experience, answering three questions, of what it is, its intensity and duration. One could use the label or note of “thinking, thinking, thinking”, silently repeating this in ones mind, over and over, until it the thinking passes. The number of labels would indicate the duration of its wave like nature, and silent mental loudness volume control in ones mind would indicate the intensity. The label, noting or naming could be dropped when no longer needed.
E. Noting is used during to deal with distractions of varying strengths, duration and complexity. Simple distractions may need just a mindful glance, very quickly noting what it is, getting a sense of its strength and duration. It is this noting or knowing that makes mindfulness applied to anything useful and powerful. It is the mindful knowing that leads to insight, and if applied consistently will burn away the layers of experiential distortion and anxiety and lead to symptom reduction, stabilization and improvement of mental states. Noting is used to facilitate this knowing.
F. Complex, intense and objects of meditation whether they are the primary thing or object one is focusing on, or a distraction which becomes a secondary and temporary object of mindfulness may need prolonged noting or labeling. One would stay with the silent mental label as long as the distraction lasted, or as long as you needed to, or until you could not maintain focus on it any longer, or until distracted by something else. One can always return to the breathing to re focus and to stabilize concentration, and then returning to the thing that one chooses to be the object of mindful experience.
G. The crucial thing is this is being aware of what is going on in ones mind, and to stay aware, and when one become unaware, to note that, and to return to what one is choosing to be aware of. The process can be summarized by becoming aware of something say the breathing, staying aware until distracted, becoming aware of the distraction, dealing with the distraction with mindful Experience, letting go of the distraction, becoming aware of the breathing again, and returning to that. Aware, letting go, and returning over and over is the process, whatever is the object of focus. Noting can be used at each step, noting the breathing, “breathing , breathing”, noting the distraction, “thinking, thinking” noting the feeling associated with the distraction “ sadness, sadness, or pleasure, pleasure”, retuning to “breathing, breathing”. The labeling or noting can be dropped when no longer needed.
H. The goal is mindfulness of everything, and sustained mindfulness, non thinking awareness of what is in your mind, what is calling for attention in the present moment, staying with it for as long as it is calling for attention, and noting its associated bodily sensations, feelings, and their intensity or strength, and after it passes letting it go, to become mindful of the next mind moment. One starts using the mindfulness of breathing as the anchor, and as one is distracted, one may use noting-labeling-naming, to deal with the distraction, and in the process getting the benefits of mindful Experience, of the Distraction , the Breathing or anything else one mindfully Experiences.
I. Mindfulness always, mindful breathing frequently, and scheduled meditation are the three parts of practice, to which noting, labeling, or naming may be used as needed to facilitate non-thinking awareness and experience.
Part 1. Introduction to Distractions- Mindful Breathing, Stress Relief and Meditation
A. If Mindfulness is health then distractions are symptoms of disease to diagnose and treat. Distractions keep us from mindfulness in breathing , meditation or anything, so that we can’t get maximum benefit for stress relief, problem solving & for insight to help symptom reduction, elimination, healing effects, and for selfless growth.
B. Distractions are defined as anything strong enough to pull attention off the object of meditation which for us is the breath. The rule is to turn your attention to the distraction making it a temporary object of meditation. Then uses mindfulness to understand it, and deal with it until it passes. One can see the usefulness of this approach to gain insight with a distraction when it is our actual problem or our special need itself.
C. Temporary means long enough to experience what it is, its intensity and duration. The “it” in what is it, is not the original distraction, but the sensation, or mental state that the distracting thought, feeling, memory, fantasy, whatever it is, arouses, good or bad, which causes the attachment, and “its” duration and intensity.
D. A distraction is a process having a duration and strength, one shifts ones attention temporarily until it passes only as long as it takes to get a wordless sense of its quality, answering three questions , what is it, how strong is it, and how long does it last? and then one shifts back to the breathing.
E. A “ wordless sense” is a mindful awareness, because the goal is not to invite more thinking and further distraction but to get away from thinking and to experience “it” non conceptually with wordless knowing.
F. At first one may need to note or put word labels on what it is, its duration and intensity , as one did with labeling the ‘breathing” and the process “in and out”. With practice the words little by little can be dropped in favor of having a direct experience or a sense of what it is, how strong it is, and how long it lasts.
G. Wave like quality of distractions lend it self to an easier way of appreciating what it is, and its duration and intensity. One can get a quick global appreciation of the experience in “mental gulp” so to speak by sensing the distracting, “sensation’s wave like nature “ in the sequence: first noted, arising, peaking , falling, going, gone, then back to focus on breathing, over and over until the next wave like distraction, noting and sensing it.
H. The goal is mindful awareness of distractions, are part of the same process as focusing on the sensation that the breath arouses, being aware of it, and returning to it over and over again. It is being mindful that is the goal, continued and sustained mindfulness, over and over, not controlling what one is mindful of, or becomes the object of meditation. Anything including our problems, special needs, can be and will be the object of meditation called distractions or not. If they are all handled mindfully the results will be helpful.
I. The sequence of dealing with distractions may be: Breathing , breathing, distracted by thought arising, frustration over the thought, condemnation over the frustration, return to breathing, then pride for recognizing the distractions. In this case one would treat the mental states associated with the distracting thought, frustration, condemnation, & pride all the same, as separate distractions, then back to breathing.
J. The sequence may be as follows: Traditional noting vs. wave like experience: Breathing, breathing, distracted by anger, stay with the “anger’s sensation” long enough to experience its wave like arising, peaking, , falling, going away, in one total mental experience or answer the questions, What is it? “Anger’s sensation”, What is its intensity? “ strong”, What is duration? “About one minute”. One would eventually try to not literally answer in one head with “anger’s sensation, strong, about one minute” , but have a wordless sense of the whole mental experience or use a wordless “mental energy wave” associated with the anger. Like with other noting words may have to said initially then dropped as one has more experience. After the sensation associated with anger passes or weakens enough one returns back to the breathing, until the next distraction.
K. Single label noting will usually be sufficient like “feeling, feeling, feeling-etc;” for most distractions with the intensity represented by a “mental loudness volume control”, and the duration by the number of times one uses the label until it passes, without needing to add actual qualifiers for intensity and duration, though there is no problem if one initially finds that helpful. It is the general experience not the specifics that matter.
L. Don’t look for a distraction or try to come up with one, just stay with the breath, with no results in mind, with no expectation, some sensation will pull you off the breath, whether, bliss, boredom or pain.
The Five major distractions- want you to have more, or less, but eventually to switch tracks, and stop.
A. Distractions are anything strong enough to pull ones concentration off the object of meditation which could be anything, and for us is the breath. One group of distractions are major for they interfere with both components of meditation the concentration and the mindfulness. They are 1. Desire or holding on, 2. Aversion or ill will, 3. Mental dulling or slowing, 4. Mental agitation or restlessness, 5. Doubt or confusion
B. One can see that desire and aversion represent strong emotions or drives, having a pull or pushing motivating tendency, whereas the other three have to do with thinking processing speed - fast, slow and mentally stuck. Any one can lead to 1. A general mental state , 2, a specific sensation, or 3. Even a way of life and relating.
C. N.B.! This is regardless of the stimulus, with which it is often confused, and knowing the difference is crucial.
D. Anything coming into the mind, a thought, a feeling, a sensation from within, an environmental sensation from outside the mind, any combination of these, causing a memory, an idea, fantasies, plans, whatever, can bring out one of these five distractions, leading to a specific sensation or mental state ,and it is this specific mental state that is the thing one temporally shifts focus to until it passes, not the original stimulus.
E. For example you go to dinner with friends, the food and company is good, your meditating, or trying to do work, your focus is pulled off whatever, repeatedly and strongly with memories of food, company, evening. The specifics going around in your head, you focus on one of the specifics, like taste of food, the enjoyment of conversation , but your focus is still broken, off the task, you try another specific, the same thing.
F. The problem is not the specifics but the general issue of wanting more, of the same. More of the food, the friends, the conversation, it is the wanting, the desire, causing the distraction. It is the mental state associated with desire, causing a certain sensation ,in your mind, that needs to be the focus ,and is the distraction to be dealt with , sensing it, its intensity, and duration, in either wordless labeling or wave like.
G. These distraction are often more global in their effect and can cause more problems if not seen for what they are and dealt with as such. One needs to see the forest rather than the trees, the more wide angle view of mindfulness attention is needed rather than the single pointedness of concentration. This is subtle but crucial difference, learned with practice, by trial and error. Mindfulness will help with it seeing the whole connected to other wholes, and the parts of all the wholes, to direct what is calling for attention and pulling one off focus.
H. Mental agitation or restlessness must be recognized for the global effect it is having , rather than the specifics of the individual thoughts ,feelings , memories, sensations which may be going in and out of your mind each wanting its attention, but you by waiting it out, or by trial and error finding, it wasn’t, the specifics, but the mental state caused by the specifics leading to distraction, and its associated sensations needing focus.
I. The same would go for the slowing effect of mental dulling, or the stuck confused state of doubt, or the strong attachment to avoid mental state associations of aversions, with anger, ill will, hatred, envy, fear, etc.. These five can be overwhelming and yet subtle unless you know about them , stay vigilant, wait it out, and use trial and error, until the one needing attention, causing the mental state, leading to distraction is found.
J. Often what these want you to do may be a clue, they all want meditation or mindful activity to stop, or switch tracks, but if you do, they will come back : 1. Mental dulling makes you tired, bored , uninterested, slows you down, sleepy 2. doubt gets you confused, stuck and give up 3. Agitation, your mind wont stay still, and just wants to move on; 4. desire just wants more of whatever, including more desire for good or bad, the good things could be tricky because they seem so right, there is never enough 5. the negative feelings of aversion, cause a strong attachment to avoid fear ,anger, hatred, dying , killing. All having very powerful stuff, to get attached to directly or attach to the strong avoidance. If you are confused now, it probably is the distraction of doubt, deal with its mental state, now, before you get more distracted, otherwise you wont be mindful.
K. Having a patient-trial & error awareness, while experiencing the constant movement of things in your mind, their connectedness and changing natures, using mindful attention and single pointed concentration, applying just enough awareness will direct you to the thing needing the most attention and causing the mental state leading to the distraction. Practice, practice, practice, patiently, persistently on purpose for no specific purpose.
A Three Part Program ,Mindfulness, Breathing and Meditation. Part 1 Mindfulness in Daily Living
A. When the thinking-doing mind is no longer helpful with a problem or special need or another approach is needed, the experiencing-being mode of the mind, of which mindfulness is an example may help.
B. Mindfulness like a mental muscle requires practice to give it endurance and strength. Three things are needed to get maximum effects : 1. Try to apply mindfulness always in daily living ,the base on which the rest builds! 2. Use mindful breathing frequently and 3. Have scheduled meditation practice.
C. Mindfulness in daily living is key, the essential thing you need, the rest , concentration using mindfulness based breathing and mindfulness meditation are tools to sustain it making it more powerful and useful. The more activities you apply mindfulness to, the more it will help, not only your specific issues and problems, but also it is the best way to improve the power and usefulness of mindful breathing and meditation.
D. What is mindfulness? Mindfulness is accepting present moment awareness for what it is before thought. It is simple knowing of an event based on direct present moment experience before logic and emotions of the thinking mode of the mind changes the perceptual awareness into a thing or an idea. The first moment experience of a new smell, taste or sound is mindful awareness or simple knowing with acceptance, but as it is happening, almost instantaneously the thinking mode of mind, takes the perception , more than recognizing it perhaps giving it a label, based on emotional responses, past memories, future expectations, comments and judges it , using logical and emotional analysis, giving it a story, a drama, making it good, bad, neutral, yours or mine, a separate thing, rather than an ever changing experience connected with the rest of reality. Mindfulness is mirror like awareness reflecting the original pre conceptual experience of a thing, adding nothing.
E. When you apply mindful experience to anything at least three very useful things happen:
1) It brings you and keep you in the present moment so you can do what you want and should be doing.
2) You will deal with things more realistically because of less thinking and emotional distortions.
3) You will experience the deeper realties of things with three effects : a. seeing the wave like ever changing nature of all things, feelings like worry, panic, depression , thinking that is negative and painful, body sensations like sleep, headaches. b. You will also see how they are connected and dependent on other things, giving you even new ideas on how to help them. c. the direct sustained mindfulness will enhance the positive , with greater satisfaction, diminish the negative with less suffering, and make the neutral less boring and interesting.
F. Try to apply the following attitudes and features of mindfulness to daily activities for maximum benefits.
1) A wide angle soft focused mirror like awareness reflecting and simultaneously the connected whole and its parts
2) A bare attention, experience and response to what really is , and as it is happening, no comment or judgment
3) A present moment awareness, here and now, not the past or future, only the immediate present
4) Unconditional acceptance of what is present at the start and as it is happening adding or subtracting nothing
5) The application of just enough effort in awareness, bare attention, experience, and in participation-observation
6) Equanimity is a balanced motivation not biased by emotion, positive, negative or neutral
7) Letting go of things in the mind associated with attachments to thoughts, feeling, sensations and awareness
8) Non judgmental view which is compassionate ,patient, kind , tolerant , no criticism, comparison, decision.
9) Non interfering awareness of what is with no expectations, allowing what is to reveal itself, as we observe it
10) Non-conceptual awareness, of what is , its qualities such as intensity and duration, sensing what it is, the associated sensations-feelings as they come, peak, and go, wave like, without thought, ideas, or judgment.
11) Awareness of present as a temporary ever changing process not a permanent thing, having a wave like nature
12) Awareness that all is connected and dependent, as changing events not isolated permanent things
13) Non-egotistic alertness to what is without adding I, me or mine, a subtle and powerful form of reality distortion
14) Participatory observation, not detached, being the non intellectual “experience-er” of just what is
15) Non-striving, no expectation of results or change, there is nothing to compare or measure.
16) Beginner’s mind as if each moment is experienced for the first time, unique, new, as it really is
17) Non wanting or desiring more, satisfied with what is, not moving towards, or taken over not craving, not attached
18) Non avoiding, no ill will, not disliking, not moving away
19) Not ignoring anything, accepting everything
Expanded-First Instructions on Mindfulness Based Breathing to help any Problem 1.30.08
A. Mindfulness can help by keeping the feelings of any problem in the front of your mind as you keep the thinking part in the background of the mind. Then by experiencing the feelings they get weaker, easier to manage, and may ever go away. This is easy to describe and understand, but it can very difficult because the mind will refuse to cooperate because it will become too emotional, it will wander and be distracted, and you may have trouble paying attention, and staying aware of what is happening. Mindfulness applied to breathing and practiced over and over, will keep you paying attention and stay aware of what is happening as it calms you down, and help you concentrate.
B. Every problem causes a mind state that has three components, a thought, an emotion and associated physical bodily sensations like pains , discomforts, pressures , hot, cold, movements, vibrations, feelings of position, smells, sights, tastes, touch sensations, etc,. Each of these cause certain feelings that when experienced with mindfulness are helped. Say worried thoughts make you tense and you can’t sleep. You focus only on feeling the emotion of worry, and then feeling your tense body, as you keep the fueling thoughts and new emotions that have been causing the sleep problem in the back of your mind. Doing this over and over, the worry will get weaker, your tense muscles will relax, and you will be better able to sleep. Similarly if your angry and have a head ache, you would feel the anger, then sense and feel the head pain, while keeping your thinking and other feelings in the back of your mind.
C. The basic qualities of mindfulness are present moment awareness, with emotional acceptance and balance called equanimity, that allows and experiences by sensing-feeling, the wave like nature of anything, and then letting it go, without added thinking or emotions. In mindful breathing these qualities are applied to everything, the breathing, the posture, the distractions and any issue you choose to make the object of the breathing in or out of meditation.
1. Slow down, stop what your are doing, and become Aware of the fact the you are Breathing by taking a few slow, deep long breaths. Get comfortable with feeling the breathing in your body, as you breathe over and over.
2. Use any posture that promotes relaxation and alertness, if sitting the spine should be erect not stiff, eyes open or closed. Let go of any muscular tension you may feel. This can be done walking, waiting while standing or driving, trying to sleep etc.
3. Recheck the posture frequently to ensure relaxation yet alertness, and as back up to the breathing for increasing concentration and mindfulness, by being aware of the posture, in the present moment, accepting and experiencing it by sensing-feeling, without thought or emotional judgment. As mindfulness, concentration and calm increase and become more stable there will be more and more of a feeling of the breathing, the body and the mind become like one.
4. Stay only in the present moment as all of your focus is put more specifically on feeling the physical sensations of breathing, over and over, which will cause more and more calm and concentration. Try to not fuel your problem with any more thinking or adding more emotions to it. Put your thinking and any new reacting emotions on a mental shelve somewhere in back of your mind, as you always try to keep your focus on the breathing in the front of your mind.
5. Don’t try to control the breath, or think about it, or expect anything special, just allow your total present moment focus to follow the breath, as you allow your awareness to rest on it, accepting it for what it is, experiencing its wave like nature, as your continue to feel it, over and over, and again and again. This is mindfulness applied to breathing.
6. Just enough effort is use by not forcing or making the awareness and attention to connect with the breathing, but to allow it to rest on the sensations of breathing, not wanting, not avoiding, not ignoring based on feeling or emotional charge, letting the breath take the lead and following it, closer and closer, until the awareness and the breathing are more and more synchronized, and as that occurs there is more and more concentration. Using too much effort in focusing activates the thinking mode of the mind causing striving, and to little and you loose focus on feeling the sensations of breathing.
7. It may be helpful to label or name because this helps focus while stopping thinking by saying silently “ breathing in, breathing out” or “ in and out”, or use any counting method that works like “ one as breathing in, two as breathing out, etc”. If there is a place you feel the breath most use that as a point of focus.
8. Use the natural sensations of breathing to increase concentration and relaxation. Notice on the in breath focus increases, and on the out breath, a letting go, and relaxation. “ in more focused, out more relaxed” There is not right or wrong labeling or counting, what ever fits and keeps you focused, use trial and error. Continue to do this until you are Distracted or ready to deal with your Difficulty.
9. It is normal, to be expected and part of the process, that no matter how hard you try sooner rather than later, you will be Distracted by your problem or anything else, when it displaces the breathing in the front of your mind. Don’t ignore it, or avoid it, or give in to it, but notice it. It is this dealing with distractions by noticing or awareness, and not ignoring it, or avoiding it, or giving in to it, but acceptance regardless of emotional charge, called equanimity, that make this different than other methods that use breathing to keep your mind off the problem. Here this awareness with equanimity of the Distraction is actually mindfulness applied to it with all of its knowing and healing power, though because it is a distraction it is just long enough to get ones focus back on the breathing.
10. So give the Distraction , some temporary attention, whatever it is, by giving it , just enough attention, by naming or noting it silently or out loud, “thinking, thinking”, “worry, worry”, “anger, anger”, “pain, pain”, or whatever fits and works for you. This “noting” actually weakens the Distraction and your problem if it is the distraction, even now as you are not working on it directly but trying to develop calm and concentration. As it get weaker or goes away, by mindful Experience after giving it temporary just enough attention, try to shift your Awareness back to again feeling the sensations of Breathing to develop more and more Concentration which will make you calmer, and give your more time to deal with the problem or Difficulty or more Distractions with “noting” and more intense and prolonged and repeated mindful Experiencing when you are ready and able.
11. Be especially alert and aware of the “big five distractions” if you seem to be getting nowhere fast. They are desire, ill will, restlessness, lethargy, and confusion. Desire-are you wanting it too much, trying too hard, on some level you are wanting rather than “allowing”. Ill will- being negative, angry, resisting, avoiding, afraid, angry, guilty, again you are avoiding by not “allowing”. Restlessness-mind moving too fast, scattered, disconnected, to expansive. Lethargy-slow, tired, lazy, shrinking , sinking mind. Confused- feeling stuck, confused, not knowing or ignorance, not sure, doubting. Each of these will leave a persistent feeling tone, a sort of mental flavor which what is sensed-felt, as the object of mindful awareness and experience.
12. Anywhere along or anytime if your get confused, lost in you mind, get distracted, have too much thinking, or get too emotional go back to feeling the breathing sensations to regain focus and stability, as an anchor, home base, and a resting place to refuel for more concentration &calm.[Practice these 7 steps over and over to develop concentration and mindfulness]
13. Continue to stay Aware of your Breathing until you have enough Concentration to now handle your Difficulty, like anger or fear or worried negative thinking, or headache , with Equanimity which is not being pushed or pulled by emotional charge, not avoiding or resisting it, or giving in to it, but accepting it with emotional balance. Now use mindful experience accepting it, allow it to unfold, and feel the emotions of it and what ever bodily sensations it may have, not as temporarily as your did with Distractions, but now longer and more intensely . As you do this over and over, it will get weaker, easier to deal with, and may even run its wave like course, and come, peak and go away.
14. As with the breathing, and distractions, you may label by naming or “noting” the problem, by saying out loud or silently in your head “anger, anger”, or “worry, worry”, or “pain, pain”, or whatever works for you to help stay focused on it, to discourage more thinking and the adding of more emotions to it. Feel it, name it, let it go, for the next present moment. No added thinking or feeling that will attach you to it, making it harder to let it go. Just stay in the present and feel-sense, over and over, it will get weaker, until you can let it go. Pick first what may be calling for the most attention to sense-feel when there is more than one.
15. Choose the feelings associated with thoughts, emotions and body sensations of your problem based on what is calling for the most attention in your mind, staying with it using mindful Experience with Equanimity, is doses that you can tolerate, for as long as you can, until you are distracted by something else, or until it weakens enough so you feel you can deal with it, or it goes away. Remember go back to the breathing focus at any time to rest, re focus, and re fuel with concentration, calm and mindfulness.
16. In complex, intense, mind states using panic as an example, one can focus on the feeling-sensation that over all it may be causing say a generalized feeling of “dread, gloom, dread”, or divide and conquer, picking by trial and error what is feels the most intense and is calling for the most immediate attention, it could be the feelings themselves, the feelings associated with the thoughts, or the physical sensations themselves, and their associated feelings. You don’t go some where because you have too much worry to the point of panic. The panic is associated with a fast heart rate, trouble breathing, a sinking feeling in the stomach, your bowels and bladder get active, you feel you need to be near home where it is safe, and near a bathroom just in case, you afraid, it feels like something very bad is happening, feeling like a matter of life and death, and it is getting worse, you may loose control, loose your mind, feeling trapped, need to get away, escape, your muscles get tense getting ready to run or fight for your life, you feel light headed, like you may faint , your thinking about all of these things over and over fueling the process. Any of these individually can be the focus of mindfulness.