Sleep Problems-Two Meditative Approaches
Actual Steps of Mindful Breathing, “become aware and let go, over and over” to help sleep or anything else. For some theoy see: Sleep With Meditation
A. Why can't I Sleep? It is the holding on to the thinking and wanting of positive feelings and the avoidance of the negative feelings caused by thinking itself based on past experience and future wants and fears that interferes with sleep.
B. Mindfulness can help. Mindful awareness 3 features help 1. by keeping you in the present only, not judging feelings based on past or future, 2. accepting feelings with equanimity, regardless of emotional charge, not avoiding, not wanting, not ignoring the neutral, 3. Then as you continue to keep all thinking in the background of your mind, you experience the pure feeling and its associated body sensations. This is done by accepting it, allowing it to unfold, and feeling-sensing it, until it weakens, it will be easier to let go of before it fuels more and more thinking and judgment.
C. Switch to midfulness mode: To apply this kind of mindful awareness long enough to make the switch from thinking to mindfulness and for it to be effective the mind must be calm with good concentration, and for this mindfulness applied to breathing is the ideal training ground. This takes practice, practice and more practice. Convince yourself through practice.
D. Summary of the process: The process is being aware of the breathing to develop concentration and calm, until distracted, then dealing with the distraction, letting of it, to go back to the breathing, and doing this over and over. Awareness and letting go, first your muscular tension, then your thoughts and the past and future, next being aware and letting go of your wanting the positives and avoiding the negatives, as you feel-sense, while not using thinking in any way.
Give these steps a try and go an read some more theory below, followed by further practice ideas and steps.
Remenber Mindfulness of anything including, distractions increases concentrations and mindfulness. If you can' stay focused or concentration seems weak always err on the side of being mindful.
Levels of Mindfulness:There are differnt level of mindfulness, first there is just the noticing or the knowing, " I know I am Breathing, over and over", next " I am now feeling the sensations of my breathing.", then staying with the breath or anything else for its wave like duration, by following it, " I am now following one breath from its beggining to its end," then the next , over and over. Levels of noticing or knowing and labeling, then add to that feeling, then add to that, staying wiht the mindful object for its duration, to really to get to know it with mindfulness , which means, PEALT, present moment, experiencing, accepting it, staying with it if needed, and then letting it go, all without using thinking, that is kept always in the back of your mind.
The actual steps:
1) Start in any posture that allows for free breathing, alertness and relaxation, eyes may be open or closed. Be aware of any muscle tension and let it go. Take a few slow, long deep breaths to become aware of your breathing.
2) Stay aware of only the present and let go of any past experience and future wants. Keep yourself only in the present moment, put all new thinking, and thinking from the past and future in the background of your mind, use no control, no new thinking, no expectations, as continue to pay attention only to your breathing.
3) Be aware of you feeling towards anything, let go of any movement toward or away based on them, treat all equally and accept with equanimity. Gently focus on feeling the sensations of breathing, one breath at a time accepting each breath, regardless of feeling good, bad or neutral, allow each breath to unfold, in its wave like nature.
4) Be aware of Feeling-sensing, letting go of any type of thinking. Feel its sensations as it goes in and out, letting one go for the next, over and over, and again and again. Keep your feelings about the breathing in the front of your mind. Label the breathing to help stay focused in the present and stop further thinking, and help feel the breath, by saying silently something like, “breathing in, breathing out” or “ in and out”. Follow the breath let it lead you.
5) Mindfulness is this present moment focus on feeling, accepting, allowing, each breath and then letting it go for the next is mindfulness applied to breathing, and will develop a concentrated and calm mind as you do it over and over.
6) Continue to breath like this over and over, until you are distracted by something, which will occur sooner than later, this is to be expected. This is part of the process noticing the distraction increases mindful knowing and returning back to the breathing after noticing the distraction further increases concentration.
7) Be aware of a distraction and let it go, by using mindful “knowing”. Treat the distraction what ever it is like the breath, notice it, accept it, feel its emotional component, or sense its bodily sensations, just long enough so you can return you focus back to the breathing.
8) Labeling the distraction will help you mindfully know and feel the distraction like you did the breath with any label that makes sense and works for you, again the purpose is to be mindful that is stay only in the present, notice it, accept it, no thinking, and to only feel or sense what is until you can go back to the breathing.
9) If it is a thought say “thinking, thinking”, if it is an emotion “feeling, feeling” or perhaps more specific like “worry, worry”, if a body sensation “pain, pain” or if external “noise, noise”.
10) Repeat the sequence of mindfulness applied to breathing, breathing, until distracted, deal with the distraction with mindfulness, and then go back to the breathing, over and over, concentration will increase you will be calmer, until you can easily feel the switch to and stay in mindful awareness. The switch has its own unique distinct feeling-sensation, occurring when your awareness, the breathing and your feeling merge and become like one.
Being aware of thinking, letting it go, for mindfulness, over and over, again and again is the process, practice this over and over.
Mindful Breathing, Awareness and Letting Go, over and over- Introduction to the Theory
Mindfulness is awareness that has three main features, 1. only present moment knowing, 2. accepting what is with equanimity, and 3.exclusive use of experiencing by feeling-sensing, and not using any thinking activities. Mindfulness starts in the present moment, then moment to moment, it experiences the wave like nature of reality, being aware of what it, and then letting it go for the next moment. Simply mindful awareness and letting go.
The mode we are most familiar with is the thinking-doing mode, which works mostly out of our awareness on auto pilot, thinks, judges, controls, strives, has goals based on comparing the present, with past experience and future needs, reacts to emotions by avoiding the negative, wanting more of the positive, and ignoring the negative. In the process it changes and can distort the original driving feelings and body sensations that motivated and fuel our thinking, behavior and physical problems.
One mode mind is not better than other just different and should complement each other. When thinking in no longer helpful switch to the mindfulness mode, and vice versa. Simply the thinking mind thinks, and puts feeling as an experience in the background and the experiencing being mind experiences by feeling and sensing, putting this in the front of the mind, and putting thinking in the back of the mind. This sounds simple but is hard to do because it not a matter of simple thinking manipulation, but shifting from one kind of brain function to another, each have a distinct effects of how they are felt-sensed and how they function and what they do. It is as different as thinking about how to ride a bike or learning how to dance and the actual experience of doing it with the feelings and sensations involved.
The thinking mode may add more emotional fuel to fire, where as the mindful mode may not add more fuel but actually burn away that which is there making problems easier to manage, and may actually help them go away.
To be successful with a mindful approach you must be able to make and feel the switch from using the thinking mode of the mind to the experiencing mindfulness mode of the mind. This is not something you can do by just understanding the concept and thinking about it, for it is not a matter of thinking at all but of experiencing by sensing-feeling with a different part of your mind that works and feels in its own way unique way, and only known by you.
To experience this you practice mindful breathing in and out of meditation to get the feel of it by using the breathing as a training ground before you can do this with your problems or issues. The mindful mind is a present moment quiet and still, requiring a calm, stable and concentrated mind. Quiet means no thinking present past or future; still means no movement caused by emotional reactions toward or away from a thing, an emotional acceptance called equanimity.
In its simplest description mindfulness applied to breathing is being aware and letting go, over and over. Being aware of one breath at a time, letting it go for the next, being aware of distractions to breathing, and letting go of them to go back to the breathing. The mindful awareness is present moment knowing of the sensations of the breath, accepting each breath with equanimity, regardless of feeling, good, bad or neutral, feeling is wave like nature, and then letting it go for the next breath. When you are distracted by a thought, emotion or anything else like a pain or a noise, you apply the same awareness and letting go. Use mindful awareness, 1. know what is, 2. accept it with equanimity, and 3. feel it, only long enough so it weakens or goes away so you can back to the breathing your primary objet of focus to gain more concentration, calmness and stability of mind and body
Mindful breathing can be done any and anytime, and can be applied to formal meditation which only differs by the length of time you spend. The posture used like the mind should be centered, balanced, quiet and still. If sitting the spine should be erect but not stiff. The same principle of being mindfully aware and letting go applies, be aware of your posture, and let go of any muscle tension, or anything else that may interfere with developing the calm, concentrated, quiet and still mind that is needed.
Slight variation of Summary of instructions for mindfulness based breathing to help anything.
Three features of mindfulness are applied to breathing 1. Stay only in the present not judging , not comparing, no expectations, based on past experience or on future wishes, need, concerns or fears. 2. Accept everything with equanimity, not being moved emotionally to get closer to the positive, or avoid or move away from the negative, nor ignoring what seems neutral, treating everything equally. 3. Not using thinking at all but instead direct experiencing by allowing, accepting and feeling-sensing the wave like nature of the emotions and bodily sensations associated with thoughts, emotions and body functions.
1) Start in any posture that allows for free breathing, relaxations yet allowing for alertness, eyes may be open or closed. If sitting the spine should be erect but not stiff. Stop thinking and pull yourself into the present moment by becoming aware of your breathing by taking a few, slow, long, deep breaths, feel breathing over and over.
2) Become aware of any muscle tension, don’t think anymore about, feel it, sense it, and try to let it go, as you keep your main focus on the breathing which you do over and over. Periodically re check your posture for muscle tension, and level of alertness. Be relaxed, calm yet alert, of your mind in the present , and from moment to moment.
3) Specifically focus on the physical sensations of breathing, don’t think about them, don’t try to control them, or expect anything special, just feel them over and over. Allow you awareness to rest on the breathing and follow its lead, letting you awareness follow the breathing, in and out, being aware of one breath, and then letting it go for the next.
4) Notice the changing physical sensations of the breathing, the differences between the in and out breath, how there tends to be an alertness and increased concentration on the in breath, and a relaxation and letting go feeling on the out breath, also there may be place where you feel the breath the most, notice that, and make that the place to put you focus as you continue to breathe over and over.
5) It may be helpful to label the breathing or use any counting method that works for you, by saying silently “on on the in breath, two on the out breath,” or “ in breath, out breath, or in or out”. This is to help focus and discourage thinking. Labeling may be dropped when no longer needed. Put about 5% of you attention of the label and the other 95% on feeling the sensations of breathing.
6) As you breath over and over , your concentration will increase, and you mind will get calmer, but soon rather than later, something, a thought, an emotion, or body sensation will pull your focus off the breathing and displace it in the front of your mind, this is a distraction. This is normal, to be expected and part of the process, your recognizing the distraction increases mindfulness, and you returning back to breathing after you have dealt with it further increases mindfulness and deepens concentration. Like the breathing treat it with mindfulness , stay in the present accept it with equanimity, not avoiding it, or giving in to it, nor ignoring it, feel-sense its emotional component without using more thinking, until it weakens enough so you can return to your primary focus on the breathing.
7) Label the distraction if you need to help focus and to discourage thinking using the 5%-95% rule, using whatever label makes sense and works for you to just give the distraction enough attention, so you know what it is, and if need feel its intensity, until it gets weaker, or it passes, and then get back to the breathing focus. Say “thinking, thinking, or feeling, feeling, or planning ,planning, or noise, noise, or pain, pain, or whatever”. Some distractions may just require very brief mindful glance with or without labeling, and stronger ones you may need to stay with repeated labeling until you can return back to the breathing. Simply mindfully know the distraction, noticing it, sense what it is, label if needed, feel its intensity stay with it until it weakens or goes away and return back to the breathing as soon as you can.
8) Repeat the sequence over and over of mindfulness applied to feeling the sensations of the breathing, until distracted, knowing mindfully the distraction until it passes, then back to the breathing. As concentration and calmness increases it will be easier and easier for you stay aware and focused on feeling the sensations of breathing until the is a sense a feeling that you minds awareness, your feelings of the breathing , and the sensations of the breathing become as one. You will have you own unique feeling-sensations when this occurs.