Meditation on awareness. A very powerful mindfulness meditation technique. Developing awareness helps correct character

Awareness meditation brings us back to being in the present, in the flow of life, without becoming attached to events and things.

Action plan

Full awareness meditation consists of five steps. Carefully study the description of the meditation, then the recommendations. After which you can move on to studying the meditation technique and its implementation. You can supplement the 5 steps with the described walking meditation technique.

Description

The first meditation is the full awareness meditation suggested by the Buddha.

Full Mindfulness Meditation - Theory.

The world is a turbulent ocean in which waves of sadness and joy, violence and peace, love and hatred constantly rise and fall. Among these continuous changes, we have a choice - either to become a victim of the waves and face chaos, or to become a witness, an observer of these waves. As we become witnesses, we may feel chaos for a moment, but the waves will soon subside, leaving no traces on our body and brain. We have an innate ability to observe these waves of thoughts and emotions. If we decide to ride the waves like on a roller coaster, then life will turn into a constant struggle, and in the end one of these waves will cover us headlong and swallow us into its abyss.

And we can choose the second option, becoming an observer, so that we can feel and sense whatever is happening inside and outside, but continue to remain calm and aware. When we are not at war, we conserve the energy of our mind and body. A calm and energetic mind is able to focus on life's problems and solve them. If the mind is in a state of constant struggle, then it is tossed up and down by the waves of life, and there is no energy in such a mind. Such a mind carries with it all past failures. Burdened with past failures, they lack fresh energy to deal with any new problems that arise. After all, all his energy is spent fighting a thousand old problems. Love and hate, anger and calm, sadness and joy are integral parts of the mind and its root nature. We can close our eyes to this fact and live a life of chaos and suffering, or we can try to go beyond this limitation. Through observation or awareness we are able to transcend nature. When we look at life's events and problems in a witnessing mode, without making any judgments about them, then we are able to see the essence of them.

Only by realizing the problem in its entirety are we able to solve it. We are usually aware of only part of the problem due to our selective attention and mental filters that are associated with our conditioning and upbringing. An incomplete understanding of a problem will only provide a partial solution, and a partial solution to a problem will reproduce the problem over and over again. Another aspect of the mind is its habits. Most reactions are automatic patterns with very little awareness involved. We reproduce the reactions programmed into us by family, culture and society. Social and cultural conditioning divides us into all sorts of categories of nationalities, races, religions, political parties, poor and rich. We act like robots, reacting to these labels, imagining that we are these very labels. But if we carefully examine our own lives, we will discover that our behavior is the result of conditioning by external forces, agencies and institutions. It may even seem to us that the mind does not belong to us, but that someone else has moved into it.
But once we become aware of our mind's patterns by observing our reactions, our habit patterns begin to disappear.

Witnessing what is happening is perhaps the only natural action of the conditioned mind. The flame of witnessing melts crystallized and frozen patterns of the mind. The mind becomes fluid and in the process of meditation a lot of energy is released as the programming subsides or disappears completely, we begin to feel freshness and find a new center of wisdom within that does not belong to any institution or culture.

How can we achieve the dynamic state of witness?

One way to maintain the state of witness is to observe the chaos of the waves from a distance, sitting on the shore and not plunging into the churning ocean. But this method does not allow us to enter life entirely, totally, to be filled with this life. This path will remove us from life. This may suit some people, but it is the path of renunciation and many of us would not like that path. Therefore, we do not consider it here.

And there is another way, which is to dive deep into the ocean, reaching the starting point where boiling waves are born and be an observer, a witness of these waves. This is true contemplation and awareness. Such awareness gives insight that life never changes in its essence, and at the same time there is no constancy in any event, in any thing of physical existence. Such contemplation strengthens us in the present. From here we can influence our past and future in complete peace, fully accepting it, but without getting involved or worrying about any real or imagined reason.

Like all other methods, witnessing also involves a set of instructions. But as we become more immersed in meditation, we will have to give up the technique so that only meditation remains, in a spontaneous and effortless form.

At the beginning of this method, part of our mind becomes an observer and observes the rest of the mind, with all its contents consisting of emotions and thoughts. At a certain moment a breakthrough occurs and a wonderful state of calm awareness arises, spontaneous, which observes and witnesses the fullness of the mind and its contents. This witnessing or contemplation is an innate quality of the mind. Such spontaneous contemplation is also the beginning of transcendence, expansion of consciousness.

And this state of sensory distance allows you to be completely in the flow of life without being attached to events or completely getting lost among them. The mind becomes like the rubber sheet of a trampoline that takes a blow from a person or thing, but pushes it back without leaving any dents, changes or scars on its surface. Such a mind is free from wounds and bruises. In such a mind, anger, hatred, violence, jealousy, fear and sadness may come for a moment, but will soon naturally dissolve without leaving a trace. The brain quickly returns to a state of dynamic balance.

How to learn

Mindfulness Meditation - Technique

First step:

We gently concentrate our attention and sensations, without thinking or analysis, being aware of our lefts:
- toes;
- feet and ankles;
- shins and knees;

We gently concentrate our attention and sensations, without thinking or analysis, being aware of our right:
- toes;
- feet and ankles;
- shins and knees;
- thigh and hip joint area;

We gently concentrate our attention and sensations, realizing:
- groin area;
- stomach and its movements;
- chest and breathing;

We gently concentrate our attention and sensations, becoming aware of our lefts:
- fingers;
- wrists and forearms;
- elbow and shoulder;
- shoulders;

We gently concentrate our attention and sensations, realizing our right ones:
- fingers;
- wrists and forearms;
- elbow and shoulder;
- shoulders;

We gently concentrate our attention and sensations, realizing our:
- neck from all sides;
- upper back, middle back and lower back;
- chin, face, nose, cheeks, eyes, ears, forehead, both sides of the head, crown and back of the head.

Now gently feel your entire body as one whole, as one living entity.

Step two: 5 minutes
We gently concentrate our attention and sensations, becoming aware of the movements of the abdomen, how it moves up and down with each inhalation and exhalation. While you concentrate on the movements of your abdomen, be aware and pay attention to any thoughts and emotions. Allow these thoughts and emotions to go away and return to the abdominal movements.

Step three: 5 minutes
Gently concentrate your attention, being aware of your breathing, being aware of how the air enters through the nostrils into the pharynx, passes through the trachea into the lungs, and on exhalation leaves the lungs, again passes through the trachea, pharynx and exits the nostrils. While you observe your breath, be aware of any emotions and thoughts, allow them to go away and return to your breath.

Step four: 5 minutes
With your eyes closed, gently focus and contemplate, becoming aware of the emotions and thoughts in your mind, looking at them like waves rising on the surface of the ocean, without judgment or evaluation. If your mind begins to wander into thoughts and emotions, gently bring it back to contemplating thoughts and emotions.

Contemplation in walking meditation
As you move slowly and consciously, become aware of the movements of your feet and all the sensations in your feet. Be aware of the sensations throughout your body, be aware of the sensations of the body in your mind, and be aware of the sensations of the body in your emotions. Let them go and return to feeling the movement of your feet and the sensations in your feet.

Practice - meditation on developing awareness, how to develop the mind and awareness, gain control over thinking. Exercise video.

Good time!

A few years ago, when I still didn’t know psychology at all, I once again went into a store and experienced a feeling of severe anxiety due to impending panic (then I had). Without knowing why, I immersed my attention inside myself, but not because I wanted to fix something, somehow prevent an attack that I didn’t even know what to call (only after a while I found out what was happening to me) or wanted to understand something for myself in order to solve the problem (then I stopped hoping to understand myself), I was simply disgusted with living like this, and out of hopelessness or due to some intuitive thought, my attention went deep inside me.

I don’t know exactly how many seconds it lasted and what kind of thoughts I had then, I simply plunged inside myself, I stopped noticing everything that surrounded me, and saw only my experiences. Suddenly the fear subsided sharply, the heat seemed to first cover the whole body, and then was replaced by coolness. I even remember that I felt a chill, drops of sweat on my back, and then I felt very calm. I felt a very pleasant and strong feeling of inner relaxation.

After that moment, new thoughts appeared, some only rudimentary assumptions, I began to pay attention to this process and, after some time, began to study the information.

Then for the first time I came across articles about working with the subconscious, and when I read it, it reminded me of what I had previously felt and experienced. And about three years ago, I published on my website on this topic.

This article is not a continuation, but rather a detailed and more detailed version of those articles. In fact, I have described here the basis of the practice of internal work with yourself, which, I am absolutely sure, will greatly help you achieve spiritual harmony and more.

I can say with confidence that this article is one of the most important on my website even in comparison with those that explain some subtleties of psychology, because, having introduced practice into life, you seem to become your own doctor (psychologist), no matter how strange it may sound to you.

And over time, you will become able to find the necessary answers in yourself and gain internal trust, because common sense and intuition are inherent in us from the very beginning, most simply do not notice this, or, having noticed, do not trust themselves, do not attach due importance, hence so many problems.

So, what is mindfulness practice for?

Before forming, it is necessary learn silence in thoughts , that is, you need to form a habit mentally shut up. Most people constantly, out of habit, think about something, almost never ending in their heads, it takes a lot of strength and energy, which ultimately leads to mental and emotional fatigue, and then to increased anxiety and stress.

But many people in themselves have some traits of an anxious and suspicious character; this anxiety manifests itself in almost everything and always. Therefore, first of all, we need to form a very useful habit and skill - to silence our thinking and calm our mind.

Through practice we will learn what is most valuable for our well-being and what many have completely forgotten - to pay attention to our own body and the internal processes occurring in it - emotions, symptoms and any sensations.

The practice of Observation is great for promoting relaxation, improving concentration, increasing energy, inspiration, reducing anxiety, improving clarity and developing the mind, memory and develops the ability to look at oneself and the world around oneself in a detached and unprejudiced way.

Now you may not even imagine how much this will further affect your perseverance, tolerance and freedom from the opinions of others. I’ll leave these points without explanation for now, there’s too much to tell, so take my word for now, but best of all, start practice regularly and, after a while, you will feel everything yourself.

So, attention triggers processes to your body self-healing. When we just watch carefully, thoughts stop interfering with the body’s self-regulation, because the mental flow stops, which is the main cause of our ailments, worries and stress.

Our body knows very well what it needs. "Here and now", it contains the most powerful mechanisms of self-regulation, and you just need to learn to listen and hear it, to establish dialogue with your own body, give it the opportunity put yourself in order, and this can only be done through “conscious observation.”

You just observe what you feel and what happens inside you, without trying to influence it in any way without trying to help the body, it itself , striving for balance and best condition, will eliminate or (initially) reduce the imbalance (failure, disruption). Gradually, you will begin to notice how it becomes easier for you, energy will appear and your mood will improve.

Numerous scientific studies have proven how consciousness influences the functioning of internal processes in the body (I described this connection between the body and the psyche in detail in the article "").

When we consciously observing behind that place in the body where an imbalance somehow manifests itself in the form of a painful symptom, tension or, for example, your breathing is disrupted (confused, difficult) or you feel pain and tightness in the head, etc., organism, noticing our observation, reacts to this “signal” and gradually restores the disrupted process (self-healing).

But we must understand that certain symptoms (diseases) could become deep-seated, entrenched reactions of the psyche, and here it simply takes time, sometimes a lot of time, for the process to reverse.

And now let’s move on to the practice itself to develop awareness, peace of mind and self-healing.

How to develop awareness. Practice - "Alone with yourself."

This practice is called “Alone with yourself.” Actually, I just came up with this name because it was very appropriate, and also, one day I realized that the “name” helps to remember some important thing (information) and its essence.

I remember how afraid I was to be alone with my thoughts, how I always tried to captivate myself with something, to find a “pill” for boredom, unpleasant symptoms or anxiety.

And many people now are also afraid of many of their thoughts, certain states and sensations, constantly avoid them, are afraid to be alone with themselves, they constantly need some external stimuli, events and activities, something distracting so that they feel feeling somehow better.

But this is the whole problem, such people need external nourishment and depend on external circumstances, they are not able to draw a resource of energy and joy from within themselves, but this the most important source for anyone.

In essence, this practice is no different from meditation, I read a lot about it and realized that in both cases they mean the same thing. Meditation is an eastern version, mindfulness practice is a western one. And meditation is more diverse, it has many variations.

The work here will take place with our consciousness (cerebral cortex) and subconscious (subcortex of the brain), if in a scientific way.

There is nothing particularly complicated in the practice, much less any kind of magic, it is simply a technique, a tool that allows us to develop awareness (what is awareness and why -), bring ourselves to spiritual harmony and peace of mind.

By the way, I remember that even in my youth, without intuitively realizing it, I occasionally did a similar practice, when, for example, something upset and exhausted me for a long time, I sat down, closed my eyes and simply immersed myself in my state.

At first, practice will not be easy, it will be difficult to stay in one place, it will be difficult to handle thoughts, boredom and restlessness will plague you, but practice teaches you to gradually calmly perceive and experience your internal states, to work on the weaknesses of your character so that they are minimal or not at all. influenced us. Thus, we learn to live in peace and harmony with ourselves, despite external and internal factors.

The last thing I want to say here is, don’t count on quick results, precisely because so many people hope that in a couple of weeks everything will work out for them and they will solve all their internal problems, that’s the only reason they succeed the way they always do , that is, no way. The result will definitely be, moderately quickly, in some moments, very good, but stability takes time.

Preparation

1. Find a comfortable position: the exercise can be done lying down (it is not advisable to do this if you are tired, you can fall asleep), you can do it on a mat or sitting on a chair (in a chair), I usually do it in a chair.

If you find it difficult to sit or lie on your back, find a position that is comfortable, but your back should be straight so that breathing flows easily through the lungs and stomach.

If you are in a chair, place your hands freely on the armrests or on the hips close to the lower abdomen (then with your palms up), and you don’t have to make sure that your fingers are completely straight, there shouldn’t be any effort or tension, choose what’s most comfortable for you.

At the very beginning, close your eyes, take 5-6 deep breaths through nose and slowly exhale through mouth(to make the practice easier, we need to relax more or less), while exhaling (especially important for beginners) mentally say to yourself - “”, slowly pull this word to yourself throughout the entire exhalation, this will be a command for the unconscious psyche, you will feel gradual relaxation.

Try to breathe more belly, but you can supplement it with “Lungs”.

Diaphragmatic breathing, when you breathe from the stomach, helps to relax the body, and this is the most correct breathing. Pay attention to how small children breathe; they intuitively breathe with their tummy.

But in certain cases, when we need more energy, when the body is mobilized, we start breathing through the chest, this breathing gives energy, but on the other hand, it increases excitement, this is useful breathing, but, as a rule, we need calmness more, so breathe more often with your stomach.

We breathe comfortably for ourselves, that is, we do not try too hard to deepen our breathing.

After 5-6 “breaths”, we concentrate on the body, scan whole body with attention from the top of the head to the toes.

When you do the exercise, pay attention soft, there is no need to make any effort, everything should flow naturally and smoothly. Perhaps some effort will still appear, because many of you have very weak concentration right now, but this effort can only be expressed in very lung attention shift maneuver. This is an effort without tension, there is almost no effort in it, note special pay attention to this step.

If thoughts are pulled away from observing your body (and this will happen to everyone at first), calmly, without mental jerks, return your attention back to the part of the body you are observing, and no matter how many times you are distracted by some thoughts, even a hundred times, all these 100 times, also calmly and gently return your attention back on sensations.

Don't be discouraged if things don't work out and your mental flow keeps carrying you away. It’s just that you have formed, an obsessive habit of thinking about something all the time, and our unconscious psyche, especially at first, will constantly trying to return to this old image thinking.

Therefore, there is no point in getting upset, just take it calmly, and if some thought distracts you, you get lost in thought, catch yourself doing it and calmly return your attention to the body.

And don't try as hard as you can quickly take your attention away from the thoughts that arise, otherwise it may start struggle with thoughts, but we learn not to get rid of them, otherwise you will not learn calm observation and silence in thoughts, and this is the main key to controlling thinking.

You should not force yourself and forcefully try to stop thoughts or think - “am I doing the right thing”, “I can’t relax”, etc., just stop the dialogue and smoothly return yourself to Observation.

So you gradually develop your awareness, mental silence and concentration, and this is the most important thing in our life.

By practicing regularly, concentration will gradually improve, the main thing is not to rush things, we cannot speed up some things, it just takes time. Therefore, I repeat, do not expect quick results, but practice every day and then the result will definitely be there, you will begin to notice some improvements very quickly.

Mindfulness meditation. Execution details.

1. When doing practice, start scanning the body from the top of the head, observe everything without mental commentary and evaluation what you feel, for about 3 - 7 seconds.

Now turn your attention to your eyebrows and eyes, then your cheekbones and chin, all in the same vein, let your lips and teeth open (if they are clenched), feel the softness all over your face.

Now we turn our attention to the neck, hold for 3 - 7 seconds and turn our attention to the shoulders, let the shoulders completely fall along the body.

Next, we move on to the hands - first the forearms, then the elbows, hands, palms and then the fingers, the pads on the fingers, you can often feel various sensations in them - a slight tingling, twitching or warmth, and perhaps a slight coolness, in general, any sensation.

If you don’t feel it, don’t try or strain yourself to feel something, it means that now is simply not the time, your brain has forgotten this feeling, but it will definitely return with practice. We do not strive to create sensations out of nothing, we simply record all those sensations that really There is. Over time, you will begin to feel everything, even the slightest sensations in any part of the body, the main thing is not to strain, as it is, so be it.

Now, slowly, run your attention along your back, shoulder blades, take a closer look at those areas where your body touches some surfaces. Next, we turn our attention to the chest, then the stomach, look closely at how you breathe with the stomach, the stomach rises, and the lungs almost remain in place.

Observe your stomach and turn your attention to your legs - feel the hips of both legs, knees, shins and lastly, the soles of your feet. Pay attention to everything for 3 - 7 seconds. These are not some mandatory numbers, I’m giving something approximate, but you may have your own time, that’s not the point, the main thing is to observe all parts of the body and record any sensations in them.

You can observe the sensation in your arms and legs, in each separately or together, as you wish, both processes are correct. If you observe both arms or legs together, try to notice the difference in temperature, sometimes this happens, but if you don’t feel it, don’t try.

Look carefully at the differences between the sensations on the right and left sides; this can manifest itself in temperature - colder, hotter, or in the heaviness of the limb, there may be goosebumps in one, tingling in the other, etc. And now direct your attention to the part that is less comfortable in sensations and simply observe it; after a while (if you do not interfere with analysis), you will notice changes in sensations.

This scanning not only teaches observation and concentration, it brings us back to the body, you begin feel your body and notice any changes in it, teaches detect tension and relax the tense area, including the brain, which allows you to relieve or reduce vascular spasms, eliminate chronic muscle blocks and teaches again our unconscious psyche to return to relaxation and peace.

By the way, at this point I would like to especially focus your attention if you have any internal problems, depression, PA and other disorders, your psyche is from a constant state of anxiety and tension out of habit from the feeling of relaxation, she stopped herself accumulate his.

A feeling of relaxation is a certain state of the body, the same as inspiration, or even intoxication. What the body gets used to, it ITSELF STARTS TO STRIVE for, if the brain, in particular, the subconscious (deep psyche) used to being in a state of anxiety, she she will be drawn to her.

And now our brain needs help; without our conscious participation this will become impossible. Therefore, when relaxing, feel this relaxation as deeply as possible and pay attention to this at least a couple of minutes. Thus, we gradually accustom the unconscious psyche to feel relaxation and, in the future, it will automatically help you bring yourself to this state.

2. After scanning the body from head to toe and relaxing tense areas, look at your whole body entirely, let go of your attention to any sensations that may appear somewhere - let it guide you, And let me any the sensations that arise to be as they are, even if they are unpleasant and perhaps worry (frighten) you.

Again, if some thoughts come and keep you distracted, simply, very gently, return your attention to the sensations.

Do not resist these sensations, do not in any way try to get rid of them or somehow influence them, everything should flow naturally.

Often we have a clear idea of ​​how everything should be, but during practice try to give up any expectations, do not expect that everything will go well and work out right away, at first everything will go very poorly.

I didn’t feel a noticeable result for 3-4 months, then, little by little, something began to work out, and I already had experience of similar observation in my life, so I need time and regular practice .

Note this point, if practice goes very badly, do not be disappointed, but vice versa, pay special attention to this. This is when something inside you is constantly torn from your place, and your thoughts are pulled out every second, not allowing you to focus on something else, you may even experience anger and other emotions more than once. All this is normal, this is how it should be, this is how it goes for everyone, and it is even necessary, it is like Turbulence when changing course, the subconscious gets used to it and tries to return the old, and we try to introduce the new. .. These points are very important, so we gradually change our way of thinking and reacting .

What is also very important, this meditative practice teaches you to ACCEPT everything as it is, to accept your thoughts, emotions and sensations and everything that happens to us inside. Teaches not to fight what is, but calmly watch everything.

You learn to look at everything from the outside, when some thoughts, emotions and feelings are separate, and you are separate, just look and that's it. Gradually you will begin and in life treat them more and more calmly, and they will stop affecting you so negatively.

3. Concentration on breathing.

After observing the whole body for a minute or two, we focus on breathing and the sensations in the stomach that arise when inhaling and exhaling. Notice the changing rhythm of physical sensations in this part of the body as you inhale and exhale air.

Having done the breathing deeper and slower at first, now let him go completely, let it flow smoothly on its own. Through your observation, the body itself will regulate its optimal rhythm and eliminate possible discomfort, for this you, nothing physical no need to do it.

Try to concentrate all attention while breathing, to notice the changing physical sensations throughout each inhalation and exhalation down to the smallest detail, try to feel something inside the abdomen, any small sensations, they can be neutral, unpleasant or pleasant.

If something doesn’t work out, so be it, I repeat, don’t be upset under any circumstances if something doesn’t go as you would like, just calmly and gently keep studying watch your breathing and let it be as it is now.

Breathe like this, observing your breathing for 3 - 5 minutes (depending on the time of the entire practice).

4. Observe thoughts and mental images

This can be done as in separate a practice during which you can observe only your thoughts, and in the general scheme described above.

The main thing I want to say here is that our goal is not to stop thoughts, not to resist them, but, on the contrary, to observe them, to observe detachedly (from the outside) and no analysis at all.

Imagine that you are sitting in a cinema and looking at the screen, or sitting on the side of the road along which cars are driving, the “cars” are your thoughts, you only look at them detachedly, but are not drawn into a dialogue with them. This way you will learn to clearly see what is happening in your head in real life, in any ordinary situations. Learn to record thoughts and not think them, but simply watch how things appear, flash by and disappear on their own if you are not involved in them.

Perhaps many thoughts will be unpleasant to you, because you could have been accumulating garbage in your head for many years, a lot has accumulated from outdated or little relevant experience that pulls you back and does not allow you to develop.

This garbage causes suffering, and mind you, it has not gone away.

Your natural desire and old habit will be to make an effort to throw out an unpleasant thought, to stop it, to switch from it. There is no need to do this, as I wrote above, in any case, it is important to learn to allow them to be, but leave them without analysis.

Apply the practice for the first month every day, morning and evening. In the morning 10 - 15 minutes, in the evening 15 - 20 minutes. If you can’t sit at all, then start with 5 minutes, train yourself, and to begin with you can do it only once a day or even every other day.

In a month or two you will be able to do it for 15 - 20 minutes in the morning and evening. It’s better to spend 40 minutes a day on clarity of mind and a healthy psyche than to be lazy and end up with suffering and chaos in your head the rest of the time.

Only by constantly practicing the exercise will you learn acceptance, awareness and eliminate a lot of internal problems.

So that you don't get confused, the process itself is briefly:

• First, we relax through 5 - 6 deep breaths and slow exhalations.
• We scan the body from top to bottom, record and observe any sensations, look through tense areas, if we notice something, observe this place and promote relaxation.
• We let go of our attention and observe the whole body.
• Observing thoughts

(this does not have to be done in every practice, but periodically, or when they push)

• At the end of about 3 - 5 minutes, we carefully observe only the breathing.

It is best to practice in three directions, although there is no precision or correctness here, I'm just conveying the basics of what to stick to and watch for. At one time give preference to observing sensations in the body, at another time to observing thoughts, but in all cases we try to pay attention to scanning and observing the breath.

The third direction is when after scanning let go of our attention completely and it itself guides us through the body, and we just follow it, feel and observe everything (without mental analysis).

Practice and choose what you are most comfortable doing; for beginners, it is the last method that will be best used at first, but do not forget about the first two, in some cases they are more important.

Practice to develop awareness. Important points

I know how difficult it is to start something, how much the body and psyche resist, insurmountable laziness and unwillingness to do anything appear, so you can do what I did at the very beginning and sometimes do now.

Lying or sitting, watch a movie and, for example, after 30 minutes. viewing, remaining in the same position, close your eyes and do the practice right while watching. This is not recommended by experts, they say, the sounds and body position are distracting, yes, this is not the best option, but it really helped me implement the practice into life, and even doing this brings positive results, which you can even immediately feel. At the same time, I simply let go of all the problems and began to observe what I felt and noticed inside - emotions, thoughts and sensations.

Where is the best place to do it? There is no need to look for specific places to practice, of course, on the seashore, under the rustle of the waves, in silence, it would be more comfortable and perhaps easier to do, but this is not at all necessary, a quiet place is enough so that no one disturbs or distracts you A couple of minutes. By the way, sometimes I even practice in the bath while lying in warm water (but here you need to be more careful so as not to fall asleep) I’ve had this happen more than once.

When doing the practice, at first you may feel worse, some symptoms may even intensify, painful (causal) thoughts will emerge from the depths, they seem to bring to the surface the reasons for which you may now suffer, this often happens with obsessive, and other disorders.

The practice of mindfulness helps you identify what bothers you, what you are not satisfied with, so that in the future you can take some action to solve it.

And, lastly, of course, little by little, bring practice into life , without this step it is impossible to fully develop awareness, gain clarity of mind and calmness - riding the bus from work, climbing the stairs (in the elevator), walking down the street, etc. - when you remember, take at least a little time observation

By the way, gradually, as you practice, you will notice that there will be a sort of gap in thoughts (moments when there are practically no thoughts in your head, but only silence and your observation). And this gap will be very small at first (just a few seconds), and then it will become larger.

Thus, over time, you will learn to become silent in mental analysis and do this anywhere when you want to clear your mind, relax and take a complete break from everything.

Best regards, Andrey Russkikh

Video. Simple exercises and techniques to develop mindfulness

Hello everyone.

Now you see before you the third article in the series. This meditation is called Conscious Awareness in the Present Moment. The lecture I am translating is given by Djeda Mali. In it she talks about her spiritual path, about what is meditation for? and directly teaches the lesson of his meditation. I recommend that you read this review in full, because of all the lectures that I have already published, I liked this lesson the most; I believe that in it you can find a lot of useful and interesting thoughts that partly overlap with mine.

Djeda Mali. Why is meditation needed?

Jedha studied with meditation and yoga gurus in Asia. Based on the results of her practice with teachers, she developed a system of meditation, which, according to her, allows her to achieve extreme mental clarity. Jedah talks about awareness, she defines the totality of our beliefs, ideas, habits of mind and emotions as a kind of paradigm. And often people do not think about the reasons for the emergence of their paradigm, do not analyze what determines their thoughts or actions (“why do I think this way”, “why did I do something”). Meanwhile, the outside world with its laws continues to influence us and dictates certain requirements regarding our reaction to what is happening. If we are not able to change our paradigm in response to an external impulse, adapt it flexibly and adjust it to circumstances, then it becomes difficult for us to live and interact in this world.

According to Jedha Mali, meditation provides an opportunity to become aware of your paradigm and change it in response to changing environmental conditions. In order to live and understand life to the fullest, it is necessary to exist in harmony with the laws of existence, which require us to demonstrate our best qualities: courage, patience, love, strength of character, flexibility of mind, will. And if we don’t listen to life, don’t see what it demands from us, then we miss out on happiness and lose success. We do not reveal our potential, which, according to D. Mali, is inherent in every person.

Getting rid of illusions

Meditation allows you to understand your inner world, know yourself, realize the foundations of your beliefs and actions and make this world the way you want to see it: harmonious, self-sufficient and independent of the opinions and moods of others. Meditation breaks the veil of illusions in which you are shrouded. After long practice, you become unable to deceive yourself: the true essence of things is revealed to you. You no longer need to run away from yourself to meet phantoms and illusions that promise ephemeral, short-term happiness, as your inner beauty and radiance are revealed, immersing yourself in which you find balance and harmony with yourself.

After all, enlightenment, according to D. Mali, is not the acquisition of something and not a one-time spiritual achievement. Enlightenment is a one-time awareness: the ability to see the truth in all things, freedom of perception from the burden of illusions!

You will cease to be hostages of the present moment and you will be able to distance yourself from emotions and experiences that relate to the period of time “here and now.” You will get rid of old habits and qualities that poisoned your life without resistance, not without work, but without resistance...

You will learn to put your brain into (Note: Jedah talks less about energy and its blockers, unlike teachers in previous lessons, she mentions EEG frequencies of the brain as one of the sources of the effect of meditation) and calm the mind. You will have control over what is happening in your head: you will be able to weed out unsuitable thoughts and form your own paradigm. Improve your relationships with people and you will become an example for others. The power to take responsibility for your life will appear.

Jedah claims that all these things you will comprehend without reading books or lectures, and meditate with your eyes closed!

Mindfulness in the present moment

Jedha says we don't think about how our thoughts arise, we start identify with them and believe in them. It seems to us that we, our body, are separated from all existence; we imagine ourselves as some kind of separate and autonomous entity. But we don’t think about what makes us exist, what fills us with life and makes our thoughts and desires possible. The body changes and this is what fills us with life. There is permanent life, and there is also a medium. Changing life, the medium, is a film, that picture of life and what is happening around that is shown to us. Imagine that everything you see, all the pictures of life, is a film that is broadcast on a movie screen.

The plot of a film is something that is constantly changing and exists in time, and the movie screen is something permanent and outside of time (that same constant life). The latter is our original and true existence, eternal and unchanging. But sometimes we become so carried away by the plot of a film, its characters, that we forget that we are just watching a movie. Then we do not see the source of existence and become dependent on the plot of the picture. Meanwhile our true existence is source of energy and source of life. This is being, indivisible and whole, nothing exists except it and nothing exists outside it.

The feeling of the presence of life that we have lost

This energy exists everywhere and everywhere, it allows you to take any form: you can go here, you can go here, you can become cheerful, you can become sad, you can become all these things. We can create all these things from energy, but this does not mean that these things are reality, even the state of happiness is just a form of this energy. When our inner gaze is aimed at the truth and the basis of all things, then we see this eternal, enduring part of life. And she is always with us, she will not go anywhere. This is what gives us the feeling of the presence of life. It has always been with us, we were born with it, but we are so used to it that we no longer notice it and take it for granted. There's nothing strange about that we missed the feeling of being alive.

Awareness is a look into the essence of things that never leaves us, we just lost this ability due to the fact that we were so carried away by what was happening in the film. When we focus on this pristine splendor of authentic life, we are filled with a sense of beauty and wonder. In this way we comprehend the truth and the nature of existence.

Meditation by Djeda Mali. Practice

One meditation session should take 15-20 minutes of your time. Jedha Mali argues that the basis for the success of any endeavor, including meditation, rests on the following qualities: patience, persistence, williness, openness, trust and a little detachment and a sense of humor. You need to exercise regularly and don’t regret spending time on this, all your efforts will more than pay off after some time.

Breathing is an important part of any meditation. keep an eye on him. As for place and time, then It is better to meditate in the same place at the same time, thus the brain will get used to it and its ability to relax and concentrate will reach its maximum during this period of time in this place.

Jedha states that it is important to understand what you expect from meditation so as not to be disappointed in the results of practice.

Let's start meditation

You can calmly imagine and pronounce everything below to yourself, and most importantly, take your time. Balance your breathing, calm down and concentrate.

So, close your eyes and look within. Eliminate all thoughts about today, let them leave you. Concentrate on the present moment in time. Focus on your breathing. Feel yourself concentrating on your breathing. You are filled with a feeling of peace and serenity. Realize that you are now in a state of peace and serenity. Feel yourself in the present moment, your consciousness is ready to fill your inner world (explore within). Breathing calms you. And the more you follow him, the calmer and more peaceful you become.

Over time, as you monitor your breathing, you realize that you no longer need to make an effort to breathe. Breathing seems to happen on its own, independently of you, easily and naturally. Something itself controls breathing. As if you are not breathing but you are being breathed, you understand that something has taken control of your breathing always, throughout your entire life.

We didn't notice this. This sea of ​​awareness (Note: what Djeda Mali calls permanent life), what directs the flow of breath, is the sea eternal and always available to us. If you were asked do you exist? You would answer yes, of course. But if they asked, how do you know this? You'd say it's obvious, I'm here. Our existence is obvious and for this reason very familiar, so much so that we take it for granted.

We have forgotten what makes our lives possible. It is the source of life that makes existence in all its forms possible. Is it possible not to exist? Let's try. We see that we cannot. Our entire experience is a registration by consciousness of what is happening. You are aware of your existence.

The sea of ​​awareness exists even when you are not aware of it (for example, when you are sleeping). When does awareness appear? It manifests itself in the present moment. Focus on the present moment. Try to exist outside of this moment for at least a minute. We understand that this is impossible: awareness can only exist in the present moment. When we become aware of the present moment in time, we comprehend the essence of life captured in it.

Become aware of the constancy of the present moment, be aware of its stillness. It is a medium in relation to the sea of ​​awareness. Only this moment ensures the existence of the sea of ​​awareness. This is who we are, the eternal sea of ​​awareness. We are those who exist eternally and at the same time are always in the present. Now notice that the present moment is not motionless, static, if it were, then we would see one thing all the time.

The static nature of the moment in the present tense makes change possible, feel it, be filled with the awareness of this knowledge, this is what gives birth to freedom within every moment. This allows our consciousness, which is in constant motion within the sea of ​​awareness, to register and become aware of what is happening. Awareness is not dependent on age or experience, it is not acquired, it cannot be earned or earned. It's not what we get, it's what we are.

This is the existence available to us at every moment of time.

Now let the peace and serenity of your entire being expand to the boundaries of your physical body and reach a state of harmonious continuum, consisting of harmony between the inner and outer worlds.

Breathe deeply, eyes still closed, smile, feel the light that your smile generates. Let your smile send the light of your being through your body. Now the person who started meditation is gone, everything has changed in you. You have become harmony. Take this harmony into your life. And when you are ready, open your eyes...

Concluding comments from the author of the translation

So, I already wrote at the beginning that I really liked Djeda Mali’s lecture. Firstly, her reasoning about what is meditation for?, and secondly, by the fact that she spoke less than others about all sorts of “energies and astrals.” The information in her lecture is more tangible and understandable.

While we are in its power, it can be difficult to realize how absorbed and dependent we are on this mess, because it acts like intoxication: it clouds your vision, lulls your mind and it all seems natural to us, we don’t even think about it. Only then, if an “awakening” occurs, do we understand how much negativity was in us, what prevented us from living and poisoned the lives of those around us. But for this awakening to come, you need to meditate.

I will not criticize Jedha Mali’s meditation technique itself, but will simply express my opinion. If you like, then you can practice it, but I still think that it is better to meditate with and think less and reflect during sessions, but this meditation from the article calls for some kind of mental work, which, in my opinion, is everything -should be kept to a minimum.

But if you don’t think about anything during meditation, this does not mean that no understanding comes to you. It comes on its own, is deposited somewhere on an unconscious, non-verbal level, as a feeling of truth and order, in order to later be revealed in words, thoughts and actions.

That's all for today. Stay tuned for the next article in the Meditationfest series (). Just let me take a short break with articles from this series, since I would like to dilute them with others in order to compromise with those who are not interested in Meditationfest, who expect me simply articles about self-development, and those who follow the release of translations of Meditationfest lectures. So the next article will be devoted to bad habits and that, and after it I will return to the review of lectures by leading meditation masters.

Thank you for your attention!

Many people do not quite understand words such as mindfulness and meditation, and in this article we will try to explain what these terms are associated with. Mindfulness meditation is a very important point in self-development, and it determines how successful the work on yourself will be.

Meditation is the pursuit of non-existence. It's like an endless vacation. It's better than the deepest sleep in the world. It is a calming of the mind that sharpens everything, especially the perception of your surroundings. Meditation makes life fresh

Hugh Jackman

What is mindfulness and what does it involve?

If you observe how a person behaves in the dark, you will notice that he tries to do everything by touch, touches various objects, stumbles and falls, moving awkwardly in an unknown space. After all, even if he is in his own room, which is familiar to him, his behavior in it without light will still be uncertain, and he may get injured.

In the same way, when a person lives unconsciously, he is confused in his goals and plans, does not know where to start his actions, has no idea how correctly and wisely he is acting. His movements are unaccountable, spontaneous, he can be distracted from business, start some kind of relationship, and suddenly abandon them, in general, he behaves as if in complete darkness surrounding him.

Awareness is usually called connecting consciousness to one’s actions. This means that they will all be thoughtful, meaningful, in other words, it is consciousness that will play the role of the light that will spill in his room and immediately correct the whole situation.

Everything conscious is something that a person can see and then talk about. This is the correct interpretation of the environment and one’s own relationship to it. And everything that happens to a person, regardless of his will, control and efforts, is called unconscious.

Mindfulness is associated with harmonious and coordinated work:

• perception;
• attention;
• thinking;
• memory.

A person who lives consciously can be distinguished from those who lead an unaccountable lifestyle. After all, since childhood, he has the opportunity to develop awareness in the direction that he considers interesting and necessary. If a boy loves to ride a bicycle, he will diligently learn new riding techniques, delve into its design, while acting consciously. A girl who loves to dance will consciously learn new movements, moving confidently on stage.

In adulthood, a person can transfer these skills to all other areas of his activity. It is within his power not to do rash acts, to control his emotions, and to take justified actions. The process of developing awareness is endless; it resembles cognitive activity, which does not and cannot have any limit.

How to develop mindfulness

If a person learns to accompany with his consciousness all his actions, states, activities, this means that he develops awareness. You can distinguish between high and low levels of awareness. After all, everyone can realize their desires and needs at a certain moment, and no special preparation is needed for this. We usually call this state “living for today.”

But learning to plan your future, manage your thoughts, and be able to fill yourself with the necessary positive feelings requires special preparation and training of consciousness. This is what we call high level awareness. People who live consciously and unconsciously are very noticeably different from each other.

The former have attentive glances, composure, and the absence of ill-conceived chaotic movements. They can accurately answer a range of questions regarding their tasks, goals, internal concepts and views. Such people have lists of tasks, if not in a notebook, then in their heads; they have a clear understanding of problems and opportunities for solving them, motives and main guidelines.

Many people who are seriously thinking about developing awareness can go to extremes, trying to comprehend every little thing and the most insignificant event. There is no need for this, because awareness is needed in large-scale and important matters. This process has a certain similarity with the physical development of a person who has a basic level and special skills in a certain direction.

A person can jog and do gymnastic exercises, swim and squat. This will contribute to his overall physical development. But if he has a desire to achieve results in a certain sport, he will have to tune himself into a system of special training and develop exactly those abilities that are needed for this in the first place.

In what directions should awareness be developed?

Working on developing your awareness involves several important directions.

Mindfulness Meditation: The First Step of Self-Development

Meditation is the door to immense power. Meditation is the door to superconsciousness

The first steps towards defining such a concept as awareness were taken by Descartes. Scientists associated it with introspection, that is, with the study and observation of one’s own mental processes. For beginners, you should first of all learn to distinguish these phenomena from physiological, or bodily, phenomena that occur on the basis of instincts, without the involvement of consciousness.

What do we call meditation? The word is of Latin origin and means “to reflect”, “to ponder”, “to determine ideas”. Mindfulness meditation is a type of certain mental exercises, spiritual practices aimed at relieving anxiety, improving mood, and counteracting stress.

Mindfulness meditation allows you to look at the world with completely different eyes, eliminates illusions, and develops a person’s critical abilities. There is no magic, nothing supernatural in it. You should not listen to incompetent people who tell fables about “comprehension of the absolute”, the “third eye”. Behind such myths there may be something frightening that suggests thoughts of witchcraft, the power of evil spirits, or manifestations of sectarianism.

You should also not listen to those who associate mindfulness meditation with “chakras”, “vibrations”, “nirvanas”, as this can only confuse a person and impose on him a false and deeply erroneous idea about it.

Control of emotions and relief from depression, resistance to mood swings and stress - this is what mindfulness meditation gives to those who understand the true meaning of this common and completely harmless phenomenon. This is a fight against negative habits, shortcomings and weaknesses of character, allowing you to discover and reveal your personal potential.

Mindfulness meditation is the first steps of self-development. The success of working on yourself and achieving your goals depends on them. Just like playing sports, which trains the body and body, mindfulness meditation develops thinking and consciousness.

How to choose a time and place to meditate

Many people who have achieved good results recommend meditating twice a day, morning and evening. This activity will not take much time, just fifteen to twenty minutes a day. The peculiarity of morning classes is that they charge you with a positive mood and energy, and evening classes relieve daytime tension, relax and calm, banishing destructive thoughts from your head.

You should practice in a calm and comfortable environment, preferably at home. Some people do not advise conducting meditation classes in the room in which a person usually sleeps, but there is nothing categorical or unambiguous about this.

How to prepare for and conduct a meditation exercise

A person should have a straight back, but it is not at all necessary to take a lotus position. The spine and surface are at right angles, and it is quite possible to sit on a chair. Then it will become easy to breathe, and air will enter the lungs unhindered.

Meditation is designed to observe your mind, and therefore it is undesirable to take a lying position. Attention and concentration must be maintained, and in a lying position you can fall asleep. The main thing is not to strain your back.

You need to direct your attention to your breathing. You should think in advance which mantra to choose. You should not be afraid of this word, it is just a text, and any prayer that does not contradict your beliefs and views can be used as it.

By observing one's own breathing, a person no longer pays attention to thoughts, and they begin to wander to the sides. At first, he will still be distracted, because the ability to concentrate on a mantra or breathing will not come immediately. You need to understand that meditation is a rather ambiguous process, it is a state of a certain balance between action and complete calm, effort and relaxation, control and complete emancipation.

Those who begin classes will be able to understand and grasp this line. After all, it is impossible to explain to a person who has no idea how to ride a bicycle why he will not fall while moving, and why the bicycle will remain stable, only in words. He will be able to comprehend this only if he tries to do it in practice.

When conducting meditation classes, you should:

• concentrate yourself on breathing. It may slow down, but this is quite normal. You just have to watch him;
• repeat the mantra to yourself. As was written above, this text does not carry any semantic load; you can take an excerpt from a prayer, because these are simply repeated words and phrases that allow you to maintain attention and relax;
• present different images. These can be abstract concepts, such as fire, or a speculative environment in which a person will feel calm and peaceful.

Gaining awareness is one of the goals of meditation classes.

Mindfulness meditation has the primary goal of gaining awareness, but can bring many positive changes to many areas of physiology. As a result of the exercises, a person’s blood pressure normalizes, the heart rate decreases, and the amount of hormones that cause stress decreases. The body's immunity is strengthened, brain activity is stabilized and a boost of energy appears.

A person’s awareness improves, unmotivated attacks of fear and aggression disappear, emotional control and the ability to concentrate improve. All these psychological effects are proof of the positive influence of meditation on personality development and the effectiveness of self-realization.

) I was urged to cover the topic of developing awareness in more detail.

Indeed, increasing awareness is a necessary element for any personal change

Developing mindfulness helps you break bad habits

If you want to break bad habits, developing mindfulness will help you understand the hidden motives that maintain old behavior and learn to notice the triggers of old habits earlier (which makes them easier to eliminate).

Developing mindfulness helps you learn to manage your emotions

To manage your emotions, it is important to learn to notice and realize the beginning of the process of development or change in emotion and mood. Because the longer you are immersed in some emotion, the more stable this state becomes and the more difficult it is to change. In addition, negative emotions are usually maintained and developed due to the corresponding internal dialogue that fuels them (you, as it were, “twist” yourself). And often it is enough to simply stop this negative stream of thoughts to improve your condition. But to stop it, you first need to realize it. Usually we are so immersed in this internal thought stream that we do not notice how it takes us further and further into the sea of ​​negativity.

Developing mindfulness helps improve personal effectiveness

Personal effectiveness depends not only on HOW we do something, but also (even to a greater extent) on WHAT we do and IN WHAT CONDITION we do it.

You can do all sorts of nonsense very effectively (for example, quickly surf the Internet and simultaneously correspond with 10 friends on social networks), but this will not bring you closer to realizing important life goals, which means your personal effectiveness will be low. Developing mindfulness will help you stay focused on the things and tasks that really matter.

I have already written many times about the fact that for high productivity you need to be able to create and maintain a positive emotional mood. After all, even if you focus on really important tasks, but at the same time you experience anger, irritation and similar negative feelings, then you can also forget about high efficiency.

And as I said above, developing awareness helps you learn to manage your emotional state, i.e., take control of this important component of high personal effectiveness.

Developing awareness helps correct character

A character trait is a stable stereotype of response in certain, typical situations.
If you want to change some traits of your character, then first you need to learn to notice the typicality of their manifestation.

Any behavioral reaction usually consists of two parts: reflexive and cognitive.

Reflex reaction is essentially a habit of reacting in a certain way to typical situations. For example, if a person has such traits as suspiciousness and low self-esteem, then he can take any laughter he hears personally, as if they are laughing at him.

Cognitive component are the thoughts and beliefs that support this reaction. In the above example, a person with suspiciousness and low self-esteem, hearing that someone is laughing, will feel internal tension and may have thoughts that he looks somehow ridiculous, funny and everyone around him is constantly evaluating his appearance and behavior, etc. .d. and so on.

To change such a reaction, i.e. In this typical way of responding, you must first learn to notice how appropriate stimuli trigger this reaction in you and how you yourself (with the help of internal dialogue) then support the development and repetition of this reaction. The arsenal of psychotechniques for changing reactions is quite large, but without developing awareness, their use is extremely ineffective.

In general, give me any psychological problem and I will show you how developing awareness helps solve it.

I hope I have convinced you of the importance of developing mindfulness. If yes, then you can't wait to find out HOW you can do this.

In fact, you don’t need to “reinvent the wheel” to develop awareness. The basic ideas were developed at least about 2000 years ago. First of all, this is, of course, yoga and Buddhist meditation. By the way, it is the practice of meditation from Buddhism that is perhaps most easily adapted to modern life. And in this series of issues dedicated to the development of awareness, I will give you several basic techniques, most of which you can practice literally “on the go,” i.e. going about your usual business.

In general, traditionally, meditative techniques for developing awareness are divided into formal and informal. Formal- this means you allocate special time for them and during this time you engage only in this technique. Informal- these are those that can be performed in parallel with some other activity. For example, you can use some familiar automatic actions such as brushing your teeth, focusing on tracking all possible tactile sensations from this process.

As a formal technique, I will give you today one simple technique that I use in my course “Self-Hypnosis 2.0 Basic Course”. I call it “Conscious Breathing”. By the way, in addition to developing awareness, it also helps to master such an important quality as passive concentration of attention, which is so necessary for mastering auto-training and other self-hypnosis techniques.

I use two modifications of this technique. Today I’ll give you the simplest option, which is where you should start. Let's do it right now.

Sit so that it is comfortable for you to remain in this position for a couple of minutes. You can close your eyes, but this is not necessary. The task is very simple - observe the breathing process for 2 minutes.

There is no need to try to somehow change the breathing rhythm. To make it easier to maintain attention, you can monitor the movement of the abdomen (or chest, depending on the type of your breathing, i.e., which is easier to observe) or the sensation in the nasopharynx from the movement of air. In addition, you can pronounce “inhale” and “exit” in accordance with the breathing process.

If your attention is distracted, simply realize what distracted you and return to the process of observing your breathing.

You can use a timer or rely on your internal sense of time. So, let's start...

Well, how did it work out? Most likely, you noticed that although the task seems simple, in reality it turns out that maintaining calm concentration is quite difficult. From time to time, distracting thoughts arise that take away your attention, and when you discover this, you begin to scold yourself and get upset that you cannot maintain concentration even for a couple of minutes.

An additional portion of salt is poured into the wounds of your self-esteem by not particularly knowledgeable esoteric-minded authors who claim that the main goal of these practices is to “stop the internal dialogue,” i.e., complete thoughtlessness.

But the same Buddhist monks will tell you that this is complete nonsense. Thinking is a natural process, just like breathing and heartbeat. Thinking is simply a product of the work of our psyche. And the task of such meditative practices is not to stop this process, but to develop awareness, i.e., learn to observe, as if from the outside, the process of thinking. And at some point you begin to really clearly understand that there is something more in you than thoughts and emotions, that you can be in a state where you can observe, be aware of the work of your brain, just as you can observe the process of breathing. But we'll talk about this in future issues.

Now you just have to understand that you are not faced with the task of somehow specifically getting rid of thoughts. If you try to do this through some kind of volitional effort, you will get the opposite effect. Although, the intensity of thinking will naturally decrease if you simply maintain passive concentration on some object (in this case, breathing)

So, the main rule regarding any distractions in the process of any techniques for developing awareness is to get distracted, become aware of this moment and simply calmly return your attention to the object of meditation.

Perform this exercise at least once a day, gradually increasing the exercise time to 5 minutes.

Informal practice.

In principle, any activity can be suitable for developing awareness, but you need to start with simple ideas that do not require additional time or special organizational efforts. Here are some simple ideas:

1. In public transport or while driving in a traffic jam, it is convenient to practice tracking sounds. Just decide that, for example, for the next 1-2 minutes you will spend the next 1-2 minutes becoming aware of what you hear. The task is again very simple - focus your attention on the sounds. Try to isolate different sounds from the general sound background. At the same time, try to perceive sounds simply as sounds, without describing what makes them and without thinking about their meaning.

2. While walking, you can find many objects to develop awareness. You can simply track your tactile sensations from the process of walking, you can focus on what you see or hear.

3. While eating, you have a great opportunity to focus on your taste sensations (and get more benefits and pleasure from your meal)

4. Any usually automatic actions (shaving, showering, brushing teeth). Just try to be aware of your sensations in the process of performing these habitual actions.

Each week, choose two or three similar objects for informal practice and change them regularly to avoid getting bored.

To conclude today’s episode, I want to give you a couple more important practical tips.

There are two main problems with developing mindfulness. Firstly, it is difficult to maintain attention on the subject of meditation. Secondly, it is difficult to force yourself to exercise regularly.

The first problem can be solved using short periods of time for practice. Especially at the beginning, I strongly recommend that you practice for literally 1-3 minutes. It’s better to do 10 approaches a day, one minute at a time, than to sit and “torment” for 10 minutes, constantly being distracted and blaming yourself for your inability to concentrate.

The second problem is more difficult. The techniques are actually very simple, but it is far from easy to practice them on a regular basis for a long time.

Here, firstly, the idea of ​​short approaches will help you again. After all 1-2 minutes can always be found, but 10-15 need to be “cut out”.

Secondly, it's a good idea - decide in advance how many approaches you plan to do per day and somehow organize their counting. For example, it is convenient to use a mobile application for a smartphone for counting, which has a simple counter, i.e. made another meditative “approach”, pressed the button - the counter worked and you know how many such sessions you have already done today. Or you can simply record it on a piece of paper. In any case, if you have a clear decision on the number of daily sessions, your motivation will be higher.

To feel the first results, perform these simple exercises for at least 2-3 weeks. If you have any questions, write them in the comments.

In future episodes I will tell you how you can use emotions and thoughts to develop awareness. And, by the way, please write in the comments whether you are interested in the topic of developing awareness and whether you want to continue.

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