We all know what it means to live mechanically, moving along a well-established track, on autopilot, unconsciously performing a lot of actions and functions, without attaching importance to them, without thinking, but simply because “that’s the way it should be.” The vast majority of modern people are in a state of and. At first glance, this is an ordinary life, but this condition is dangerous because people’s attention is narrowed to the functional “yes-no”, “can-do-not”, “good-bad”. And therefore, most often we are controlled by others.
Powerful Meditation and Mindfulness and Changing Your State
It is unlikely that any of the modern sensible people will deliberately give their lives to the control of others. I would say that this is more likely the case. Somehow it goes without saying, and now, you are no longer a free individual, but a consumer, you are hooked on various industries. You sleep, and in your spiritual sleep you consume, consume, consume. It seems you didn't do anything wrong. You were simply living unconsciously. Self-guided online mindfulness meditation will correct this situation.
The title of the book about mindfulness meditation by Andy Puddicombe is Meditation and Mindfulness. 10 minutes a day that will put your thoughts in order speaks for itself. You can read this useful publication online, download it for free and without registration, and, of course, buy the book in online stores in the classic paper format.
Mindful meditation for self-development
Artwork by Andy Puddicombe Meditation and Mindfulness, there is nothing supernatural, no mysticism, no magic. On the pages of the book, in an accessible and engaging manner, the author offers simple and effective techniques for a set of exercises recommended for daily practice. Practicing mindfulness meditation does not require any special knowledge or extensive preparatory work. All preparation consists of step-by-step instructions that help you master the meditation technique on your own. And most importantly, to take advantage of the obvious benefits of this technique, ten minutes a day is enough.
What is mindfulness? This is in every sense a unique state of consciousness, the opposite of moral and spiritual sleep. Mindfulness meditation teaches a person to direct attention to himself. When a person is aware of himself and is able to manage himself, take responsibility for his life, he does not vegetate in spiritual impoverishment and poverty, he works on himself and finds ways to realize himself both personally and professionally.
What is mindfulness meditation
Meditation according to E. Puddicombe’s system is, first of all, a simple and effective tool for improving the quality of life, which gives quick and undoubted results. Independent mindfulness meditation reduces stress levels, helps get rid of anxiety, irritability, insomnia, and most importantly, helps a person realize that the world around him is beautiful, and life itself is a precious gift from the Creator.
The state of mindfulness taught by meditation according to the Puddicombe method helps to concentrate, control the flow of one’s own consciousness, and control complex life tasks. The practice of mindfulness meditation does not depend on religious beliefs and does not require adherence to the rules of classical meditation, as is common in Eastern practices. Everything here is simple and clear.
Today we’ll talk about what mindfulness meditation is. Or, in other words, meditation of the witnessing consciousness, the observer.
What is this, scary and incomprehensible?
To begin with, in a nutshell, I will say that Indian philosophical schools are divided into orthodox and heterodox.
Orthodox schools adhere to the philosophy of the Vedas. I think many people know about the “Vedas” or at least have heard something.
Unorthodox schools do not take as a basis "Veda". Such schools include, for example, Buddhism, which is based on Bhagavad Gita.
This article will talk about the practice of meditation of the orthodox school of Indian philosophy, namely - Vedanta. In Vedanta there are many intertwinings with Buddhism.
So, Vedanta is a path of self-knowledge, the goal of which is to disidentify from mental attachments and concepts that limit our awareness.
In simple words: the mind is not you.
We are used to thinking that the mind and I are one and the same, one whole and indivisible, but this is not true. In this understanding of the mind, this Indian philosophy is similar to Buddhism and also, to a high degree, to scientific knowledge.
Our brain is a rather complex structure with a huge variety of neural networks and connections, with billions of cells interacting with each other and knowing how to act, where to send a signal to which area of the brain.
Don’t be lazy to take 5 minutes of your time to get acquainted. Perhaps these 5 minutes will change your whole life.If you liked my article, please share it on social networks. You can use the buttons below for this. Thank you!
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 begin 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, only 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 impact 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. etc.
To change such a reaction, i.e. In such a typical way of responding, you must first learn to notice how appropriate stimuli trigger this reaction in you and how then you yourself (with the help of internal dialogue) 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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One of the most common ways of meditation is known as " mindfulness meditation"This form of meditation is usually used by people who need help coping with stressful situations, or those who are exposed to a lot of negative emotions. Many of us succumb to anger, frustration, resentment, envy - symptoms of the complex and stressful world in which we we live, but all this is just an illusion that needs to be overcome through the practice of awareness meditation.
We must learn to cope with negative emotions and not allow them to cloud our feelings and judgment. Otherwise, we risk harming our mental and physical health. With the help of awareness meditation, a person begins to realize his place in this world, make better decisions, and endure stressful situations and problems without avoiding or denying them. Knowing ourselves better through awareness meditation, we understand more how our body and mind are connected together, and by opening ourselves from this side we are able to become nobler, kinder, learn to forgive and empathize.
All types of meditation require us to relax our body and mind, and enter a state of inner peace. Special meditative music helps many people with this. To begin mindfulness meditation, sit with your back straight and legs crossed, then spend some time focusing on your slow and even breathing, allowing the music to bring you into a state of deep calm.
You must allow your thoughts to flow through your mind like a river, seeing the positive and negative aspects of your life as one, feeling them diminish in size and importance until they finally become a stream of emptiness, in a comfortable, dark and warm space. You must tell yourself not to judge others, and to look at life as an ever-changing stream of reality. You need to remember that you can return to this simple, calm and comfortable space whenever you want.
Focus on your breathing for a while, use the inhalation and exhalation as an example of how things come and go - the inhalation becomes the things you have learned, accepted, developed. With each exhalation, release your tension, frustration and regret. Remember that just as we need to inhale and exhale, we need to rise after falling, get back on our feet and move forward without falling into despondency, depression and despair. After some time, you can simply relax and enjoy the alienation and emptiness that comes with deep, quiet meditation.
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Awareness of death gives us the strength to live on. Paulo Coelho
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