Mindfulness of Mind and Movement
Welcome back to our weekly blog where are having been covering our ‘How to meditate’ series. Over the past few weeks we have covered our positioning, as well as introducing the body scan, mindfulness of breath and mindfulness of sounds practices. Today, we will look at the mindfulness of mind practice and the walking practice. Let’s begin!
Mindfulness of Mind
thinking can be endless — each thought leading into another, ad infinitum.
This practice builds on the mindfulness of sounds practice. Rather than putting your attention into sounds around you, try to now place your attention towards your own mind — or ‘internal events’. Notice how, just like sounds, that rise and fall like waves in the ocean, and have gaps of sound (silence) between them, the mind also operates in a similar way. Try to watch your own mind — thinking, words, worries, images, internal sounds, memories, wishes, desires — as they move across your awareness like a stream — sometimes furious, turbulent, sometimes tranquil or calm, sometimes sad, sometimes joyful. Notice how thoughts can change from one to another, one thought feeds into another, like an eddy in a stream of water. Thinking can be endless — each thought leading into another, ad infinitum.
understanding pure or choice-less awareness
Like the sounds, as best as you can, try to notice the gap between thoughts, where there may be an absence of thoughts, or a small gap between thinking or mental events. This ‘gap’ in mental events — and the part of you that is able to perceive or experience this gap — is sometimes called pure or choice-less awareness. This is the part of our ‘awareness’ — or ‘self’ — that exists ‘outside’ of thinking. This means it is present regardless of whether we are thinking or not, and is not dependant on our thinking to exist. It is referred to as being bigger, kinder and often ‘wiser’ than thinking — like the space or container within which all other thinking and mental events occur.
your internal events move across your awareness like the clouds
Another way to think about it is that pure or choice-less awareness is like the ‘sky’ or the atmosphere, and ‘thinking’ and other internal events are like clouds, or weather patterns. The clouds and the weather exists within — or are contained by — the sky. Try to notice how your internal events move across your awareness like the clouds or weather patterns move across the sky. Notice, if you can, how internal events can change and take different shapes and forms just like different clouds and weather patterns and systems move across the sky. You could also think of this type of awareness like the water of the ocean, and mental events or thinking as the waves on the ocean. This may seem a little abstract, so don’t worry — we will talk a little more about different types of experiences of mindfulness in the next blog.
Mindful movement (walking practice)
notice the tiny movements of muscles and skin as we move
There are lots of traditional movement practices that incorporate mindfulness and meditation — you might have heard of yoga and Tai Chi for example. These practices involve bringing our attention into the body when it is moving. Mindful walking is a simple way of implementing movement into your practice. First, choose a spot in your room that is about 10 feet long. Begin by intentionally walking slowly along this 10 foot strip. Usually, people place their foot very slowly on the ground — starting with the heel, then slowly lowering the base of the foot and finally the toes on the ground. The weight is then shifted onto that foot, while the back foot is then slowly lifted off the ground — by the heel first followed by the base of the foot and then the toes. It might take you 5 minutes to walk just the 10 foot length! When you get to the end of your strip, slowly turn around on the spot, and begin to walk back the other way. The purpose of the exercise it to bring your attention right into your foot and more broadly your body as you walk, and to notice the tiny movements of muscles and skin as we move. You can do this for any period of time that you like.
Concluding the practices
Each practice in the StudyStream Focus Room is concluded by the ringing of three bells, after which you can open your eyes if they have been closed, and bring your attention back into the room and the space around you, and maybe shuffle around if that helps you adjust out of the practice. We often talk about our experiences during the practices during the sitting group, so please share an experience — good, neutral or difficult — if you feel comfortable doing so.
That’s all for our series on how to meditate. Stay tuned next week when we start our new series on ‘Experiences of meditation’. And remember to join us every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 19:30GMT in the Secondary School FocusRoom (we use this as a combined session for both rooms) for live and free mindfulness sessions. We look forward to seeing you there!
