Mindfulness: Recent Episodes
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The bodyscan is used in different mindfulness classes and courses. People associate it with falling asleep and lying on a mat, however, there are other meditations specifically for sleep.
This is a gentle training of the mind towards remaining on one focus at a time. The focus in this case, being different regions of the body. We learn to shift focus with intention, deliberately engaging and disengaging attention in a systematic way through different parts of the body. We learn that it is how we are relating to different objects, rather than the objects themselves, that matters. For instance, how we relate to an injury or discomfort during a practice, is often the way that we react to an emotional stressor in day to day life.
If nothing else though, the bodyscan is a restful space of time that you can give to yourself and when done regularly, can give you a chance to relax and recover, rebalance and reenergise.
(please note the first 3 minutes are a description of bodyscan and you can skip these if you like).
This is a meditation best done lying down. It is a relaxing meditation, and also describes a lake-like deep resource we can draw from, when disturbed by emotional discomfort. Our awareness is like the container of a lake, with stillness and calm deep down, even when there are storms swirling around on the surface.
Mindfulness Meditation helps with discomfort and pain. Not with the aim of remedying an actual condition or mend a recent injury. Yet, it can lessen the suffering associated. This meditation, aims to ease physical discomfort, and at the same time pave a way towards helping us with our mental health.
Mindfulness Meditation helps with discomfort and pain. Not with the aim of remedying an actual condition or mend a recent injury. Yet, it can lessen the suffering associated. This 15 minute meditation, the first of two, uses different options to ease physical discomfort, and at the same time pave a way towards helping us with our mental health.
The theme of Kindness has been chosen during mental health awareness week as it’s central focus this year
It is often the case that we have so little time or space in which to manoeuvre during our busy lives, that being kind is not always our top priority.
For some of us, since lockdown, we have noticed and been more deeply aware of what’s happening, both for the people we live with and, those who we aren’t able to see due to social-distancing. Nature has at times, taken centre stage.
There seems to have been more kindness around, whether simply people chatting more to neighbours, or volunteering to help those who aren’t able to help themselves. Maybe, there’s a friendlier feel in the air at the moment?
There are good mental health reasons to be kind; for the people we live with, the wider community, but just as importantly, for ourselves.
There is a large body of evidence now, that compassion and kindness is associated with better mental health and well-being, and for instance, is well established within positive parenting programmes. Compassion helps people respond more skilfully to distress, and there is promising evidence coming through from biological markers like lower stress induced inflammation.
Mindfulness trains our mind to be calmer, stiller so that we can make more skilful moment to moment choices as we live our lives, when we remember! But if it was just an attention training exercise, it wouldn’t be Mindfulness. Mindfulness needs kindness, during any moment of meditation we are training our attitude to ourselves, an attitude of kindness and gentleness, that allows us to make mistakes, learn from them and make mistakes again. We are human! Kindness doesn’t come easily to many of us, even the word itself, can bring out cynicism and resistance. Which means that this is a training that we need to practice. Something that helps our mental health in the short, medium and long term, can’t be too bad!
These sounds of nature were recorded early morning near Rocky and Tunstall Hills, again in the south of Sunderland.
People can assume that mind-wandering is the “enemy” during meditation, that we’ve got to stop thoughts from happening. They soon feel that they can’t meditate, it’s not for them.
Yet the reality is that the vast majority of us will never eliminate mind wandering. It’s not the aim anyway. We are looking more to open up to this activity of the mind, practice being with it and also letting it go, returning to an anchor or particular focus. This “nowness” gives us the possibility of cultivating a calmer internal atmosphere. We feel more calm and balanced, and not so controlled by “this and that” thinking.
The structure is very simple in three stages and this is a meditation that you can remember yourself and do without any guidance, once you have listened to it a few times. These are should be done during the day in order to, punctuate the day with mindfulness and/or to use in response to any heightened feelings of stress. They are not to take the place of the more formal meditations that we’ve been sharing.
The structure is very simple in three stages and this is a meditation that you can remember yourself and do without any guidance, once you have listened to it a few times.
They are not to take the place of the more formal meditations that we’ve been sharing. They are a great reminder that mindfulness can be applied into daily life, not just on the meditation cushion or chair and can be used to help structure your day.
This meditation can be used to help sleep. It is better when done after having established a regular mindfulness practice. However, it can still help beginners. A lot of people including me, discovered Mindfulness exactly because they had difficulties sleeping. If you are trying out meditation for the first time, or if you are a long term practitioner, I would listen to this recording once towards the end of the day, and also, have accessible during the night should you wake up early and struggle to go back to sleep.
Birdsong: Early morning sounds meditation. In Backhouse Park, Sunderland Sounds and nature, and the practice of meditation is a natural fit. When we have direct contact with nature, we feel more alive and aware. Giving ourselves a few minutes to settle and absorb sounds can also calm agitation, restlessness and feelings of anxiety. Backhouse is a lovely well kept park in the south of Sunderland, where the 14 minutes of guided meditation took place. The wren and the woodpecker were maybe the noisiest birds!"
Mindfulness meditation is about noticing what is happening from moment to moment. The balance of relaxation AND energy and wakefulness supports this. This meditation is a 14 minute sitting practice, either on a straight backed chair or if you are able, cross legged on yoga blocks. The focuses of the in breath, a strong back and the sounds around us, help us to be aware of moment to moment experience, life as it flows through us.
The bodyscan is used in different mindfulness classes and courses. People associate it with falling asleep and lying on a mat, however, there are other meditations specifically for sleep. What it is about, is a gentle training of the mind towards remaining on one focus at a time. The focus in this case, being different regions of the body. We learn to shift focus with intention, deliberately engaging and disengaging attention in a systematic way through different parts of the body. We learn that it is how we are relating to different objects, rather than the objects themselves, that matters. For instance, how we relate to an injury, or discomfort during a practice, is often the way that we react to an emotional stressor in day to day life. If nothing else though, the bodyscan is a restful space of time that you can give to yourself, and when done regularly, can give you a chance to relax and recover, rebalance and reenergise. (please note the first 3 minutes are a description of bodyscan and you can skip these if you like).