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Tips On Mindfulness Practise
Here are 4 key practical tips on mindfulness practise.
Tips on mindfulness practise: [1] "Watching the thinker" - start listening to the voice in your head… as often as you can.Pay particular attention to any repetitive thought patterns, those old audiotapes that have been playing in your head perhaps for many years. This is really simple – but requires discipline. And this needs to become a habit and second nature – so do it several times a day until it becomes a habit. The difficulty with this is its simplicity. Your mind will kick up all sorts of distractions and excuses not to do this. You will think of all sorts of questions you will want to find out more about it. You’ll seek proof it works. In fact, your mind will ensure that you do anything but “watch the thinker”. If you are serious about this and motivated – just do it!
Tips on mindfulness practise: [2] Practise deep acceptance of what you are feeling – right now!Guy Finley says: “When you feel stress, resistance or pain, you tend to see it in that moment as life persecuting or punishing you. The truth is that life is helping you to reach a higher level of consciousness. This cannot be reached without the pain that you are trying so hard to push away. Accept what is in the moment including the pain. Accept that the pain is natural and necessary to the moment. Drop the blaming of someone or something outside of you as the cause of the pain. You are trying to free yourself from the problem without realising that you are the creator of the problem. If you can see the truth of this – it is done and you are free. As you accept, let go and surrender, a new consciousness arises and the pain does not trouble you, as you drop the thinking about yourself and your life. The pain ends when you accept the pain and drop the self that clings to it.” This means intense acceptance of exactly what feelings are present in the moment – including and especially all resistance and negativity and fear about accepting it.
Tips on mindfulness practise: [3] Here’s how I do it
This is not a one-shot solution – you will need to do this maybe 40-50 times very intensely – to get a reduction of about 80-90% of the negative feelings – i.e. it won't trouble you very much at all. Most people don’t do this – because it all about repetition with intensity – and most people just give up or say "I’m feeling ok now" or "I can’t be bothered" and go "unconscious" in all of the usual ways. I have found that doing this about 5-10 times a day for about 2 weeks gets powerful results and forms the habit of doing it – so I don’t need to think about it, I do it automatically when negative feelings and resistance arises.
Tips on mindfulness practise: [4] The bottom lineIf you are serious about wanting to learn to change how you think and to learn how to stop thinking there are 4 broad areas of activity: (1) Read up on it and get informed Go through all of the links and associated resource on these pages. (2) Find supporting mindfulness material that you can use reflectively for guided meditation In my view the most accessible material is by Eckhart Tolle and I recommend the following titles and that read them in the following sequence. They can be purchased online via Amazon: - The Power of Now - Practising the Power of Now - Stillness Speaks - A New Heaven and A New Earth Thich Nhaht Hanh has written countless books on the practise of mindfulness. Michael Brown is very good on the practical therapeutic approach to practising and he explains some powerful and holistic approaches. This will benefit anyone with "a lot of baggage" or unresolved childhood issues. - The Presence Process (3) Establish a daily meditation practise Sit still on a chair or cushion and just sit there for 15 minutes. No music, no Ipod or mobile phone or any other distractions - just sit there - and breathe in and out naturally and just focus on your breath. Just watch your thoughts with no internal analysis or narrative - just witness, watch and observe, like watching clouds blow across the sky. Do this everyday at least once and ideally twice. (4) Identify and use a range of mindfulness practises that you can use throughout the day in a variety of everyday domestic and business situations If you go to this link you will find a whole range of mindfulness exercises and practises. In fact with a little bit of effort, you can turn almost routine activity into a mindfulness practise, for example driving to work – turn the radio or music off and just focus on being totally present in your driving. If thoughts arise – just watch them – don’t engage with them. You can do the same as you wash dishes, clean your teeth, and eat your food or any routine activity. If you go this link you can download a brief document that I have prepared: 6 practices based on the work of Eckhart Tolle. Next Article: Big Mind Experiences
Return to: How To Practise Mindfulness
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