What is Mindful Meditation?

What is Mindful Meditation?

Most people don’t realize that they are already participating in mindful meditation during certain times of the day. Its focus is to teach you to be present.
When you are conscious of the present, you are in a relaxed state while being aware of your sensations, thoughts, feelings, and surroundings. It is important to have an attitude of non-resistance and acceptance.

Walking meditation can help you to achieve being present by teaching you how to break the pattern of obsessive thoughts and tension.
Being in the now teaches us to be aware, it also teaches us to focus our mind on the present. For most of us, the mind is controlling us.
Mindful meditation is active meditation where you focus your mind on something. In other words, during the task, your mind is totally present on the activity. Artists, musicians, athletes do this all the time; they are totally involved in what they are doing. The key is to be present – in the moment.
Methods of Staying Present

There are many forms of mindful meditation, such as walking meditation, and again it is important to keep your mind focused on what you are doing. You can simply walk for a while, letting the feeling of deep relaxation take over, or you can use one of the traditional methods.

Counting your footsteps or your breaths is a simple method keeping you in the here and now. You can count up to 10 or a 100 forwards or backwards.

Using a mantra is another method whereby you repeat a word or a phrase to focus your awareness. If you use this method, pick a phrase that means something to you such as 'love one another' or simply 'love' or 'peace'.

The simplest method to experience walking meditation is to focus on your body movements. Feel the weight of you heel as it hits the ground, the spring from your toes and the muscles in your leg propelling you forwards. Feel the movement of your arms and your head and all the feelings inside as you move along.

Increased Awareness

Since meditation helps you to increase your awareness, concentration and self-knowledge, use a method that is comfortable for you to help you keep your focus. If you find your mind wandering, bring it gently back to the task at hand by involving yourself more. In walking meditation, find a rhythm that suits you and stay with it.

If you are unable to walk, try a sitting meditation or start practicing while you are doing daily chores such as washing the dishes. Rather than multi-task, do one task at a time and focus your mind fully on the task at hand.

Engage all of your senses. Be aware of your thoughts as they come into your mind, observe them and then let them go. Do not force or suppress them. During this process, do not judge yourself. Only focus on the immediate task at hand.

An Activity You Love Think about an activity that you love doing. Perhaps it’s gardening, sewing, skiing, cooking or working with ceramics. It doesn’t matter, just do it. If you feel you don‘t have the time, make the time. As you are doing the activity, practice mindful meditation.
This is a good grounding for other types of meditation. Once you have learned this technique, you can move on to more intense forms of meditation such as insightful meditation. The purpose being, to realize the important truths of impermanence, suffering and no-self which ultimately leads to enlightenment and spiritual freedom - the basis of Zen Buddhism.
To concentrate on this type of meditation, it's easy to do when you do what you love. During the activity, go within, observe your thoughts and feel how you are feeling. When you are participating in an activity that you love, afterwards you feel rested, relaxed, at peace and refreshed. This is the same feeling that you have after other types of meditations.
You can practice this meditation during other types of mundane activities such as cutting the grass, eating, standing in line, waiting for someone and driving. You can also do this while listening to someone speak – make it active listening rather than thinking about what you are going to say in reply.
AS with all types of meditation, after practicing mindful meditation, you feel better, and you do not feel as stressed as you were before the meditation.
It is a good idea to start now since all meditations are known to lower your heart rate and reduce your blood pressure.
If you are not in the habit of being present, do it now with an activity that you love; your body will love you for doing it!

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