Level 10 - Respirar (Breathe/Meditate)
Posted: Thu Mar 11, 2021 6:42 pm
How Do You Meditate?
*Inspired by Julian's motion in IDT Clan the 10th of March, 2021*
I will briefly describe my practice - which has now been developed over many years and with the help of many meditation teachers in various disciplines.
Meditation has many meanings across many cultures. The basics are to focus one's mind for a period of time as a training method.
There are as many styles and types of meditations as there are flavors of ice cream! Normally, the purpose of meditation is the first way to distinguish all the types. And then you can play around with different ones, having many options in your "toolkit" to use as you see fit!
Examples include: mindfulness/concentration meditation, spiritual meditation, movement meditation, mantra meditation, transcendental meditation, progressive relaxation meditation, loving-kindness meditation, visualization meditation.
There are more of course, but they are advanced and require you to be very well-versed with concentration meditation.
Personally, I have experience with all these forms of meditation, and use mindfulness, progressive relaxation, loving-kindness meditation and visualization meditation daily!
Mindfulness/Concentration Meditation - Why Is It Like Going to the Gym But For Your Mind?
Level 10 Respirar for us means to sit quietly and concentrate on your breath. Why do we start there? Because it is both the easiest and the most-backed by scientific investigation to give real benefits. In as little as 11 cumulative hours (not at once, but added up over a lifetime), you can re-wire your brain with concentration meditation.
https://sharpbrains.com/blog/2012/11/14 ... gulation/
It truly is like sharpening the knife that is your mind!
The Two Keys to Make Your Meditation Practice a Success
1) Use i+1 Habits and Do It Early!
As Explorers, we know that our i+1 Habit System is the key to re-programming or re-wiring our brains. With meditation, it isn't any different. And of all the habits, meditation may be the hardest to get ourselves to do regularly. Personally, and in my experience as a teacher, I find that having meditation be one of the first, if not THE first, habit action you do is crucial to its success.
2) Be Careful with Goals with Meditation.
Aside from goals that simply increase the amount of time you spend meditating, be careful trying to have too many other goals related to meditation. Especially as you advance, meditation starts to FEEL REALLY GOOD and that can be detrimental to your practice. Because the more you meditate to seek out only those good feelings, the less effective meditation becomes.
Sit just to sit, try not to have any aspirations with your practice. It's like trying to grasp running water with your hands. The subconscious doesn't like to be bossed around.
Mindfulness/Concentration Meditation 101 - How To Do It - Four Aspects
All positions have four aspects in common:
1) Straight Back
Without a straight back, you can't hope to breathe deeply and correctly. Laying, sitting, or standing, doesn't matter, keep the back straight!
It is only natural that this be difficult - especially at first. If you find yourself slouching, just straigthen the back and continue.
2) Belly breathing (Bear Breath!)
Once your back is straight and your airways are opened, you can begin to breath deeply. Inflating your belly as you breath in, deflating it as you breath out.
3) Objects of Focus
1) Your Breath
On each cycle of inhalation - exhalation, you will COUNT upwards in your head. Try to hold the count for one full breath in and one full breath out.
So: 1........ (breathing in), 1....... (breathing out), then
2........ (breathing in), 2....... (breathing out)...
2) Your Physical Object
The most common is the point of your nose. Other points of focus are the belly or between the eyes (known to some spiritual practicioners as the "third eye").
So if, like me, you choose the point of your nose, on each inhalation focus on the sensation you feel as the breath enters your tip of your nostrils, and again, on each exhalation, how the breath feels on the tip of your nostrils leaving your nose.
3) Return to Breath
You will inevitably lose your focus and your mind will start to wander. Do not worry! This is normal! Meditation is like gardening weeds. We don't get mad because there are many weeds, we just get to work on clearing them!
Humans evolved to worry about the future and to have extremely active minds. Jumping from one thought to the next - it even has its own name: the monkey mind!
Simply go back to your breath and point of focus in the body and resume the count from where you last remember it.
If that proves difficult, you can do what I do: visualize yourself letting go of the thought.
-You can visualize yourself wiping a whiteboard/chalkboard.
-You can visualize yourself letting go of a balloon as if letting go of the thought.
-You can visualize yourself sinking through the floor leaving your pesky thought behind.
Whatever you choose, just don't worry, and return to your breath. It is this act of returning to your breath that strengthens the muscle of concentration in your brain. So instead of being upset over it, take pride in your brain workout! Nothing that is worthwhile ever came easy!
Mindfulness/Concentration Meditation 101 - How To Do It - Step By Step
0) Find a comfortable place to lay, sit, or stand. Each position has its own advantages/disadvantages and each has its own form to follow. I find laying down too relaxing (I fall asleep!) and standing too difficult. Sitting is - by far - the most common way to meditate, and so I will describe my sitting practice.
*Eyes can be open or closed, although closed is maybe more common. Eye open meditation is done with eyes halfway-open, staring at a point on the floor several feet away and 45 degrees out*
Step 1) Find a cushion to sit on to elevate your hips and a rug or blanket for your legs!
Once seated on a cushion, angle the cushion and lift your hips up to make yourself comfortable. This will make the next step, achieving a straight back and relaxed shoulders, much easier. The rug or blanket is used under the cushion so your legs and knees don't make direct contact on the floor (much more comfortable that way).
Step 1.5) Initial Warm Up
If need be, shake out your legs, move around a bit, rotate those ankles, even stretch if needed. Anything to get the blood flowing a bit. I often don't do this but also have more than a decade meditating. If I were to meditate for an especially long period, I would likely start with that and split up my meditation with mini breaks to get the blood flowing. In fact, when I used to do sesshin which is over 6 hours of meditation we would do walking meditation every 45 minutes or so for a bit.
Step 2) Back Straight, Shoulders Up-Back-Down
Self-explanatory. Pretend there is a stick coming from your spine and reaching to connect to the crown of the head. Keep that stick straight and pointing directly up to the ceiling.
Relax the shoulders by bringing them 1) UP then 2) BACK then 3) DOWN
Step 4) Leg Positions
There are many leg positions to choose from. Once upon a time, I was convinced the "full lotus" was the only one worth doing but now don't even do "half lotus" but rather a very simple style, what is called Burmese.
Burmese: Bring the heel of one foot to touch the inside of the thigh of the other leg. Your other foot should gently lie in front.
Step 4) Hand Positions
I like to make a circle with my hands - thumbs touching gently on top and fingers touching gently on bottom - and let it rest by my belly button.
Another common position is to rest the backs of your hands on each leg, near the knee.
Or, you could place a small cushion/blanket on your lap and place your hands directly on top. Whatever works!
You can now allow your hands to rest on the inside of your lap or atop each thigh; it’s down to you. Try placing a small cushion on your lap, if you find that comfortable, and then placing your hands on top of that.
Step 3) Head, Jaw, and Tongue Positions
*The head should be angled slightly downwards.
*The jaw should be relaxed
*The tongue should be against the roof of the mouth (this ensures you don't produce much saliva and thus don't have to swallow much during the meditation)
If you were to drop something from your mouth, it should fall directly into your hands.
Other Tips
VOW
-At the beginning of each meditation, I start with a vow. And I really think this has helped my practice quite a lot.
I say:
-Feet Falling Asleep? Don't worry about it!
-Guided Meditations? Can Be A Useful Crutch At First
*Inspired by Julian's motion in IDT Clan the 10th of March, 2021*
I will briefly describe my practice - which has now been developed over many years and with the help of many meditation teachers in various disciplines.
Meditation has many meanings across many cultures. The basics are to focus one's mind for a period of time as a training method.
There are as many styles and types of meditations as there are flavors of ice cream! Normally, the purpose of meditation is the first way to distinguish all the types. And then you can play around with different ones, having many options in your "toolkit" to use as you see fit!
Examples include: mindfulness/concentration meditation, spiritual meditation, movement meditation, mantra meditation, transcendental meditation, progressive relaxation meditation, loving-kindness meditation, visualization meditation.
There are more of course, but they are advanced and require you to be very well-versed with concentration meditation.
Personally, I have experience with all these forms of meditation, and use mindfulness, progressive relaxation, loving-kindness meditation and visualization meditation daily!
Mindfulness/Concentration Meditation - Why Is It Like Going to the Gym But For Your Mind?
Level 10 Respirar for us means to sit quietly and concentrate on your breath. Why do we start there? Because it is both the easiest and the most-backed by scientific investigation to give real benefits. In as little as 11 cumulative hours (not at once, but added up over a lifetime), you can re-wire your brain with concentration meditation.
https://sharpbrains.com/blog/2012/11/14 ... gulation/
It truly is like sharpening the knife that is your mind!
The Two Keys to Make Your Meditation Practice a Success
1) Use i+1 Habits and Do It Early!
As Explorers, we know that our i+1 Habit System is the key to re-programming or re-wiring our brains. With meditation, it isn't any different. And of all the habits, meditation may be the hardest to get ourselves to do regularly. Personally, and in my experience as a teacher, I find that having meditation be one of the first, if not THE first, habit action you do is crucial to its success.
2) Be Careful with Goals with Meditation.
Aside from goals that simply increase the amount of time you spend meditating, be careful trying to have too many other goals related to meditation. Especially as you advance, meditation starts to FEEL REALLY GOOD and that can be detrimental to your practice. Because the more you meditate to seek out only those good feelings, the less effective meditation becomes.
Sit just to sit, try not to have any aspirations with your practice. It's like trying to grasp running water with your hands. The subconscious doesn't like to be bossed around.
Mindfulness/Concentration Meditation 101 - How To Do It - Four Aspects
All positions have four aspects in common:
- straight back,
belly breathing (Bear Breath!),
physical objects of focus,
and the return to your breath
1) Straight Back
Without a straight back, you can't hope to breathe deeply and correctly. Laying, sitting, or standing, doesn't matter, keep the back straight!
It is only natural that this be difficult - especially at first. If you find yourself slouching, just straigthen the back and continue.
2) Belly breathing (Bear Breath!)
Once your back is straight and your airways are opened, you can begin to breath deeply. Inflating your belly as you breath in, deflating it as you breath out.
3) Objects of Focus
1) Your Breath
On each cycle of inhalation - exhalation, you will COUNT upwards in your head. Try to hold the count for one full breath in and one full breath out.
So: 1........ (breathing in), 1....... (breathing out), then
2........ (breathing in), 2....... (breathing out)...
2) Your Physical Object
The most common is the point of your nose. Other points of focus are the belly or between the eyes (known to some spiritual practicioners as the "third eye").
So if, like me, you choose the point of your nose, on each inhalation focus on the sensation you feel as the breath enters your tip of your nostrils, and again, on each exhalation, how the breath feels on the tip of your nostrils leaving your nose.
3) Return to Breath
You will inevitably lose your focus and your mind will start to wander. Do not worry! This is normal! Meditation is like gardening weeds. We don't get mad because there are many weeds, we just get to work on clearing them!
Humans evolved to worry about the future and to have extremely active minds. Jumping from one thought to the next - it even has its own name: the monkey mind!
So when you notice you have lost focus...The idea of the monkey mind comes from Buddhism. The term has been adopted by yogis to describe a mind that jumps from thought to thought as a monkey jumps from tree to tree. The monkey mind cannot exist in the present moment, but rather is constantly distracted by the thoughts that pass through.
Simply go back to your breath and point of focus in the body and resume the count from where you last remember it.
If that proves difficult, you can do what I do: visualize yourself letting go of the thought.
-You can visualize yourself wiping a whiteboard/chalkboard.
-You can visualize yourself letting go of a balloon as if letting go of the thought.
-You can visualize yourself sinking through the floor leaving your pesky thought behind.
Whatever you choose, just don't worry, and return to your breath. It is this act of returning to your breath that strengthens the muscle of concentration in your brain. So instead of being upset over it, take pride in your brain workout! Nothing that is worthwhile ever came easy!
Mindfulness/Concentration Meditation 101 - How To Do It - Step By Step
0) Find a comfortable place to lay, sit, or stand. Each position has its own advantages/disadvantages and each has its own form to follow. I find laying down too relaxing (I fall asleep!) and standing too difficult. Sitting is - by far - the most common way to meditate, and so I will describe my sitting practice.
*Eyes can be open or closed, although closed is maybe more common. Eye open meditation is done with eyes halfway-open, staring at a point on the floor several feet away and 45 degrees out*
Step 1) Find a cushion to sit on to elevate your hips and a rug or blanket for your legs!
Once seated on a cushion, angle the cushion and lift your hips up to make yourself comfortable. This will make the next step, achieving a straight back and relaxed shoulders, much easier. The rug or blanket is used under the cushion so your legs and knees don't make direct contact on the floor (much more comfortable that way).
- 475d82b4a416b4fcb2a16551616aa2da.png (50.94 KiB) Viewed 15 times
- meditation-posture-2.png (161.81 KiB) Viewed 15 times
If need be, shake out your legs, move around a bit, rotate those ankles, even stretch if needed. Anything to get the blood flowing a bit. I often don't do this but also have more than a decade meditating. If I were to meditate for an especially long period, I would likely start with that and split up my meditation with mini breaks to get the blood flowing. In fact, when I used to do sesshin which is over 6 hours of meditation we would do walking meditation every 45 minutes or so for a bit.
Step 2) Back Straight, Shoulders Up-Back-Down
Self-explanatory. Pretend there is a stick coming from your spine and reaching to connect to the crown of the head. Keep that stick straight and pointing directly up to the ceiling.
Relax the shoulders by bringing them 1) UP then 2) BACK then 3) DOWN
Step 4) Leg Positions
There are many leg positions to choose from. Once upon a time, I was convinced the "full lotus" was the only one worth doing but now don't even do "half lotus" but rather a very simple style, what is called Burmese.
- meditation-poses.gif (47.28 KiB) Viewed 15 times
Step 4) Hand Positions
I like to make a circle with my hands - thumbs touching gently on top and fingers touching gently on bottom - and let it rest by my belly button.
Another common position is to rest the backs of your hands on each leg, near the knee.
Or, you could place a small cushion/blanket on your lap and place your hands directly on top. Whatever works!
You can now allow your hands to rest on the inside of your lap or atop each thigh; it’s down to you. Try placing a small cushion on your lap, if you find that comfortable, and then placing your hands on top of that.
- Captura de pantalla 2021-03-11 a la(s) 6.37.33 p. m..png (80.57 KiB) Viewed 15 times
- Captura de pantalla 2021-03-11 a la(s) 6.37.41 p. m..png (49.36 KiB) Viewed 15 times
*The head should be angled slightly downwards.
*The jaw should be relaxed
*The tongue should be against the roof of the mouth (this ensures you don't produce much saliva and thus don't have to swallow much during the meditation)
If you were to drop something from your mouth, it should fall directly into your hands.
Other Tips
VOW
-At the beginning of each meditation, I start with a vow. And I really think this has helped my practice quite a lot.
I say:
"I VOW to meditate for 110 breaths
Focusing on the sensations in my Nose
In order to improve my concentration
For the benefit of myself and all sentient beings!"
-Feet Falling Asleep? Don't worry about it!
-Guided Meditations? Can Be A Useful Crutch At First