Home practice - week 2

• Mindfulness of breathing once a day + body scan once a day - click here to download a 10mins guided mindfulness of breathing practice.

  It is helpful to remain curious about your posture when meditating. While you can practice the mindfulness of breathing lying down, you might also like to sit on a chair or stand up (especially if you are in pain, or you are tired and you suspect you might doze off).

  It is also another opportunity for being mindful, in this case with your movements, as you gently move into position.
  Here is some video guidance on how to meditate while sitting on a chair or while standing up.

• This week’s Mindfulness in Action practice is to do a few things more slowly than usual.

  • For instance, when you have a cup of tea or coffee, take some time to drink it. Bring the cup slowly up to your lips, sip it slowly as if you had all the time in the world. Taste it. Enjoy it.

  • If you're walking somewhere, leave in plenty of time so that your walk doesn't become yet another thing you have to do quickly. Walk slowly, looking around you, noticing things. If you drive a car, try driving more slowly than usual.

  • Do a job slowly - give yourself time to do it meditatively, without rush, without haste. 

  • Read a book slowly giving yourself time to savor the words, the ideas. You might even give yourself time to pause and reflect on what the author has written.

  You may notice that it's difficult to do something more slowly than usual. Once we've become used to doing something quickly it's hard to do it at a slower pace. Notice the urge to speed up, get it done and wrapped up, the sense of future orientation, the mind's urge to move on to the next thing, rather than being here in the moment.

Enjoy your practice!

Being (perceptual) and doing (conceptual) modes of mind

We are trying to work towards less wandering thoughts and more body awareness with our mindfulness practice.

From DOing/conceptual (carried away by our wandering thoughts) to BEing/perceptual mode of mind (experiencing the world through our senses).

This helps us come from a different place from which to respond to our experience, rather than react to it.

Being mode of mind allows us to be with our primary experience without adding secondary suffering.

It allows us to return to our senses, and our body.

If you have any questions or comments about this week's key concept, or you want to share your experience, you can post it in the FB group.

(the diagram on the left is adapted from Prof. J. Mark G. Williams in Mindfulness and Psychological Process)

• In The Little Mindfulness Workbook :

  • you can review the key concepts from our second live session by reading chapter 3 of the book.

  • you can download meditation 2 from the playlist that accompanies the workbook by clicking here.

  • you can download journal templates for mindfulness of breathing by clicking here.

• Try to notice this week when you are in being or in doing mode of mind.

• Reflect on your practice and learning: notice what your experience is, jot down some notes in a journal, or share some reflections in the FB group to help your learning.