See below for a streaming audio version of a guided mindfulness of breath awareness practice. This is also available here for download.

This is the initial practice to given to beginning students of mindfulness meditation to begin to build concentration, presence and stabilize the mind. For many this is a lifelong practice.

Enjoy!

In the swirl of stimuli and the 150 mph culture that we live in we often lose track of our body.  It takes both effort and intention to be in the present and one of the easiest ways to access this is through our physical body.  I like to check in with myself several times a day and ask myself this question:

Where are my feet?

I then feel deeply into my feet, feeling the sensations and or numbness that is there, hot/cold, tingly, etc.  Just noticing whatever is going on there.  What are they in contact with?  The floor? Am I sitting cross legged? What is that like?  You may find that it is difficult to be in your feet for more than a few seconds…just notice this and return to the feet. Feeling our body and making a relationship with it is one of the most profound types of mindfulness practice. I find that even doing this exercise for a few seconds increases my sense of presence, mindfulness, and increases grounding and relaxation.

This is an easy way to integrate some mindfulnes practice into your everyday life and give your mind and body a brief respite from the assault of stimulation.

Be well,

David

In our technological world there are some everyday opportunities to wake up. I am often on the computer or answering the phone to reply to or communicate with clients and colleagues and I try to use this time as an opportunity to wake up and practice some mindfulness.

I will set the intention to take 1-3 intentional breaths, just sensing and the breathing and feeling the body before answering the phone or checking the email. I hear the ring, I take a moment to center myself and breath and after I have completed my 1-3 breaths I answer (same thing works for email, after we hear the alert go off.) Often, this creates a more present and engaged communication as well, as i have taken some time to come into the present.

If you are anything like me, you receive multitudes of emails and phone calls, and this will give you plenty of time to practice coming back and touching your own experience before engaging in contact with another. Often we will forget to take our mindful breaths, and this is ok too…this is part of the practice. As we remember we come back and do the practice before each phone ring and email ping. Over and over again coming back to ourselves, our experience and from this more centered place reaching out to engage people and our world.

Waking up bit, by bit, patiently and gently. I find this makes for a kinder and gentler experience in our workday, as there is often so much aggression and rushing in our high speed technological society. Give it try.

Please enjoy the following streaming audio of a guided mindfulness and forgiveness exercise. This is part 2 of the practice I introduced a few days ago.

This practice will help you begin to unwind the chronic tension in the mind and body around unfinished business with a situation or memory in which you feel you have hurt someone else.

Please pick something of fairly low emotional intensity to work with at first (this is explained in more detail in the recording.) We want this to be a gentle compassionate process. This exercise has been a fruitful one for my clients and I hope it is helpful to you.

Please use your discretion when using any of the guided meditations/exercises I present here. If you ever feel overwhelmed or uncomfortable discontinue the exercise. The most effective way of working with this would be with the help or support of a qualified therapist. Keep in mind that forgiveness is a progressive process and you may not feel you can completely open to or arouse and kind of heartfelt quality of forgiveness during the exercise. Approach the person, situation, or memory with gentleness and take your time. Bit by bit, moment by moment, practice by practice we can learn to let go of our pain, resentment, rage, sadness, and other types of suffering. Regular practice is required to feel the full benefits of the exercise.

Therapists and healers please feel free to link this or distribute to your clients.

Find a quiet place where you will not be disturbed for the next 20 minutes or so and follow along with the audio.

This is also available streaming from my website, downloadable as an mp3, or you can subscribe to this as a podcast/feed from this page.

Please enjoy the following streaming audio of a guided mindfulness and forgiveness exercise. This practice will help you begin to unwind the chronic tension in the mind and body around unfinished business with a person you feel has hurt you. Please pick something of fairly low emotional intensity to work with at first (this is explained in more detail in the recording.) We want this to be a gentle compassionate process. This exercise has been a fruitful one for my clients and I hope it is helpful to you.

Please use your discretion when using any of the guided meditations/exercises I present here. If you ever feel overwhelmed or uncomfortable discontinue the exercise. The most effective way of working with this would be with the help or support of a qualified therapist. Keep in mind that forgiveness is a progressive process and you may not feel you can completely open to or arouse and kind of heartfelt quality of forgiveness during the exercise. Approach the person, situation, or memory with gentleness and take your time. Bit by bit, moment by moment, practice by practice we can learn to let go of our pain, resentment, rage, sadness, and other types of suffering. Regular practice is required to feel the full benefits of the exercise.

Therapists and healers please feel free to link this or distribute to your clients.

Find a quiet place where you will not be disturbed for the next 20 minutes or so and follow along with the audio.

This is also available streaming from my website, downloadable as an mp3, or you can subscribe to this as a podcast/feed from this page.

Often, there are interruptions to our practice, or at least our formal practice.

Interruption, does not mean we have to throw away the whole practice, or castigate ourselves. It is an unhelpful habit to think that ‘I am a failure’, and to somehow feel negatively towards ourselves because our formal practice has fallen away. Of course if this thought comes up, we can choose to let it go, rather than indulge it and show some self-compassion. We can pick up again at any time, whether this means practice of mindfulness meditation on the cushion/chair, or ‘practice in life.’

At any moment we can pick up again our chosen practice and give it our wholehearted effort, even if it has been 3 days, a week, a month or 10 years since we last practiced. In the Buddhist tradition there is a concept of Merit. Merit is accumulated as we practice and does not diminish over time. Our ability to sit with ourselves and all of our experiences and the spiritual strength we have developed will still be there when we come back to our old or new friend, mindfulness meditation.

Fresh start is a particular and very useful technique taught to me by one of my teachers from the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. When we sit and things become chaotic, our thoughts are wild and out of control, our body hurts, we feel we are unable to attend to our breath for even a moment, we can just stop everything. As she would say ‘drop the whole project.’ Change your posture, relax, unfurl the legs, open the eyes look outward and just be. When we feel ready we can resume without any guilt, self-criticism and judgement. Using this technique is like hitting the reset button. We start all over again and only what is happening in the present is real, and that is what we choose to relate to.

Fresh start is a great perspective for life. At any moment we can just drop the whole project, letting go of fear, hatred, bored, excitement, worry, grief, guilty, anxiety, or any other experience. We don’t need to cling so tight. Just open the eyes and the senses, take in the outer world, your present experience and start again and again. Each moment arises and passes away.

Taking just a moment of our day to stop and feel can be a wonderful practice. There is a sense of coming home, of groundedness and giving ourselves a momentary respite of spacious silence. To do this find a place where you won’t be disturbed …the bathroom will do if you are in public or at work. Take three or four deep breaths feeling the sensations of your breath in the body. Slowly scan through the body from the feet to the crown of the head. Take another few breaths, open your eyes, and continue with your day. I like to do this when things seem to be taking on a chaotic energy of their own in my life and it is often just what I need to slow down just a little bit, release a bit of stress/tension, and have a more balanced perspective.

Sometimes mindfulness meditation feels pleasurable, we enter into deep states of stillness or we encounter body sensations of peace and a sense of groundedness. Other times it feels very difficult, encountering anxiety, restlessness, sadness, frustration, anger/rage, or any other type of intense sensory experience that can be accompanied by compelling and painful thoughts. At these times we are essentially, as one of my teachers puts it, ‘punching the time card.’ We are doing our time on the cushion and trying the best we can stay with our object of meditation whether that might be the breath, mantra, body sensations, etc. It is important not to be too hard on yourself and to just do the practice. We may feel we will never have a ‘good meditation’ again. Usually this means a quiet or peaceful state. In my opinion the ‘good’ meditation is the one we do. The only ‘bad’ meditation is the one we don’t do. So it is important to persist here and attempt to stay with the object of the meditation and sit or practice (if you are doing an alternative practice) for the time we have committed to. Over time and with practice this difficulty will arise and pass away and we will be more familiar with our own experience. We may feel that nothing is happening as we practice and find ourselves swept up in thought or emotion/sensation. There is a very subtle process at work here that will allow us to become more concentrated and centered as we simply allow ourselves to sit engage with our experience with an unconditional attitude of acceptance. Don’t just take my word for it, check this out and ‘do your time’ on the cushion or with whatever practice you have chosen. Whether it is for 5, 10, 20, 45 minutes – stay with a regular practice over time and see what you notice….

For those of you who are local I will be offering an introductory class on Mindfulness Meditation. This class will meet on Mondays for 6 weeks starting 4/28/08 from 5:30pm-6:45pm in Boulder, CO. This class will focus on developing core mindfulness skills, cultivating relaxation and stress relief, and be a great jumping off place for creating a home practice. For more information, see below. You may register by emailing me at David_Robbins@comcast.net or calling me at 303.225.2700. More info is also available on my website here.

Be Well,

David

Mindfulness Meditation for Relaxation and Stress Relief

Instructor: David Robbins, MA

Location: 2760 29th St., Suite 2C, Boulder, CO 80301

Ph: 303-225-2700
Email: david_robbins@comcast.net
Website: www.davidrobbins.org

Cost: $60 per person ($10/class)

Time: Mondays (6 weeks)
April 28 – June 9
5:30-6:45pm

Please contact David Robbins to register for the class (see contact info above.)

Course Description: The goal of this class is to teach basic skills to promote a stronger connection to one’s self and one’s present experience through guided mindfulness meditations centered on body, breath and the linking of the two. These mindfulness practices will include body scan, mindful breathing, Lovingkindness, and sitting mindfulness practice. Students will learn simple and powerful techniques, in a safe environment, that they can incorporate into a personal mindfulness meditation practice. Mindfulness meditation promotes relaxation and stress reduction, a better relationship with one’s body, increased concentration and attention, better memory, reduction of anxiety, and an overall sense of well-being.

Mindfulness meditation (or Vipassana) is originally derived from the Theravada lineage of Buddhism. It can be learned and utilized as a beneficial practice by followers of any (or no) religion. The practice will be offered to students as a secular practice. This is a beginning meditation class, no previous experience is necessary for this class.

Mindfulness Meditation: Paying attention to one’s experience, in the present moment, with a gentle, unconditional attitude of acceptance.

• Attention – focusing on our experience in the present moment
• Awareness – noticing where your attention is
• Attitude – gentleness, patience, acceptance

We will learn how to engage with our present moment experience through progressively learning mindfulness practices that include: sitting meditation – breath focus, body focus, body scan/awareness, Lovingkindness (Metta) practice We will spend most of the class actively engaged in learning and practicing various methods of mindfulness meditation with a period of discussion at the end of class for questions and reflection.

*Please bring a blanket or yoga mat to the class. Chairs will be provided. If you wish to sit on the floor please bring your own meditation cushion/bench, etc.

At its core Mindfulness practice is really about deep engagement. Deep listening to ourselves internally, and externally to our environment. Quieting the body-mind so that we can be completely receptive to what is, rather than manipulating, misperceiving, adding to, or taking away from our present experience. I emphasize contact with the body often in these posts. Experiencing through the body the phenomena of our experience. Our body is what contacts the world and feels. Our mind interprets these experiences and organizes them; filtering them through our concepts and perceptual constructs that have come out of past experiences. If we can move away from our thoughts and actually have a direct experience of what is occurring now a wonderful thing can happen….we are completely present and it is deeply satisfying. It is fresh and real and now.

Often when we release our hold on thoughts, or trying to figure things out and concentrate on our direct experience through the body real wisdom can arise in the mind. Instead of ruminating on an experience genuine insight begins to develop and this often comes as fully formed ideas, or concepts. We know they are true because of a grounded feeling in the body that comes as they arise in the mind. In these times when wisdom and insight arise the body-mind is unified and working as one holistic system.

We can practice deep listening by concentrating on a specific area of the body, that feels like a safe place to inhabit. For some of us with trauma there are specific areas of the body that do not feel ok to be in. Choose a space that feels ok. The hands and the feet are my favorite body spaces to use.

Next, choose a simple activity that doesn’t require a ton of brainpower, such as sweeping the floor, or eating, or knitting, walking, etc. Set your intention to completely soak into the direct experience of that activity through your chosen body part. Listen deeply with the body to that experience. Feel the subtle movements and sensations that occur in your hands/feet/legs etc, whatever body space you have chosen, as you move and engage with that activity. If you feel yourself drawn into thought, fantasy, interpretation, analysis, etc…gently release that and come back to your chosen body space with your full awareness.

We want about 80% of our awareness in our chosen body space and 20% staying in contact with the whole body to facilitate movement and safety while engaging in our activity. Try to devote 10 or 20 minutes to this exercise. Practice this often and notice your experience. There can be a deep satisfaction and wisdom that develops out of this fully engaged embodiment.