Explore your inner world
Explore your inner world
Find a peaceful, distraction-free location: Turn off your phone, television, and other electrical devices that might disturb or distract you during your practice. If you want to use background, choose something relaxing, repetitive, and neutral with no words, such as rain or ocean sounds, if you prefer music or sound in the background. Find a comfortable […]
Meditation 4 Basic Helpful Tips For Beginners Read More »
Contemplative practices are present in all contemplative traditions, and although there are differences when it comes to meditation, contemplative teachers within the varied traditions all point to the same thing. Within the Catholic tradition, one of these teachers is Saint Francis de Sales, a Doctor of the Universal Church who lived between 1567 and 1622.
Patience and Persistence: Two Pillars of Mindfulness Read More »
When teaching mindfulness meditation in a secular context, I often encounter situations where people struggle with the nuanced understanding of secularism. Frequently, I am asked whether individuals who are Christian, Muslim, Jewish or hold other beliefs can attend the sessions, as there is sometimes a misconception that these practices are exclusively Buddhist. Additionally, some participants
Is There a Place for God in Secular Mindfulness Meditation? Read More »
During meditation, practitioners are usually instructed to either sit with a lowered soft gaze or close their eyes. We discussed this in a previous article on “Meditation: Eyes Open or Eyes Closed” and how practising with eyes open might be difficult initially because of the tendency to get lost in visual distractors. Sprawson et al.
“And Now Close Your Eyes or Lower Your Gaze” Read More »
Centered and Wide Embed Eyes Closed or Eyes Open: Sharing From Personal Experience by Clayton Micallef Read on Substack
Eyes Closed or Eyes Open: Sharing From Personal Experience Read More »
Centered Embed Meditation: Eyes Open or Eyes Closed by Clayton Micallef Should you practice meditation with you eyes closed or your eyes open? Read on Substack
Meditation: Eyes Open or Eyes Closed Read More »
In answering the question if mindfulness practice can lead to an embodied wisdom, it is best to start with the foundation of why we practice meditation. Primarily we meditate to cultivate mindfulness which is conducive to us being more aware of what we experience. 3 dimensions of mindfulness Purser and Milillo (2014) have put forth the argument that mindfulness
Can Mindfulness Lead to an Embodied Wisdom? Read More »
To fully understand what is the difference between Samatha and Vipassana meditation. It is crucial to distinguish that meditation practices lay on a continuum. From those that use concentrating on a single object to steady the mind to reach a state of absorption called calm-abiding. To those who employ concentration and calm-abiding to look into
What Is The Difference Between Samatha And Vipassana Meditation Read More »
When it comes to teaching mindfulness the memories of kindness meditation practice is one of the introductory techniques we use to explore and cultivate kindness in our lives. This post will give a general overview of why we do the memories of kindness meditation, the stages we go through in the memories of kindness practice
Memories of Kindness Meditation Practice Read More »
We can all agree that pain is an unpleasant feeling. Because of this, researchers are on a constant search for pharmaceuticals or psychological behavioural intervention to help with the symptoms of pain. Meditation is one such psychological intervention, and meditation teachers have long time argued that meditation might help with the symptoms of pain by
Does Meditation Change How We Perceive Pain Read More »
While researching online, I came across research articles arguing how meditation can help in ending “the cycle of violence” and help achieve world peace through the cultivation of mindful awareness (Brantmeier, 2007; Tanabe, 2016). Although going through some social media posts on meditation, you might also get the perception of meditation being like “some kind
Ending The Cycle of Violence: Can Meditation Help World Peace? Read More »
Image credit to BD Hypno Plus Mindfulness is the first step the vehicle through which we become mindful. Mindfulness is like a light that shines out in the dark, allowing us to become mindfully aware of our thoughts and feelings. How these affect our behaviour towards ourselves, other people and our surroundings. Mindfulness and being
STOP – What does mindfulness and being mindful mean? Read More »
“A human mind is a wandering mind, and a wandering mind is an unhappy mind” (Killingworth & Gilbert, 2010, p. 932). This was the concluding statement of a study on mind wondering which found that we spend as much as 50% of our lives lost in thinking. This can have negative effects on our mental,
Finding a Suitable Anchor of Attention in Meditation Read More »
In the first and second article of this three-part series, we looked at what might be the cognitive processes at work in attentional and constructive meditation practices. We saw that attentional meditation practices help us cultivate a degree of emotional regulation. With constructive meditation practices using the cultivated emotional regulation to build onto and change
The nurturing of virtuous qualities has been a common endeavour of various philosophical and contemplative traditions (Eifring, 2015; Gethin, 1998). Constructive meditation practices were one of the methods developed and used by these traditions to foster the cultivation of a virtuous ethic. As with attentional meditation practices, constructive practices, need meta-awareness but they also serve
Constructive Meditation practices: The Fascinating cognitive processes at work (Part 2) Read More »
Meditation and mindfulness practices have been a subject of research for both cognitive and neuroscientists. In recent years research in such area has gained traction towards trying to understand the possible cognitive processes involved in meditation practices. This to attempt to classify them into a basic taxonomy according to the cognitive processes in common between
Meditation attentional practices: The Fascinating cognitive processes at work (Part 1) Read More »
Why is “The Middle Way” important in meditation? In a recent blog post, we looked at the possibility that mindfulness practice follows an inverted U-shaped curve. This means that there could be an “optimal” point of meditation practice after which, the resulting mindfulness-related processes can turn “sour”. This could actually be seen as a reflection
Is The Middle Way Important In Meditation? Read More »
Can mindfulness be too much of a good thing? As in recent years, we have seen a proliferation of mindfulness products and teachers, in what was called “the mindful movement”. In this blog post we explore the question, can mindfulness be too much of a good thing? The too-much-of-a-good-thing effect is when the practice of
Can Mindfulness be Too Much of a Good Thing? Read More »
Recently I was asked by someone why do you practice mindfulness? Personally, I do not subscribe to the notion that I practice mindfulness. In essence, formally I practice meditation which is conducive to the cultivation of mindfulness. As in essence within the formal practice of meditation mindfulness is one of the faucets cultivated through such
Why Do You Practice Mindfulness? Read More »
Most of the research conducted on contemplative practices to date focuses on its beneficial aspects and rarely on unpleasant meditation related experiences (Goyal, et al., 2014; Sparby, 2017). In fact, an analysis of the literature reveals that only a few studies have ever explored if meditation practitioners ever have unpleasant experiences during their meditation practice
Unpleasant Meditation Related Experiences Read More »
Do we need to engage in an active cultivation of awareness as a farmer cultivates a field? Or more specifically what is one of the motivations behind why I practice meditation? Today I will be looking at these questions from the standpoint of meditation being a tool for the cultivation of awareness. What is awareness
The Active Cultivation of Awareness Read More »
Have you ever asked yourself? What is Meditation? As a practitioner, I have been asked this question many times by persons interested in starting meditation. I like to bounce such a question back to the person asking. But what do you think meditation is? Usually, the following one of two replies is most likely. Either
What is Meditation? The Polar Bear Experiment Read More »
Sometimes during meditation, our thoughts and concentration seem to be at odds. At times no matter how hard we try to concentrate on the breath we still get plagued by streams of thought. Not only but the harder we try to concentrate the more the thoughts increased. Sometimes to the extent that meditation ends up
Meditation our Incessant Thoughts and Right Concentration Read More »