In this sitting guided meditation practice, we go through the basic pedagogy for the cultivation of mindfulness. By first choosing a point of focus of our choosing as an anchor for our meditation practice. Then whenever we notice our mind wandering away losing focus of the anchor gently returning our attention to it no matter how many times this happens.
Christopher K. Germer in their book the mindful path to self-compassion says the following on our meditation practice:
You shouldn’t feel disheartened when you discover that your mind wanders incessantly. That’s the nature of the mind. It’s also the nature of the mind to eventually become aware of its wandering. Ironically, it’s in the very moment when you despair that you’re not mindful that you’ve become mindful. It’s not possible to do this practice perfectly, nor is it possible to fail. That is why it’s called a “practice.”
(Germer, 2009, p. 35)
And Steven A. Alper the author of mindfulness meditation and psychotherapy says the following about mind wandering during mindfulness practice:
Regardless of how many times your mind wanders, one hundred times or one thousand times, each time simply acknowledge where it went, without criticism or judgment, and gently bring the focus back to the breath sensations in the belly. The noticing that the mind has wandered and then coming back to the breath is as important and useful a part of the practice as being focused on the breath.
(Alper, 2016, p. 71)
During this practice, we also touch on the notion of right concentration.
So in this guided meditation practice, we will go through the stages of settling, grounding and resting. Than gently resting our focus on our chosen anchor with the intention for this practice being to notice when we lose awareness of our point of focus and gently bring back the point of focus into our awareness. Reminding ourselves that the act of noticing a wandering mind or that we are lost in compulsive thinking is within itself a mindful moment a moment of becoming aware of a momentary laps of awareness. A moment where we have a choice to either remain lost in thinking our to gentle become present and return back to resting on our anchor.
Mindful Mornings Resting On Our Anchor Guided Meditation
All material provided on this website are for general informational purposes only read our disclaimer.
References
Alper, S. A. (2016). Mindfulness meditation in psychotherapy: An integrated model for clinicians. Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Publications.
Germer, C. K. (2009). The mindful path to self-compassion: Freeing yourself from destructive thoughts and emotions. New York: Guilford Publications.