NITA SWEENEY
Touring the senses meditation In 5-Minute Mindfulness: Walking,* Douglas Baker offers another way of working with awareness that he calls “Touring the Senses.” In his “touring the senses meditation,” Baker slowly moves his attention from one sense to the next while he walks. The process isolates sensations coming in from
Free-Floating Awareness Meditation The next mode of awareness is “free-floating.” Returning to the camera analogy, in this type of focus, point the camera at the first thing that draws your attention. You see a beautiful flower. Focus on it, taking your time to thoroughly see it before clicking the shutter.
Wide Focus Meditation Widening Focus – When I first began to run, that “wonky ankle” would swell. It rarely hurt during the run, but it ached after. I checked with a doctor I trust to make sure I wasn’t injuring myself, then turned my attention during my post-run walks with
Scanning Other Senses In addition to the felt or “touch” sense, you can scan other senses: sight, smell, sound, or taste. If you have chosen the visual field as your object of meditation, scan your surroundings. Use direction: left to right or vice versa, and straight ahead. Slowly take in
Meditation: Scanning the Body The most common scan technique is the “body scan.” A body scan uses the felt sense of touch. Often a guided meditation, you move the attention from one part of the body to another, “scanning” the body with your attention. Going back to our camera analogy,
Scanning Meditation Scanning meditation is an advanced awareness technique. In Chapter Two of Make Every Move a Meditation, “How to Meditate While You Move,” I set out the fourth step in meditating while you move: “Place your awareness on the object of meditation.” I explained how to direct attention to
How to meditate on thought when your mental health is a challenge People with mental health challenges have extra wrinkles in the thinking process, but they can still meditate on thought. Mental health symptoms add an extra layer or filter that may lead to depressed, anxious, obsessive, recurring, or leaden
More “thoughts” about meditating on thought: planning, remembering, and worry When I suggested staying in the moment to a good friend who is quite the planner, a self-proclaimed control freak, she confided that she adores making schedules and project templates and imagining setting things in motion. “That’s lovely,” I told her.
How to meditate on thought Just how do you meditate on thought? Even though our goal in meditation is to be in the present moment and accept it exactly as it is without judgment, the present moment may include busy, chatty, annoying thoughts we can’t stop. Rather than try to
Two Types of Thoughts Before we explore techniques for using thoughts as the object of meditation, let’s talk about the two types of thoughts: auditory and visual. Auditory thoughts are words or sentences you “hear” in your mind. Visual thoughts include images you “see” in your mind. Words are like
