Join us for our online mindfulness group // Tues 31st March, 7-8pm AEDT // Guest facilitator: Smiling Mind

@DrZoidberg Counting is a really great idea - I am going to implement this next time. That sense of not letting go of your breath, really interesting. Wonder what is behind that? I sometimes become attached to my breath during a meditation, almost like I know I will take it for granted again as soon as the meditations done. Thanks @DrZoidberg 🙂 really appreciate your sharing.

@Windflowers That's great to hear, the shoulders and neck is apparently where we hold heaps of stress too. I notice my chest opens up, really nice feeling.

@SmilingMind, @Former-Member

I started feeling my body start to go ahhhhhhhhhhhh

but then the smell of the cup of coffee which was put in front of me

Thanks for sharing @Snowie, it can be so helpful to notice what relaxed feels like in our bodies can't it? When we become really aware of what relaxed feels like in the body (it's amazing how many people are completely unaware of what relaxed actually feels like!) we can tune into those sensations which allows us to relax even more.

Both the coffee and ahhhhh of the body sound equally delightful @Shaz51

Apologies to move along so quickly crew! Discussion point 3!
@SmilingMind @Shaz51 @Windflowers @Snowie @DrZoidberg and others

I know this has already been covered off a bit, but keen to hear further insight from those here, I know I struggled with this one..

How often had you felt your mind was wondering back and forth with life stressors from the meditation?

Thanks @Shaz51 so nice when we tune into our body relaxing and releasing! And smelling the coffee - another great way to be mindful! We can come into the present moment at any time by deliberately engaging our senses. And what better way than smelling coffee!

One of the most unhelpful misconceptions about meditation is that in order to meditate you need to stop thinking. When learning to meditate it’s really common for people to conclude that “my mind is too busy, I can’t do it, I’m no good at meditating!”

It’s actually not possible to stop thinking. Our minds are wired to wander – into the future to help us plan and back into the past to reflect and learn. This is an extraordinary human quality, being able to be somewhere in the past or future while our body is here in the present. But the downside is that if we spend too much time in the future or past, it reduces our awareness of our present moment, which makes it difficult to engage fully in our life and be resilient in the face of adversity.

It’s important to note that we’re striving to be present 100% of the time. That would be impossible and ultimately unhelpful. We need to be able to project into the future to plan and predict, and to reflect and learn from the past. We just want to reduce the amount of unhelpful wandering our mind does and be able to choose where we place our attention.

Meditation helps us change our relationship to our thoughts by observing them and learning to step back from them, rather than getting so caught up in them.

It can be helpful to think of meditation as a 3 step process. We choose an object to focus on (e.g. the breath as in tonight’s meditation or it could be something else such as your body or sounds you can hear).

Step 1: Focus on something (e.g. the breath)

Step 2: Lose focus and notice you’ve lost focus (this is part of meditating, you haven’t ‘stopped’ meditating!)

Step 3: Re-focus

Repeat! Over and over and over and over….

Most people assume that Step 1 is the most important step and that if they lose focus they have ‘stopped’ meditating. Each of these three steps is equally important and all are part of meditating. Losing focus, noticing you have lost focus, and re-focusing is what builds you mindfulness muscle. You can think of it like a bi-cep curl for your brain!