Being Mindful with a mindfulness meditation from Derek.

How to Do It?

Mindfulness meditation practice couldn’t be simpler: take a good seat, pay attention to the breath, and when your attention wanders, return. By following these simple steps, you can get to know yourself up close and personal. In my video above you can try a short mindfulness meditation, listen to the lovely sounds of the water, from River Nevis, beside Ben Nevis, Fort William where I live.

I remember as doing a mindfulness meditation, I was drawn to a leaf with a tear and I came up with this.

Tear drops from heaven.

Don't cry for me.

As I have no pain.

Don't cry for me.

As nature set me free.

Don't cry for me.

As my love for you hasn't changed.

Don't cry for me 

As I will capture your tears.

Don't cry for me. 

As I am crying for your loss.

Don't cry for me.

As today I will be there next to you!

Once you learn the basics the benefits are far reaching, in your work and play, you will feel closer connected to the divine. This poem came from my heart and after doing a session with someone who lost her husband and it had been on my mind all that day, when I relaxed doing the mindfulness I was drawn to this and I have posted it on Facebook a few time just at the right time, for some of my clients.

What is Mindfulness?

Lots of people live their life in a mindlessness state. A state where our attention is divided between many things. A state of not really being present in our own lives.

Have you ever eaten a bar of chocolate and suddenly realised that all you had left in the palm of your hand was an empty chocolate bar wrapper? or driven somewhere and you cant even remember the journey. Most of us have!

This is 'Mindlessness', a dreamlike state, where we're not quite there in the moment. In this modern world, we become so busy getting things done, that we fail to notice the beauty of life and how quickly it is passing us by. One of the reasons I was successful with in the Trade Union movement was, I trained myself to be aware in the present moment, also had some very good training from media experts, who trained us to be aware in the present as we never knew when a camera or mic would be put in front of us. I did notice how some of my fellow workers didn't really listen to what was being said they were being mindless instead of being mindful, this is when negative policy's or actions get passed because we let them by being mindless in that present moment. so its important to practice being mindful, if the life guard wasn't focused on what was going on in front of him, he wouldn't be able to save a life.

Mindfulness is the opposite of mindlessness.

Mindfulness to me means being in the present moment and being fully aware.

Mindfulness is taking control of our wandering attention and waking up from our dreamlike state. By having an awareness, moment by moment, of our thoughts, emotional and physical feelings as well as our environment, we are being mindful. Mindfulness is also being without judgement. Not judging our thoughts, feelings or our environment, just living with them. 

This does not mean we don't take action after becoming more aware, we can all sit in at meetings that are boring and we loose focus, we let our minds wander or we day dream, but say the meeting is important to you, we have to be mindful of whats being said and the actions of others in the room or we need to point out things that mean something to us, then in the present moment, so we can change others feelings or points of view, we don't just want to be like sheep do we?

Mindfulness and meditation has always been very important to me in all aspects of my life, you don't have to be an expert to practice it, I have sat in my car, on trains, riversides like in the video, its not to important the where but here are some pointers I got for you from the internet, as having a bad back myself its important how we sit.

How to Sit from - http://www.mindful.org/mindfulness-how-to-do-it/

Here’s a posture practice that can be used as the beginning stage of a period of meditation practice or simply as something to do for a minute, maybe to stabilise yourself and find a moment of relaxation before going back into the fray. If you have injuries or other physical difficulties, you can modify this to suit your situation.

1) Take your seat. Whatever you’re sitting on—a chair, a meditation cushion, a park bench—find a spot that gives you a stable, solid seat, not perching or hanging back.

2) Notice what your legs are doing. If on a cushion on the floor, cross your legs comfortably in front of you. (If you already do some kind of seated yoga posture, go ahead.) If on a chair, it’s good if the bottoms of your feet are touching the floor.

3) Straighten—but don’t stiffen— your upper body. The spine has natural curvature. Let it be there. Your head and shoulders can comfortably rest on top of your vertebrae.

4) Situate your upper arms parallel to your upper body. Then let your hands drop onto the tops of your legs. With your upper arms at your sides, your hands will land in the right spot. Too far forward will make you hunch. Too far back will make you stiff. You’re tuning the strings of your body—not too tight and not too loose.

5) Drop your chin a little and let your gaze fall gently downward. You may let your eyelids lower. If you feel the need, you may lower them completely, but it’s not necessary to close your eyes when meditating. You can simply let what appears before your eyes be there without focusing on it.

6) Be there for a few moments. Relax. Now get up and go about your day. And if the next thing on the agenda is doing some mindfulness practice by paying attention to your breath or the sensations in your body, you’ve started off on the right foot—and hands and arms and everything else.

7) Begin again. When your posture is established, feel your breath—or some say “follow” it—as it goes out and as it goes in. (Some versions of the practice put more emphasis on the out-breath, and for the in breath you simply leave a spacious pause.) Inevitably, your attention will leave the breath and wander to other places. When you get around to noticing this—in a few seconds, a minute, five minutes—return your attention to the breath. Don’t bother judging yourself or obsessing over the content of the thoughts. Come back. You go away, you come back.

That’s it. That’s the practice. It’s often been said that it’s very simple, but it’s not necessarily easy. The work is to just keep doing it. Results will accrue.

Keeping notes

I feel its important to write you experiences down in a journal or diary, I now use my iPhone notes if I am out and about so I don't forget some of my experiences or thoughts when I have been practising mindfulness.

Try not to have any expectations about any part of the meditation. Just let your experience be your experience. It is important to note any details as soon as possible following the meditation, as these will be hard to recall later. Every time you carry out the meditation, make a note of your experience

What were your perceptions?
How your experience felt?
Any physical sensations?
Any emotional feelings?
Any thoughts?
Anything else?

I have included some prompts that might be helpful when completing your diary or notes for the first time. These are not meant to persuade you, but simply to get you thinking about your experience in more detail.

Possible associated physical sensations:	Possible associated emotional reactions:
Itchy	Irritable
Light	Impatience
Heavy	Wanting to stop/continue
Pricky	Grief
Numb	Surprise
Relaxed	Anticipation
	Frustration
	Anger

Possible associated thoughts:

Past events, situations

Visions of the future

Judging the experience

Thinking about others

Wishing/hoping

Planning

Evaluating

Comparing

One of the things I took from my own Mindfulness learning was to keep a Rain Diary, try this yourself and do your own research and if you need help please get in touch, I use Mindfulness a lot when I life coach clients, before a mediumship reading etc or just before a big event.

Mindfulness RAIN Diary


R - Recognise
A - Allowing
I - Investigating
N - Natural awareness

R - RECOGNISE WHAT IS HAPPENING

You can awaken recognition simply by asking yourself: “What is happening inside me right now?”

Call on your natural curiosity as you focus inward. Try to let go of any preconceived ideas.

A - ALLOW LIFE TO BE JUST AS IT IS

Allowing means, “Letting be”, the thoughts, emotions, feelings, or sensations you discover.

You may feel a natural sense of aversion, wishing that unpleasant feelings would go away. However, with some practise, you will become more willing to be present, with, 'What is', and a different quality of attention will emerge.

Allowing is intrinsic to healing, and realising this can give rise to a conscious intention to “let be.”

Instead, listen in a kind, receptive way to your body and heart, bringing awareness to whatever thoughts, emotions, feelings, or sensations are arising, right here and now.

I - INVESTIGATE INNER EXPERIENCE WITH KINDNESS

Investigation means calling on your natural interest. It’s the desire to know truth and a more focused attention, to your present experience.

Simply pausing to ask, “What is happening inside me?”, might initiate recognition, but with investigation, you engage in a more active, pointed, line of enquiry. You might ask yourself:

“What most wants attention?”

“How am I experiencing this in my body?”

“What does this feeling want from me?”

We need to offer a gentle welcome to whatever surfaces.

N - NATURAL AWARENESS

The first three steps of RAIN require some intentional activity.

The ’N’ of RAIN, expresses the result; a liberating realisation of your Natural awareness.

There’s nothing to do for this last part of RAIN. Realisation arises spontaneously on its own. We simply rest in Natural awareness.
Questions for RAIN Practise Diary

1. What was the situation?

2. R – Recognising - What was happening inside me?

(body, mind and emotions)

3. A – Allow - How did I let what’s happening, 'Just be', as it is?

4. I – Investigate - What happened as I looked closer

(body, mind and emotions), with kindness?

5. N – Natural Awareness What happened next as you opened awareness?

Enjoy practising Mindfulness and if you need help feel free to contact me.
www.ahappymedium.co.uk or Book now!


Good reading in the Huffington Post

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/elisha-goldstein-phd/7-things-mindful-people-d_b_5413559.html