Vipassana question/doubt

[Patrice]

Hi everyone,

I have been practicing vipassana meditation for 18 months now. I practice 1h once a day. I never been to a retreat or anything like that. I learned in books such as Mindfulness in plain English, The Art of Living and Beyond the Breath. For the first few months I mostly just concentrated on the touch of my breath right under my nose and later I moved to body scans from heat to toes and back. I just narrow my attention on a small portion of my body, notice what’s there and move on to the next spot. When I get distracted, I just notice what’s going on and return to my body scan. Over and over and over and over. Having no one to guide me or ask questions to, I came to wonder if I’m on the right track with this or if something is missing in my practice.

I would love some advice from more experienced meditators about this.

Regards,

Pat

[JonW]

Hi Pat,
Welcome to the forum.
Vipassana and mindfulness can seem identical on first glance but there are subtle and important differences. If you didn't want to commit to an 8-week mindfulness course, there are a couple of books I'd highly recommend.
Finding Peace In A Frantic World by Mark Williams and Danny Penman.
Full Catastrophe Living by Jon Kabat-Zinn.
I hope this is helpful in some way.
All good things,
Jon