Everyday Mindfulness

I'm on the 6th week of my 8 week course. The more I meditate, the more active my mind seems to get during meditation. What I mean is when I just started I didn't seem to have as many thoughts, or follow as many thoughts as I do now. I'd like to know if this is normal, because the impression I got from the reading is that the mind is supposed to settle down more. Am I missing something here?

You may find that your mind is settling down more, however, you're simply more aware of the thought stream than when you first started.

The first I did a body scan, for example, I completely missed the part between the chest and the face, completely being lost in thought for about 5-10 minutes. I also remember that I was not present about every 10-15 seconds during other parts of the scan.

I've now been doing body scans for three weeks. Each one varies. Sometimes I am almost exclusively in the present, bringing myself just a couple of times every 5-10 minutes. Other times I am mostly present except for one or two large gaps of thinking and distraction. Sometimes I find myself still lost in thought constantly, but that's likely because I am noticing sooner when my mind has wandered, before it spiralled too far.

I currently do four body scans:

Mark Williams 15 minute body scan
JKZ 30-45 minute body scan
An unknown guide - 30 minutes
A Michael Sealey - detachment from overthinking body scan from YouTube that lasts about 40 mins (contains light ambient music)

I vary it so that I'm not too familiar with what comes next, and therefore find myself more easily going into an autopilot body scan. Now that I'm in week 4 of MBCT I am also incorporating mindful movement yoga into my practice, so that I don't do the body scan daily if I don't feel like it (truth is I do it daily still as my goto meditation).

i have noticed this as well. I think when I was was first doing it, my mind was more focussed because it was trying to learn a new skill so was less likely to wonder off, now i feel that perhaps my mind is becoming a little complacent, as not trying so hard to learn a new skill.

mind you since becoming aware of this I am trying to get the same focus back, going back to basics again as it were, the hope is the second time round I will be working through the complacency and so hopefully get better again. theres wlays awards and backwards steps whenever learning any new skill, so its all good I reckon.

I've been meditating for over 20 years. My mind is as much a wanderer as it ever was, because that's the nature of the mind. It's also more or less active dependent on what's going on in my life. If I need to make a big decision or if I've had an altercation with someone, or have a health concern, then my mind will be busier. If everything is running smoothly, my mind will tend to be less active.

I can focus my attention and stop my mind wandering if I need, or want to but for me, the real benefit of meditation and mindfulness has been in developing the ability to be okay with whatever my mind is up to.

Matt Y wrote:I can focus my attention and stop my mind wandering if I need, or want to but for me, the real benefit of meditation and mindfulness has been in developing the ability to be okay with whatever my mind is up to.

That is a great position to have reached. Not being troubled by troubling thoughts. Not adding to pain and problems with worry - and therefore suffering.

I'm at a very early stage. Aside from formal meditation practice where I am more able to observe my thoughts (or rather, notice more readily that I've gone walkabout for a few minutes), I am finding that in everyday life I can shake off unwanted and unhelpful thinking by coming back to the breath or grounding myself physically. At this stage I'm not able to say that I'm able to just let my mind do whatever it wants and just observe it calmly with little emotional reaction to thoughts.

Babywhale wrote:
At this stage I'm not able to say that I'm able to just let my mind do whatever it wants and just observe it calmly with little emotional reaction to thoughts.

Just to clarify, I can't do what you're suggesting here either. Emotions, like thoughts, arise of their own accord. They are 'emotional reactions', rather than responses, because they happen spontaneously. Just as I can't not blink, if something unexpected heads towards my face, I can't not have emotions.

So for me, what has been useful has been learning to be okay with my thoughts yes, but also to be okay with my emotions. This involves learning to trust them, to understand them, to know that each of them has a purpose, to keep the channels of communication with them open and to know that they are my allies, no matter how disturbing they might seem.

'This involves learning to trust them, to understand them, to know that each of them has a purpose, to keep the channels of communication with them open and to know that they are my allies, no matter how disturbing they might seem.'

Beautifully put, sir.
JW

Matt Y wrote:I've been meditating for over 20 years. My mind is as much a wanderer as it ever was, because that's the nature of the mind. It's also more or less active dependent on what's going on in my life. If I need to make a big decision or if I've had an altercation with someone, or have a health concern, then my mind will be busier. If everything is running smoothly, my mind will tend to be less active.

I can focus my attention and stop my mind wandering if I need, or want to but for me, the real benefit of meditation and mindfulness has been in developing the ability to be okay with whatever my mind is up to.

I've been trying to become more accepting of my own thoughts, which is what my 8-week program suggests. The result is my mind has become more active, or maybe back to it's activity level before I started meditating. There is so much written out there about the mind becoming calmer as a result of meditation (or maybe that's just my poor interpretation of what I've read), that I was concerned this might be a bad thing. It's good to hear that it's not necessarily bad, so thanks for your comments.

You're welcome Leo.
I think the whole 'calm mind' angle is mostly a marketing tool, though there is some truth to it.
Interestingly, the Tibetan word for meditation is gom, which means 'to become familiar with'.
Personally, I find this a much more wholesome way to think about meditation.