Four stage intro to sitting

[mybubble]

Hello,

I thought I would share this, I have tested a few times and it makes a real difference for me, enabling me to extend my sitting from a max of 40 minutes to 60 minutes quite easily.

I may have mentioned a particular book and it contained these 4 stages. I glanced through them, paid lip service to the intro and went on to the juicy stuff. I now went back to it and realise the importance of what I missed. I have also seen these steps rushed through in many guided meditations. I don't rush and it makes the difference for me. I now spend 15 minutes doing these.

When you first sit and close your eyes...

Step 1: be aware of the present moment, give attention to the room/area around you, sounds, smells, air currents, birds, cars anything. If thoughts come let them go, just stay present.

Step 2: narrow attention to the body as a whole. Contact with floor, whole body, skin feeling, then body scan various parts, taking time. You should notice you are aware still of the room but your attention is on your body.

Step 3: bring attention to whole body breathing as one, then stomach, chest and lungs as one. There is still awareness of body and room/area sounds in background, but attention is on full breathing

Step 4: focus attention down to nose. Take time to really identify which area is sensitive today to the inbreath and exhale and that will be the main focus. Some days its the hairs in my nose others its my lip or further in. Body, area and room is still there in background awareness but the nose is kept in attention.

Once I fully identify my n-spot I begin the 1 to 10 breath cycle.

After spending a very pleasant 15 relaxed minutes gradually bringing my focus in, the next 45 minutes seem so much easier than before I did this slow introduction. For the last 5-10 minutes I do the four steps in reverse.

I cant believe the difference and the fact I hardly paid attention to this quite powerful aspect before.

Try it as an experiment.

[Peter]

Thanks for sharing!
What do you mean by "n-spot"?

[Happyogababe]

Thanks for sharing that, I may well give it a whirl

Have a good day.

[DJLSFC]

Thanks for this, I do a similar routine but only for 5 minutes, so I will definitely try this. I think this brilliant advice for beginners who are following guided practices, as sometimes these don't give you time to settle before you start. A shortened version of what you have described above before putting the track on would help greatly.

Dave.

[Matt Y]

Glad to hear it's working so well for you mybubble.

I think the key part is the first step, in which you give yourself a chance to settle in, not by rushing to the breath, but by checking in with your environment (both without and within). In other words, by not placing too much emphasis on a tight focus and instead just allowing yourself to become aware of what's going on. It's this step - in my opinion - that meditator's often miss.

There are many traditions / schools of meditation which make similar recommendations. The general idea is to start with the obvious external objects (what you can see and hear) and then gradually move inwards, giving yourself some time to notice what's on your mind, getting yourself comfortable by checking your posture and scanning the body, then moving to more subtle inner experiences, including the breath, your mood and emotions, subtle energies and so on.

If you want to try a similar six step process you could check out a guided meditation I put together: http://melbournemeditationcentre.com.au ... teed-calm/

[Peter]

Thanks for sharing your guided meditation, Matt.
I'll check it out soon!
Peter

[mybubble]

Thanks for sharing Matt, well check it out too.

Regarding the time I dedicate to the intro it will reduce proportionally for short sits, but if I never settle then I will just stay on the nose or whole body for whole session.

[Tubster]

This is a really good recommendation. Thank you