Everyday Mindfulness

Hello all!

I was just curious as to what you guys focus on for your informal and formal meditations? What do you generally use as anchors for your breath and why?

I usually focus on my breath at my nostrils during formal meditation sessions. It enables me to acutely find the sensations of breath and really hone my attention there. For informal practice throughout the day, I usually focus on my nostrils also.

However, when I am feeling especially stressed or anxious I move my attention to my belly (diaphragm) and that seems to center me very efficiently. I read once (in a book by Thich) that focusing on your belly is like a tree swaying in a storm. The branches are going crazy, but the base of the tree is solid. When you are in a "storm" of emotions it's good to focus on your solid base so you don't get caught up in the storm.

Sometimes I even focus my attention in a more broad lens and connect the feeling of my belly moving with the breath at my nostrils. That sometimes gives me a more "wholesome" feeling. What about you guys??

I'm by no means an expert on this, mindfulness is just something that I found and taught myself through books.

To be honest, I don't really use breath much at all as an anchor - perhaps 1 in 15 meditations. I usually use sound - either ambient music in sound-blocking headphones or just the sounds around me. I have always been a little sceptical when breath-based meditations are used exclusively, because breath isn't the only way to meditate. I am a firm believer in experimenting and finding a way to practise that suits you. The breath very powerful though and can bring you home to your own body, which is very useful for some people.

I usually use the breath as my anchor and it tends to be felt most in my chest. If I feel like I am struggling to focus I sometimes count the breath to allow my mind a few moments to refocus and relax.

I tend to use a variation of Kabat Zinn's "choiceness awareness" meditation - so the anchor tends to shift from breath to sound to bodily sensations. Recently I've got to the point where thoughts rarely arise during meditation and, if they do, they tend to rise and then disappear.

I love how we have four posts and four unique ways of doing it

One of my favorite aspects of mindfulness practice is that there is a set of guidelines to show you what to do and how to do it, but in the end one must really make the practice their own!

*on an unrelated note, I always feel a little awkward here spelling practice instead of practise

i'm more or less with jon on this one, i use kristin neffs choiceless awareness, or 'noting your emotions' as she calls it , quite a lot.
though at the moment i do some pranayama for 5 minutes before i meditate which is completely focussed on my breathing.
if i'm outside walking, then it could be an anchor on the sensations in my feet, legs, or the sounds around me, wind in the trees, birds etc.
sights or what my eye's are drawn to . maybe birds on the canal or the trees moving in the wind, cloud formations etc.
so it does move around a lot but it's all 'in the moment'.

i think you learn the basics and then a more personal practice does develop over time, though having said that my practice changes with my circumstances

I use different anchors each time but I find anchoring my attention in my feet - feeling my feet from the inside - very stabilising if there is any turmoil present

I am drawn to breath (used to be at nostrils) at the lower abdomen, first off I do three sighs (as promoted by Eric Harrison) and this grounds me faster than anything else I've tried. I soon begin sensing my body and in particular my feet (used to be lips and hands). I very much like body scan but also like other sensory anchors for a change. I saw daffodils today, they really held my attention.