When I first started practicing meditation recently, I thought it was to make me more calm. Then it was to make me less reactive. Then to make me less attached to things.
These things can happen if I do this regularly. But I also want to focus on the experience itself.
Feeling my breath as it flows in and out, the sensations. My mind typically wanders and I notice it. Then I come back to it with focus. Five seconds or even five minutes of distraction occurs before I come back to the focus on the breathing. you keep coming back, even if you’re sidetracked for 5 minutes.
My mind gets in the way. That’s what the mind does after all. It thinks, it wanders with the day’s upcoming activities, yesterday’s regrets and daydreaming.
We label things and feelings as happy, unpleasant or idiotic. We judge if something is good or bad. We judge if people are good or bad or idiotic. Anxiousness, anticipation, fantasy, worry, doubt, excitement and more. The mind’s commentary is amazing…and distracting.
To re-focus I’ll deliberately start to notice sensations such as light or sounds, the pang of hunger. This brings me back to the experience- without labels or judgements. I start to relax and enjoy the experience for what it is. It isn’t good or bad, it just is. Nothing needs to be done, nothing needs changing. Just be curious and ask what is this like right now?
This practice of experiencing meditation and breathing translates to life as it currently is as well. I can accept it easier. If I can learn to approach life the same way, my experience of peace, happiness, calm and focus, then how much better would my life become?