concentration
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Working with the Gaps
Our practice of mindfulness, especially our formal meditation practice leads us to eventually work with two gaps. The first is the gap between stimulus and response and the second is the gap between our beliefs and our actions. Committing to a formal mindfulness meditation practice and practicing moments of mindfulness as we go through our Continue reading
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Formal and Informal Meditation
Many students talk about not really “sitting” for meditation practice, but rather checking in throughout the day to become mindful or take a breath awareness pause. Many students say, “I am mindful during my day, and I don’t sit for practice.” These students are describing informal mediation practices. Many types of informal practices range from Continue reading
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Distractions
There are two main ways that distractions take hold of us, or we take hold of distractions, in our lives and our meditation practices. In our daily lives, we find that we seek distractions, especially when we are tired, hungry, aroused, frustrated, and experiencing strong emotions. We use distractions to take us away from where we Continue reading
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Objects of Meditation
Formal mindfulness meditation is about training the mind in concentration and attention. By definition, concentration and attention require that we hold our minds in one place, focused on one object, for an extended period of time. We experience this state of full attention and concentration in many areas of our lives, often not intentionally. When Continue reading
Being Present 