Sitting on a straight-backed chair or couch or on a cushion on the floor, allow your body to become still. The back is straight without being stiff; the posture is relaxed, awake, and dignified. The hands can rest gently on the knees or in the lap. The eyes are open, simply resting the gaze on whatever is in front of you, without thinking too much about what you’re viewing. Settling into this moment, begin watching the breath.
Become aware of the fact that you’re breathing. Become aware of the movement of the breath as it flows into and out of the body. Feel the breath as it comes into the body and as it leaves the body. Simply remain aware of the breath flowing in and flowing out, not manipulating the breathing in any way. Simply being aware of it and noticing how it feels.
When your mind becomes distracted—and it will become distracted—simply return to the breath. No commentary. No judgment.
Allow yourself to be with this flow of breath, coming in and going out. Notice the feeling of the breath as the lungs fill with air on the in-breath and deflate as you breathe out, the chest expanding and collapsing. Perhaps feeling the breath in the abdomen, rising as you breathe in and flattening and sinking as you breathe out. Allow your attention to gently ride on the sensation of each breath, not thinking about breathing, without the need to comment. Simply watching your breathing.
Allow the breath to naturally breathe itself, not needing to change it in any way, giving full attention to each breath. Observe the full cycle of each breath, locating the very beginning of the breath, as it enters the nose or mouth, and following it as it fills the lungs and expands the chest and the abdomen, then comes to the gap where there is neither in-breath nor out-breath, before it turns around and makes its journey out of the body. Simply remain present for the cycle of each breath, being there, letting your attention gently float on the awareness of your breath.
After a short time, you may notice that the mind wanders off to thoughts of the past, fantasies, memories, or regrets. Or it may move to anticipation of the future, planning, wishing, and judging. You may find yourself thinking about what you’ll do after this exercise, what you have to do at work, things that you have to do.
As soon as you become aware that the attention has moved off the breath, guide it back to the next breath with a gentle and firm awareness.
There’s no need to give yourself a hard time, saying, “How did I become so distracted?” Simply come back to this breath. Watching the breath and the arising thoughts without judgment, simply observing. Once again, bringing the attention to this breath, in this moment. Breathing in with the in-breath, breathing out with the out-breath. Feeling the movement in your body. The breath anchoring the attention in this moment.
When the mind wanders, bring your attention back to the breath, knowing that you can always use the awareness of your breath to refocus your attention, to return to the present. Whenever you notice that you have drifted from the present—when you become distracted, preoccupied, or restless—the attention on the breath can be a powerful anchor to this moment and to this state of awake stillness.
And now, for the time remaining, let go of all particular objects of attention, allowing yourself to simply be here, simply present. Breath moving, sensations in the body, sounds, thoughts, all of it coming and going…allowing all of it…and dropping into being, into stillness, present with it all, as it unfolds, complete, as you are, whole.
And…relax.
BREAKING HABITS TAKES TIME:
To learn to tame your habitual reactivity will take time…but it’s worth it! You’ll fail, then have a little success, then fail again, then succeed, and then fail again. That’s good; it means you’re progressing.
Each moment of mindfulness, is one less moment of reactivity.
Please feel free to drop me a line and let me know how you’re doing. Feel free to visit my blog and read the hundreds of posts I’ve written on how to meditate, the science behind meditation, and lots of other cool stuff. And I really do mean it, if you have a questions, ask me…I’m always more than happy to answer.
In mindfulness,
Jerome Stone, RN
Author – Minding the Bedside: Nursing from the Heart of the Awakened Mind
To practice mindfulness:
Sitting on a straight-backed chair or couch or on a cushion on the floor, allow your body to become still. The back is straight without being stiff; the posture is relaxed, awake, and dignified. The hands can rest gently on the knees or in the lap. The eyes are open, simply resting the gaze on whatever is in front of you, without thinking too much about what you’re viewing. Settling into this moment, begin watching the breath.
Become aware of the fact that you’re breathing. Become aware of the movement of the breath as it flows into and out of the body. Feel the breath as it comes into the body and as it leaves the body. Simply remain aware of the breath flowing in and flowing out, not manipulating the breathing in any way. Simply being aware of it and noticing how it feels.
When your mind becomes distracted—and it will become distracted—simply return to the breath. No commentary. No judgment.
Allow yourself to be with this flow of breath, coming in and going out. Notice the feeling of the breath as the lungs fill with air on the in-breath and deflate as you breathe out, the chest expanding and collapsing. Perhaps feeling the breath in the abdomen, rising as you breathe in and flattening and sinking as you breathe out. Allow your attention to gently ride on the sensation of each breath, not thinking about breathing, without the need to comment. Simply watching your breathing.
Allow the breath to naturally breathe itself, not needing to change it in any way, giving full attention to each breath. Observe the full cycle of each breath, locating the very beginning of the breath, as it enters the nose or mouth, and following it as it fills the lungs and expands the chest and the abdomen, then comes to the gap where there is neither in-breath nor out-breath, before it turns around and makes its journey out of the body. Simply remain present for the cycle of each breath, being there, letting your attention gently float on the awareness of your breath.
After a short time, you may notice that the mind wanders off to thoughts of the past, fantasies, memories, or regrets. Or it may move to anticipation of the future, planning, wishing, and judging. You may find yourself thinking about what you’ll do after this exercise, what you have to do at work, things that you have to do.
As soon as you become aware that the attention has moved off the breath, guide it back to the next breath with a gentle and firm awareness.
There’s no need to give yourself a hard time, saying, “How did I become so distracted?” Simply come back to this breath. Watching the breath and the arising thoughts without judgment, simply observing. Once again, bringing the attention to this breath, in this moment. Breathing in with the in-breath, breathing out with the out-breath. Feeling the movement in your body. The breath anchoring the attention in this moment.
When the mind wanders, bring your attention back to the breath, knowing that you can always use the awareness of your breath to refocus your attention, to return to the present. Whenever you notice that you have drifted from the present—when you become distracted, preoccupied, or restless—the attention on the breath can be a powerful anchor to this moment and to this state of awake stillness.
And now, for the time remaining, let go of all particular objects of attention, allowing yourself to simply be here, simply present. Breath moving, sensations in the body, sounds, thoughts, all of it coming and going…allowing all of it…and dropping into being, into stillness, present with it all, as it unfolds, complete, as you are, whole.
And…relax.
BREAKING HABITS TAKES TIME:
To learn to tame your habitual reactivity will take time…but it’s worth it! You’ll fail, then have a little success, then fail again, then succeed, and then fail again. That’s good; it means you’re progressing.
Each moment of mindfulness, is one less moment of reactivity.
Please feel free to drop me a line and let me know how you’re doing. Feel free to visit my blog and read the hundreds of posts I’ve written on how to meditate, the science behind meditation, and lots of other cool stuff. And I really do mean it, if you have a questions, ask me…I’m always more than happy to answer.
In mindfulness,
Jerome Stone, RN
Author – Minding the Bedside: Nursing from the Heart of the Awakened Mind
Mindfulness slows down the habitual reactivity of the body and mind.
To practice mindfulness:
Sitting on a straight-backed chair or couch or on a cushion on the floor, allow your body to become still. The back is straight without being stiff; the posture is relaxed, awake, and dignified. The hands can rest gently on the knees or in the lap. The eyes are open, simply resting the gaze on whatever is in front of you, without thinking too much about what you’re viewing. Settling into this moment, begin watching the breath.
Become aware of the fact that you’re breathing. Become aware of the movement of the breath as it flows into and out of the body. Feel the breath as it comes into the body and as it leaves the body. Simply remain aware of the breath flowing in and flowing out, not manipulating the breathing in any way. Simply being aware of it and noticing how it feels.
When your mind becomes distracted—and it will become distracted—simply return to the breath. No commentary. No judgment.
Allow yourself to be with this flow of breath, coming in and going out. Notice the feeling of the breath as the lungs fill with air on the in-breath and deflate as you breathe out, the chest expanding and collapsing. Perhaps feeling the breath in the abdomen, rising as you breathe in and flattening and sinking as you breathe out. Allow your attention to gently ride on the sensation of each breath, not thinking about breathing, without the need to comment. Simply watching your breathing.
Allow the breath to naturally breathe itself, not needing to change it in any way, giving full attention to each breath. Observe the full cycle of each breath, locating the very beginning of the breath, as it enters the nose or mouth, and following it as it fills the lungs and expands the chest and the abdomen, then comes to the gap where there is neither in-breath nor out-breath, before it turns around and makes its journey out of the body. Simply remain present for the cycle of each breath, being there, letting your attention gently float on the awareness of your breath.
After a short time, you may notice that the mind wanders off to thoughts of the past, fantasies, memories, or regrets. Or it may move to anticipation of the future, planning, wishing, and judging. You may find yourself thinking about what you’ll do after this exercise, what you have to do at work, things that you have to do.
As soon as you become aware that the attention has moved off the breath, guide it back to the next breath with a gentle and firm awareness.
There’s no need to give yourself a hard time, saying, “How did I become so distracted?” Simply come back to this breath. Watching the breath and the arising thoughts without judgment, simply observing. Once again, bringing the attention to this breath, in this moment. Breathing in with the in-breath, breathing out with the out-breath. Feeling the movement in your body. The breath anchoring the attention in this moment.
When the mind wanders, bring your attention back to the breath, knowing that you can always use the awareness of your breath to refocus your attention, to return to the present. Whenever you notice that you have drifted from the present—when you become distracted, preoccupied, or restless—the attention on the breath can be a powerful anchor to this moment and to this state of awake stillness.
And now, for the time remaining, let go of all particular objects of attention, allowing yourself to simply be here, simply present. Breath moving, sensations in the body, sounds, thoughts, all of it coming and going…allowing all of it…and dropping into being, into stillness, present with it all, as it unfolds, complete, as you are, whole.
And…relax.
BREAKING HABITS TAKES TIME:
To learn to tame your habitual reactivity will take time…but it’s worth it! You’ll fail, then have a little success, then fail again, then succeed, and then fail again. That’s good; it means you’re progressing.
Each moment of mindfulness, is one less moment of reactivity.
Please feel free to drop me a line and let me know how you’re doing. Feel free to visit my blog and read the hundreds of posts I’ve written on how to meditate, the science behind meditation, and lots of other cool stuff. And I really do mean it, if you have a questions, ask me…I’m always more than happy to answer.
In mindfulness,
Jerome Stone, RN
Author – Minding the Bedside: Nursing from the Heart of the Awakened Mind
Yet many of us experience perceived or real threats as if they were saber-toothed tigers. Our stress reactivity hampers us instead of keeping us safe; it makes us sick, when we need to be healthy.
Stressors (the stimuli that cause us to experience stress) are always “out there,” we’ll always have to deal with situations, people, and circumstances that stretch our ability to deal with them in either a reactive manner (we get stressed) or in a mindful manner (we deal with the stressor in a positive way).
Stress-reactivity is the norm; we get triggered and we go for it, it’s how we and most other people engage in our daily lives. A mindful approach to stressor-response is more difficult to practice, but the benefits are…ginormous!!
Here’s a question for you; how do you feel when you know that you’re reacting/getting stressed, you’ve promised yourself in the past that you wouldn’t do it again, and you find that you’re back in the pattern again? Do you scold yourself and promise that you’ll do it differently next time? If so, then here’s how:
REACT VERSUS RESPOND:
When we encounter a stressor (stimulus) we have the option to follow our emotions (physiology) and react to our belief (feelings) that we’re being threatened. Granted, in some cases, what we’re perceiving might be a threat; if a boss says “you’re fired,” or a spouse/partner says, “if you don’t change, I’m done!” Or perhaps, you look at your bank account, and you realize that your balance is $2000, but you have $3000 worth of payments being processed. Or…you arrive at work to find out that one of your peers has called in sick with Covid-19, and you’ve got to pick up extra patients. Whatever the cause, real or imagined, life-threatening, or just a nuisance, how you respond, or if you react and can’t respond, it affects your well-being.
MINDFULNESS = RESPONSE-ABILITY
Mindfulness is an antidote to stress reactivity; it’s a way of toning down the habitual pattern of reacting, allowing you to respond in a manner that’s clear, that’s well-thought-out, and that provides you with the greatest clarity on how to proceed.
Mindfulness, also known as mindfulness-meditation is a practice of bringing the attention back, repeatedly, to an object of focus; we usually use the breath as that object of focus since…it’s always with us!
When we’re in a stress-reactive state, a perceived threat, whether it’s a real-life situation, a potential situation, or one of our neurotic self-narratives, we react and experience physiological stress when confronted with a stimulus or stressor. When we’re mindful, and this will happen each time that we bring mindfulness into play, we first realize that we’re experiencing stress, and then – by attending to our stress reaction – we can investigate whether what we’re experiencing is valid, i.e. are we about to face certain death, or is our reactivity more habitual than actual.
Mindfulness slows down the habitual reactivity of the body and mind.
To practice mindfulness:
Sitting on a straight-backed chair or couch or on a cushion on the floor, allow your body to become still. The back is straight without being stiff; the posture is relaxed, awake, and dignified. The hands can rest gently on the knees or in the lap. The eyes are open, simply resting the gaze on whatever is in front of you, without thinking too much about what you’re viewing. Settling into this moment, begin watching the breath.
Become aware of the fact that you’re breathing. Become aware of the movement of the breath as it flows into and out of the body. Feel the breath as it comes into the body and as it leaves the body. Simply remain aware of the breath flowing in and flowing out, not manipulating the breathing in any way. Simply being aware of it and noticing how it feels.
When your mind becomes distracted—and it will become distracted—simply return to the breath. No commentary. No judgment.
Allow yourself to be with this flow of breath, coming in and going out. Notice the feeling of the breath as the lungs fill with air on the in-breath and deflate as you breathe out, the chest expanding and collapsing. Perhaps feeling the breath in the abdomen, rising as you breathe in and flattening and sinking as you breathe out. Allow your attention to gently ride on the sensation of each breath, not thinking about breathing, without the need to comment. Simply watching your breathing.
Allow the breath to naturally breathe itself, not needing to change it in any way, giving full attention to each breath. Observe the full cycle of each breath, locating the very beginning of the breath, as it enters the nose or mouth, and following it as it fills the lungs and expands the chest and the abdomen, then comes to the gap where there is neither in-breath nor out-breath, before it turns around and makes its journey out of the body. Simply remain present for the cycle of each breath, being there, letting your attention gently float on the awareness of your breath.
After a short time, you may notice that the mind wanders off to thoughts of the past, fantasies, memories, or regrets. Or it may move to anticipation of the future, planning, wishing, and judging. You may find yourself thinking about what you’ll do after this exercise, what you have to do at work, things that you have to do.
As soon as you become aware that the attention has moved off the breath, guide it back to the next breath with a gentle and firm awareness.
There’s no need to give yourself a hard time, saying, “How did I become so distracted?” Simply come back to this breath. Watching the breath and the arising thoughts without judgment, simply observing. Once again, bringing the attention to this breath, in this moment. Breathing in with the in-breath, breathing out with the out-breath. Feeling the movement in your body. The breath anchoring the attention in this moment.
When the mind wanders, bring your attention back to the breath, knowing that you can always use the awareness of your breath to refocus your attention, to return to the present. Whenever you notice that you have drifted from the present—when you become distracted, preoccupied, or restless—the attention on the breath can be a powerful anchor to this moment and to this state of awake stillness.
And now, for the time remaining, let go of all particular objects of attention, allowing yourself to simply be here, simply present. Breath moving, sensations in the body, sounds, thoughts, all of it coming and going…allowing all of it…and dropping into being, into stillness, present with it all, as it unfolds, complete, as you are, whole.
And…relax.
BREAKING HABITS TAKES TIME:
To learn to tame your habitual reactivity will take time…but it’s worth it! You’ll fail, then have a little success, then fail again, then succeed, and then fail again. That’s good; it means you’re progressing.
Each moment of mindfulness, is one less moment of reactivity.
Please feel free to drop me a line and let me know how you’re doing. Feel free to visit my blog and read the hundreds of posts I’ve written on how to meditate, the science behind meditation, and lots of other cool stuff. And I really do mean it, if you have a questions, ask me…I’m always more than happy to answer.
In mindfulness,
Jerome Stone, RN
Author – Minding the Bedside: Nursing from the Heart of the Awakened Mind
deep within our genetics lies the physiological basis for us to respond to a threat to our well-being (think a saber-toothed tiger) with panic. But…not sure about you, but I haven’t seen a saber-toothed tiger in, like,…forever!?!
Yet many of us experience perceived or real threats as if they were saber-toothed tigers. Our stress reactivity hampers us instead of keeping us safe; it makes us sick, when we need to be healthy.
Stressors (the stimuli that cause us to experience stress) are always “out there,” we’ll always have to deal with situations, people, and circumstances that stretch our ability to deal with them in either a reactive manner (we get stressed) or in a mindful manner (we deal with the stressor in a positive way).
Stress-reactivity is the norm; we get triggered and we go for it, it’s how we and most other people engage in our daily lives. A mindful approach to stressor-response is more difficult to practice, but the benefits are…ginormous!!
Here’s a question for you; how do you feel when you know that you’re reacting/getting stressed, you’ve promised yourself in the past that you wouldn’t do it again, and you find that you’re back in the pattern again? Do you scold yourself and promise that you’ll do it differently next time? If so, then here’s how:
REACT VERSUS RESPOND:
When we encounter a stressor (stimulus) we have the option to follow our emotions (physiology) and react to our belief (feelings) that we’re being threatened. Granted, in some cases, what we’re perceiving might be a threat; if a boss says “you’re fired,” or a spouse/partner says, “if you don’t change, I’m done!” Or perhaps, you look at your bank account, and you realize that your balance is $2000, but you have $3000 worth of payments being processed. Or…you arrive at work to find out that one of your peers has called in sick with Covid-19, and you’ve got to pick up extra patients. Whatever the cause, real or imagined, life-threatening, or just a nuisance, how you respond, or if you react and can’t respond, it affects your well-being.
MINDFULNESS = RESPONSE-ABILITY
Mindfulness is an antidote to stress reactivity; it’s a way of toning down the habitual pattern of reacting, allowing you to respond in a manner that’s clear, that’s well-thought-out, and that provides you with the greatest clarity on how to proceed.
Mindfulness, also known as mindfulness-meditation is a practice of bringing the attention back, repeatedly, to an object of focus; we usually use the breath as that object of focus since…it’s always with us!
When we’re in a stress-reactive state, a perceived threat, whether it’s a real-life situation, a potential situation, or one of our neurotic self-narratives, we react and experience physiological stress when confronted with a stimulus or stressor. When we’re mindful, and this will happen each time that we bring mindfulness into play, we first realize that we’re experiencing stress, and then – by attending to our stress reaction – we can investigate whether what we’re experiencing is valid, i.e. are we about to face certain death, or is our reactivity more habitual than actual.
Mindfulness slows down the habitual reactivity of the body and mind.
To practice mindfulness:
Sitting on a straight-backed chair or couch or on a cushion on the floor, allow your body to become still. The back is straight without being stiff; the posture is relaxed, awake, and dignified. The hands can rest gently on the knees or in the lap. The eyes are open, simply resting the gaze on whatever is in front of you, without thinking too much about what you’re viewing. Settling into this moment, begin watching the breath.
Become aware of the fact that you’re breathing. Become aware of the movement of the breath as it flows into and out of the body. Feel the breath as it comes into the body and as it leaves the body. Simply remain aware of the breath flowing in and flowing out, not manipulating the breathing in any way. Simply being aware of it and noticing how it feels.
When your mind becomes distracted—and it will become distracted—simply return to the breath. No commentary. No judgment.
Allow yourself to be with this flow of breath, coming in and going out. Notice the feeling of the breath as the lungs fill with air on the in-breath and deflate as you breathe out, the chest expanding and collapsing. Perhaps feeling the breath in the abdomen, rising as you breathe in and flattening and sinking as you breathe out. Allow your attention to gently ride on the sensation of each breath, not thinking about breathing, without the need to comment. Simply watching your breathing.
Allow the breath to naturally breathe itself, not needing to change it in any way, giving full attention to each breath. Observe the full cycle of each breath, locating the very beginning of the breath, as it enters the nose or mouth, and following it as it fills the lungs and expands the chest and the abdomen, then comes to the gap where there is neither in-breath nor out-breath, before it turns around and makes its journey out of the body. Simply remain present for the cycle of each breath, being there, letting your attention gently float on the awareness of your breath.
After a short time, you may notice that the mind wanders off to thoughts of the past, fantasies, memories, or regrets. Or it may move to anticipation of the future, planning, wishing, and judging. You may find yourself thinking about what you’ll do after this exercise, what you have to do at work, things that you have to do.
As soon as you become aware that the attention has moved off the breath, guide it back to the next breath with a gentle and firm awareness.
There’s no need to give yourself a hard time, saying, “How did I become so distracted?” Simply come back to this breath. Watching the breath and the arising thoughts without judgment, simply observing. Once again, bringing the attention to this breath, in this moment. Breathing in with the in-breath, breathing out with the out-breath. Feeling the movement in your body. The breath anchoring the attention in this moment.
When the mind wanders, bring your attention back to the breath, knowing that you can always use the awareness of your breath to refocus your attention, to return to the present. Whenever you notice that you have drifted from the present—when you become distracted, preoccupied, or restless—the attention on the breath can be a powerful anchor to this moment and to this state of awake stillness.
And now, for the time remaining, let go of all particular objects of attention, allowing yourself to simply be here, simply present. Breath moving, sensations in the body, sounds, thoughts, all of it coming and going…allowing all of it…and dropping into being, into stillness, present with it all, as it unfolds, complete, as you are, whole.
And…relax.
BREAKING HABITS TAKES TIME:
To learn to tame your habitual reactivity will take time…but it’s worth it! You’ll fail, then have a little success, then fail again, then succeed, and then fail again. That’s good; it means you’re progressing.
Each moment of mindfulness, is one less moment of reactivity.
Please feel free to drop me a line and let me know how you’re doing. Feel free to visit my blog and read the hundreds of posts I’ve written on how to meditate, the science behind meditation, and lots of other cool stuff. And I really do mean it, if you have a questions, ask me…I’m always more than happy to answer.
In mindfulness,
Jerome Stone, RN
Author – Minding the Bedside: Nursing from the Heart of the Awakened Mind
We’re wired for panic…
deep within our genetics lies the physiological basis for us to respond to a threat to our well-being (think a saber-toothed tiger) with panic. But…not sure about you, but I haven’t seen a saber-toothed tiger in, like,…forever!?!
Yet many of us experience perceived or real threats as if they were saber-toothed tigers. Our stress reactivity hampers us instead of keeping us safe; it makes us sick, when we need to be healthy.
Stressors (the stimuli that cause us to experience stress) are always “out there,” we’ll always have to deal with situations, people, and circumstances that stretch our ability to deal with them in either a reactive manner (we get stressed) or in a mindful manner (we deal with the stressor in a positive way).
Stress-reactivity is the norm; we get triggered and we go for it, it’s how we and most other people engage in our daily lives. A mindful approach to stressor-response is more difficult to practice, but the benefits are…ginormous!!
Here’s a question for you; how do you feel when you know that you’re reacting/getting stressed, you’ve promised yourself in the past that you wouldn’t do it again, and you find that you’re back in the pattern again? Do you scold yourself and promise that you’ll do it differently next time? If so, then here’s how:
REACT VERSUS RESPOND:
When we encounter a stressor (stimulus) we have the option to follow our emotions (physiology) and react to our belief (feelings) that we’re being threatened. Granted, in some cases, what we’re perceiving might be a threat; if a boss says “you’re fired,” or a spouse/partner says, “if you don’t change, I’m done!” Or perhaps, you look at your bank account, and you realize that your balance is $2000, but you have $3000 worth of payments being processed. Or…you arrive at work to find out that one of your peers has called in sick with Covid-19, and you’ve got to pick up extra patients. Whatever the cause, real or imagined, life-threatening, or just a nuisance, how you respond, or if you react and can’t respond, it affects your well-being.
MINDFULNESS = RESPONSE-ABILITY
Mindfulness is an antidote to stress reactivity; it’s a way of toning down the habitual pattern of reacting, allowing you to respond in a manner that’s clear, that’s well-thought-out, and that provides you with the greatest clarity on how to proceed.
Mindfulness, also known as mindfulness-meditation is a practice of bringing the attention back, repeatedly, to an object of focus; we usually use the breath as that object of focus since…it’s always with us!
When we’re in a stress-reactive state, a perceived threat, whether it’s a real-life situation, a potential situation, or one of our neurotic self-narratives, we react and experience physiological stress when confronted with a stimulus or stressor. When we’re mindful, and this will happen each time that we bring mindfulness into play, we first realize that we’re experiencing stress, and then – by attending to our stress reaction – we can investigate whether what we’re experiencing is valid, i.e. are we about to face certain death, or is our reactivity more habitual than actual.
Mindfulness slows down the habitual reactivity of the body and mind.
To practice mindfulness:
Sitting on a straight-backed chair or couch or on a cushion on the floor, allow your body to become still. The back is straight without being stiff; the posture is relaxed, awake, and dignified. The hands can rest gently on the knees or in the lap. The eyes are open, simply resting the gaze on whatever is in front of you, without thinking too much about what you’re viewing. Settling into this moment, begin watching the breath.
Become aware of the fact that you’re breathing. Become aware of the movement of the breath as it flows into and out of the body. Feel the breath as it comes into the body and as it leaves the body. Simply remain aware of the breath flowing in and flowing out, not manipulating the breathing in any way. Simply being aware of it and noticing how it feels.
When your mind becomes distracted—and it will become distracted—simply return to the breath. No commentary. No judgment.
Allow yourself to be with this flow of breath, coming in and going out. Notice the feeling of the breath as the lungs fill with air on the in-breath and deflate as you breathe out, the chest expanding and collapsing. Perhaps feeling the breath in the abdomen, rising as you breathe in and flattening and sinking as you breathe out. Allow your attention to gently ride on the sensation of each breath, not thinking about breathing, without the need to comment. Simply watching your breathing.
Allow the breath to naturally breathe itself, not needing to change it in any way, giving full attention to each breath. Observe the full cycle of each breath, locating the very beginning of the breath, as it enters the nose or mouth, and following it as it fills the lungs and expands the chest and the abdomen, then comes to the gap where there is neither in-breath nor out-breath, before it turns around and makes its journey out of the body. Simply remain present for the cycle of each breath, being there, letting your attention gently float on the awareness of your breath.
After a short time, you may notice that the mind wanders off to thoughts of the past, fantasies, memories, or regrets. Or it may move to anticipation of the future, planning, wishing, and judging. You may find yourself thinking about what you’ll do after this exercise, what you have to do at work, things that you have to do.
As soon as you become aware that the attention has moved off the breath, guide it back to the next breath with a gentle and firm awareness.
There’s no need to give yourself a hard time, saying, “How did I become so distracted?” Simply come back to this breath. Watching the breath and the arising thoughts without judgment, simply observing. Once again, bringing the attention to this breath, in this moment. Breathing in with the in-breath, breathing out with the out-breath. Feeling the movement in your body. The breath anchoring the attention in this moment.
When the mind wanders, bring your attention back to the breath, knowing that you can always use the awareness of your breath to refocus your attention, to return to the present. Whenever you notice that you have drifted from the present—when you become distracted, preoccupied, or restless—the attention on the breath can be a powerful anchor to this moment and to this state of awake stillness.
And now, for the time remaining, let go of all particular objects of attention, allowing yourself to simply be here, simply present. Breath moving, sensations in the body, sounds, thoughts, all of it coming and going…allowing all of it…and dropping into being, into stillness, present with it all, as it unfolds, complete, as you are, whole.
And…relax.
BREAKING HABITS TAKES TIME:
To learn to tame your habitual reactivity will take time…but it’s worth it! You’ll fail, then have a little success, then fail again, then succeed, and then fail again. That’s good; it means you’re progressing.
Each moment of mindfulness, is one less moment of reactivity.
Please feel free to drop me a line and let me know how you’re doing. Feel free to visit my blog and read the hundreds of posts I’ve written on how to meditate, the science behind meditation, and lots of other cool stuff. And I really do mean it, if you have a questions, ask me…I’m always more than happy to answer.
In mindfulness,
Jerome Stone, RN
Author – Minding the Bedside: Nursing from the Heart of the Awakened Mind
We’re wired for panic…
deep within our genetics lies the physiological basis for us to respond to a threat to our well-being (think a saber-toothed tiger) with panic. But…not sure about you, but I haven’t seen a saber-toothed tiger in, like,…forever!?!
Yet many of us experience perceived or real threats as if they were saber-toothed tigers. Our stress reactivity hampers us instead of keeping us safe; it makes us sick, when we need to be healthy.
Stressors (the stimuli that cause us to experience stress) are always “out there,” we’ll always have to deal with situations, people, and circumstances that stretch our ability to deal with them in either a reactive manner (we get stressed) or in a mindful manner (we deal with the stressor in a positive way).
Stress-reactivity is the norm; we get triggered and we go for it, it’s how we and most other people engage in our daily lives. A mindful approach to stressor-response is more difficult to practice, but the benefits are…ginormous!!
Here’s a question for you; how do you feel when you know that you’re reacting/getting stressed, you’ve promised yourself in the past that you wouldn’t do it again, and you find that you’re back in the pattern again? Do you scold yourself and promise that you’ll do it differently next time? If so, then here’s how:
REACT VERSUS RESPOND:
When we encounter a stressor (stimulus) we have the option to follow our emotions (physiology) and react to our belief (feelings) that we’re being threatened. Granted, in some cases, what we’re perceiving might be a threat; if a boss says “you’re fired,” or a spouse/partner says, “if you don’t change, I’m done!” Or perhaps, you look at your bank account, and you realize that your balance is $2000, but you have $3000 worth of payments being processed. Or…you arrive at work to find out that one of your peers has called in sick with Covid-19, and you’ve got to pick up extra patients. Whatever the cause, real or imagined, life-threatening, or just a nuisance, how you respond, or if you react and can’t respond, it affects your well-being.
MINDFULNESS = RESPONSE-ABILITY
Mindfulness is an antidote to stress reactivity; it’s a way of toning down the habitual pattern of reacting, allowing you to respond in a manner that’s clear, that’s well-thought-out, and that provides you with the greatest clarity on how to proceed.
Mindfulness, also known as mindfulness-meditation is a practice of bringing the attention back, repeatedly, to an object of focus; we usually use the breath as that object of focus since…it’s always with us!
When we’re in a stress-reactive state, a perceived threat, whether it’s a real-life situation, a potential situation, or one of our neurotic self-narratives, we react and experience physiological stress when confronted with a stimulus or stressor. When we’re mindful, and this will happen each time that we bring mindfulness into play, we first realize that we’re experiencing stress, and then – by attending to our stress reaction – we can investigate whether what we’re experiencing is valid, i.e. are we about to face certain death, or is our reactivity more habitual than actual.
Mindfulness slows down the habitual reactivity of the body and mind.
To practice mindfulness:
Sitting on a straight-backed chair or couch or on a cushion on the floor, allow your body to become still. The back is straight without being stiff; the posture is relaxed, awake, and dignified. The hands can rest gently on the knees or in the lap. The eyes are open, simply resting the gaze on whatever is in front of you, without thinking too much about what you’re viewing. Settling into this moment, begin watching the breath.
Become aware of the fact that you’re breathing. Become aware of the movement of the breath as it flows into and out of the body. Feel the breath as it comes into the body and as it leaves the body. Simply remain aware of the breath flowing in and flowing out, not manipulating the breathing in any way. Simply being aware of it and noticing how it feels.
When your mind becomes distracted—and it will become distracted—simply return to the breath. No commentary. No judgment.
Allow yourself to be with this flow of breath, coming in and going out. Notice the feeling of the breath as the lungs fill with air on the in-breath and deflate as you breathe out, the chest expanding and collapsing. Perhaps feeling the breath in the abdomen, rising as you breathe in and flattening and sinking as you breathe out. Allow your attention to gently ride on the sensation of each breath, not thinking about breathing, without the need to comment. Simply watching your breathing.
Allow the breath to naturally breathe itself, not needing to change it in any way, giving full attention to each breath. Observe the full cycle of each breath, locating the very beginning of the breath, as it enters the nose or mouth, and following it as it fills the lungs and expands the chest and the abdomen, then comes to the gap where there is neither in-breath nor out-breath, before it turns around and makes its journey out of the body. Simply remain present for the cycle of each breath, being there, letting your attention gently float on the awareness of your breath.
After a short time, you may notice that the mind wanders off to thoughts of the past, fantasies, memories, or regrets. Or it may move to anticipation of the future, planning, wishing, and judging. You may find yourself thinking about what you’ll do after this exercise, what you have to do at work, things that you have to do.
As soon as you become aware that the attention has moved off the breath, guide it back to the next breath with a gentle and firm awareness.
There’s no need to give yourself a hard time, saying, “How did I become so distracted?” Simply come back to this breath. Watching the breath and the arising thoughts without judgment, simply observing. Once again, bringing the attention to this breath, in this moment. Breathing in with the in-breath, breathing out with the out-breath. Feeling the movement in your body. The breath anchoring the attention in this moment.
When the mind wanders, bring your attention back to the breath, knowing that you can always use the awareness of your breath to refocus your attention, to return to the present. Whenever you notice that you have drifted from the present—when you become distracted, preoccupied, or restless—the attention on the breath can be a powerful anchor to this moment and to this state of awake stillness.
And now, for the time remaining, let go of all particular objects of attention, allowing yourself to simply be here, simply present. Breath moving, sensations in the body, sounds, thoughts, all of it coming and going…allowing all of it…and dropping into being, into stillness, present with it all, as it unfolds, complete, as you are, whole.
And…relax.
BREAKING HABITS TAKES TIME:
To learn to tame your habitual reactivity will take time…but it’s worth it! You’ll fail, then have a little success, then fail again, then succeed, and then fail again. That’s good; it means you’re progressing.
Each moment of mindfulness, is one less moment of reactivity.
Please feel free to drop me a line and let me know how you’re doing. Feel free to visit my blog and read the hundreds of posts I’ve written on how to meditate, the science behind meditation, and lots of other cool stuff. And I really do mean it, if you have a questions, ask me…I’m always more than happy to answer.
In mindfulness,
Jerome Stone, RN
Author – Minding the Bedside: Nursing from the Heart of the Awakened Mind
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