The art of MINDFULNESS
His Holiness the Dalai Lama, who turns 83 on July 6, is said to rise before 3am and the first thing he does is sit in meditation. But even after 60-plus years of practice, he says he finds meditation difficult. So how can we learn to do it if someone like the Dalai Lama struggles? The goal is to recognise what meditation actually is.
THE JEWEL MIND
According to the Dalai Lama, the road to happiness is innermost awareness. Contrary to what many people understand, meditation isn’t about stilling the mind, it’s more about learning to observe it so that we come to understand ourselves better.
“The nature of the thinking mind is that it is always active so don’t try to stop it, that’s impossible,” says Paul Bedson, meditation trainer at The Gawler Foundation. “Step back from your thoughts and just observe them … it just takes a little practice, so be patient.”
LETTING GO
Bedson is keen to shed light on one of the greatest misconceptions about meditation – that we’re all trying too hard. “Many meditators are practising with subtle hopes, dreams or expectations that something should happen. But the only thing that should happen when you’re meditating is that you stop waiting for something to happen,” he says. That might sound complex and counterproductive but what he is saying is that adding meditation to a list of goals is unlikely to achieve the results you want – for example, inner peace.
Goals require action and cultivating a meditation practice requires discipline to get it off the ground, but if we can let go of it being a goal – something we need to ‘do’, it can become something we can just ‘be’ – as in, we can be in a mindful state rather than trying to add mindfulness to our already hectic to-do lists. Daily mindfulness meditation has great benefits and can help reduce blood pressure, relieve stress and improve sleep patterns. But the beauty of
mindfulness is that you don’t need to be sitting on a cushion to do it. You can be on the bus, having a conversation, washing the dishes. Mindfulness is available in every moment; learning how to tune in is the key. That shift in itself can be the turning point for many people’s practice.
IT’S NOT ILLEGAL TO THINK
Andy Amos, founder of One Moment, says that distractions are actually the way into meditation. “Often when you meditate, distractions can seem endless. You might think this is anything but being in the moment, but that’s exactly what you are.” When you become aware of every thought that’s arising – that’s mindfulness. “Those thoughts were already there. You’re now becoming more aware of them.” So actually, every time you realise you’re thinking – you’ve become aware again – and that’s meditation.
THE BENEFITS
A study published in the Journal of American Medical Association says that mindfulness meditation helps fight insomnia and improves sleep. Setting aside time to meditate is ideal but if you find you’re not doing that, there are ways to be mindful wherever you are.
Being mindful is easier than you might think. “Mindfulness-based meditation styles involve observing your body sensations, feelings, perceptions and thoughts with non-judgemental attention,” says Bedson. “Non-judgemental attention means simply being present to the moment without any expectations or preferences.”
The next time you want to try practising mindfulness meditation, observe your thoughts: are they jumpy, slow, rapid? Do they jolt from one episode to another? That’s OK, as Bedson says, the nature of the mind is to think. Mindfulness meditation is simply an opportunity to watch those patterns and create a circuit breaker. Not because thinking is wrong but because we want to be able to be present to our feelings rather than riding a runaway train to Thoughtsville.