Today we are going to explore a series of different ways to cultivate mindfulness. This is a particularly helpful practice when the mind is busy, when we find it difficult to be present, when we are excited about something, or when it is just very difficult to calm down. Of course, this could sound like any day of the week. But there are times when we are so busy thinking, planning, worrying, stressing that it is really hard to focus on the breath, the body, or whatever meditation object we are using.
Attracting attention
This practice is a really useful method or tool that supports attention that relies on our physical sensory experience. So I’m going to instruct you to shift your attention from seeing awareness to hearing and to feeling your body.
And when I say “be mindful of vision,” I mean I’m going to suggest that you lower your gaze, as I’m doing now, and sit with a soft, focused attention: relaxed eyes, soft gaze, and just being aware of visual stimuli—color, light, shape, form. You’re not looking at anything in particular, you’re not observing or studying anything closely, you’re just aware that you’re getting the field of vision in the same way that we’re listening – and that’s going to be the next thing we shift our attention to. We will go from the seen to the heard.
And with hearing, again, you just open your attention and allow yourself to experience the whole auditory landscape—hearing ambient sounds, distant sounds, nearby sounds, the sound of my voice. This includes the sounds in the room where you are, or the sounds of nature, mechanical sounds – the general panorama of sounds.
So we will do this for a few moments and then shift our attention to the sensation of our physical experience. That is, the feeling of our posture, and in particular, the feeling of contact of the body with the ground or what you are sitting on. The focus will be on the sensation of your sit bones, legs, feet. We will also strive for some awareness of our breath. We will then cycle through these three primary experiences: seeing, hearing, and feeling. And we’ll do this rotation a few times to really get attention.
Another benefit is that whenever we move our attention in this way, it ignites our curiosity. And if we are interested, it allows us to engage our attention, allows us to stay more in the present.
A grounding practice to focus your busy mind
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Listen to the audio:
Read the guided meditation script below, pausing after each paragraph. Or listen to the audio practice.
- Start by finding a comfortable posture where you can sit upright and relaxed. Just take a moment to feel your physical experience. Ideally, the eyes are closed, and if not, then slightly lowered. Feel your body settle. Feel the contact of your body with the ground or the chair. Be aware of your posture, breathing and sensations. In the body.
- Now, from the experience of feeling the body, I invite you to open your eyes and just look in front of you. Lower your gaze, maybe a few feet – aim for relaxed, soft eyes, a soft gaze. And just keep in mind that what you see, you get with your eyes is color, light, shape, form, movement.
- Now close your eyes, lower your gaze even more and switch your attention to hearing. Be aware of the sound. Remember the silence. Be aware of all the diversity of the soundscape.
- And then switch your awareness back to the feeling of your body. The feeling of your posture, contact, touch, breath. And open your eyes: now we see. Aim for a soft look. Think savings with your eyes. You don’t need to make any special efforts. This is simple mindfulness of vision.
- Now I close my eyes and hear. There is no need to think about the sounds or the source of the sounds, just resting in the simple experience of hearing, listening.
- Now shift your attention back to the sensation of your body. Be interested in what you notice: temperature, breathing, the experience of contact and touch, other physical sensations.
- And goes to the awareness of what he sees againyes, with eyes wide open. Lower your eyes a little, look soft. Be aware of the experience of sitting here: sitting, seeing, hearing. There can be all kinds of noise going on in your head – thoughts, plans, worries – and yet this tuning in to sight, hearing and feeling keeps you grounded.
- Now we’re going to shift our focus a little faster among these three areas of our experience. So let’s close our eyes, shifting our awareness to hearing and feeling the sensations of your body. And now to vision: open your eyes. Now back to the hearing. Feeling your body. And finally, open your eyes and see.
- As we end our meditation, remember all three of these areas of experience: seeing, hearing and feeling. Notice how this practice allows you to stay grounded and present.
No matter what may be going on in your life, whether it’s a busy mind, problems in your body, or anything else that’s distracting you from the present moment, we can use this simple practice. Seeing, hearing, feeling: it’s a way to stay grounded, present, open. And it’s a way to support yourself to stay truly grounded in your immediate experience.
You can practice it anywhere: in the office, at home, in the park. Pay particular attention to the contrast between doing this practice indoors and supporting the senses outside. See if it makes a difference. And remember, you can use this practice anytime – especially if you’re having trouble being present, concentrating, or concentrating.
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