We live in a noisy world that is constantly competing for our attention. But as teacher Sharon Salzberg reminds us, our focus is strongest when we can rest and restore it.
When we talk about attention, we often use active and extractive verbs: pay, give, court, leverage. In mindfulness, attention is not a commodity to be used; it is a gift that must be nurtured. How would it feel vacation our attention?
This week, teacher Sharon Salzberg offers a guided meditation that is grounding and deeply restorative as we practice holding our consciousness with the lightest touch
Meditation to rest your attention
Read the guided meditation script below, pausing after each paragraph. Or listen to the audio practice.
- You can sit or lie comfortably in this meditation. Close your eyes, or if you keep them open, just find a place in front of you to rest your gaze.
- Focus your attention on the sensation of inhaling and exhalingin the nostrils, on the chest or on the abdomen. Just normal, natural breathing.
- If I remain silent, it is a sign for you to implement what I have just suggested.
- As you feel the breath, you can make a very quiet mental note of the breath. Inhaling and then exhaling again. Maybe it’s one time, or maybe it’s two, that you silently repeat the word breathing as you inhale breathing as you breathe out.
- Think about it breathing when a thought or feeling arises that is strong enough to take your attention away from your breath. Just mark it silently as do not breathe: It is not breath, and you can recognize it just like that. So we have breathing and we have do not breathe.
- It is important to understand that it does not matter whether it is the most beautiful thought in the world or the most terrible thought in the world. It’s just not breathing. You should not judge yourself. You don’t need to get lost in your thoughts or clarify them. You realize it’s just not breathing. Release very gently and return your attention to the sensation of your breath.
- Some of your thoughts or feelings may be tender, caring. Some of them may seem harsh or offensive, but this is not breathing. You can see them, recognize them, let them go and bring our attention back to the sensation of the breath. These thoughts and feelings are like clouds moving across the sky. Some are very light and fluffy, very attractive. Some of them are quite sinister and menacing, but all of them do not breathe. We just let them go.
- Our habitual tendency is to cling to a thought or feeling, to build a whole world around it, or to push it away, to fight it. Here we keep even, balanced, calm. We simply understand that it is not breathing. Release very carefully. We bring our attention back to one breath at a time
- When you feel ready, you can open your eyes or look upand we will finish the meditation.
