1) Begin with your
body. Don’t imagine that deeper mindfulness is about letting go of
the body. Your body is the instrument on which you play out your
life. Love your body. Take care of your body.
Diet and exercise are a
core part of your practice. (Details on my deeper mindfulness
courses)
2) Breathe the breath
of life. (My course is very strongly focused on breathing.) Here are
the deepest secrets I can impart to you that will change your life.
Learn to breathe slowly and deeply from the base of your spine to the
place between your eyes. You probably do not breathe deeply yet.
3) Kundalini. Waiting
for your attention, a wonderful serpent is coiled around the base of
your spine. When you awaken it, this serpent energy rises through the
Chakras to transform your life. There are many ways to awaken
Kundalini. It can happen spontaneously, but I recommend you find a
teacher. (I may be able to help you.)
4) Meditation. The aim
is to concentrate your mind. Some people can concentrate on video
games for hours on end. A heron stands in the water motionless for
ages, concentrating on fish. The difference between these things and
real meditation is the focus. There are many names for this focus:
God, the Self, the Atman, Shiva, are but a few. If you wish to be
deeply mindful in your life you will need to learn to meditate. The
best time for meditation is on waking before the demands of ordinary
life intrude. However, you can take time out of your day at any
moment to become centred and rediscover deeper mindfulness for your
work.
5) Posture. Everyone
has seen the yogi sitting in the lotus position deep in mindful
meditation. A small child can easily sit this way. An adult westerner
will struggle. An older person will not be able to reach and hold the
position. However, you do not even have to sit with your back
straight, though this is a good thing to do. A chair helps in this if
you are not comfortable in the lotus, the half lotus or cross legged.
Older people may find that wonderful things are possible lying flat
on a mattress in corpse pose. I recommend this to people of a certain
age.
6) Deeper Mindfulness
in walking. There are many ways of being you can experience in the
course of a walk. Walking with a deeper mindfulness can take you to
beautiful inner places as well as into the beauty of nature. Even a
city landscape can become a place of deeper mindfulness. It is all about the quality of your attention to your world.
7) Deeper Mindfulness
in vision. Some choose an outer point of light like a candle flame to
concentrate upon for meditation. The goal is to become centred
within. The still focus on the outer object leads you inwards to a
deeper stillness of mind. As you go deeper into meditation visions
will come. But you can also deepen your vision by creating art and
photography in the outside world. You can learn to bring your deeper
mindfulness into the world through creative work. (Check out my
Mindful Photography courses and workshops)
8) Mantra. “So Ham”
means “I am That, That I am.” If you practice saying “So” on
the in-breath and “Ham” on the out-breath in your practice you
will begin to discover your deeper being, your higher Self. You will
be truly surprised what changes this mantra will bring to your life.
(See the section on Mantra in my Deeper Mindfulness course). Playing
on a "singing bowl" may be helpful in attuning you for meditation and
peace of mind. You can also find helpful chants to learn on my deeper mindfulness youtube channel.
9) Follow the left hand
pathway for a change. (This is sometimes called Tantric Yoga). Many people learn a few lessons from ancient
India or Buddhist practice and apply them to daily western life,
calling it mindfulness. It is certainly better than being mindless,
the way of habitual repetition. But following the right handed path, the common way studied in Hatha Yoga, best known in the west) is introverted and leads to a deep withdrawal from the entanglements
of living in the world, which few are able to follow very far. There is a left
handed path which is also worthy of your consideration. This path
leads to spiritual connection with the other and a deeper human
relatedness. Try sitting with your partner and meditating on the
connection between you. (Much more on this in my Deeper Mindfulness
courses)
10) Respect and
Compassion. All Mindfulness courses focus on helping you live your
daily life in a more mindful way. The foundation of any such way of
living flows from a profound respect and compassion for the world you
live in, for yourself and the people in your life. Each person you meet has a divine spark within them. Respect
that spark and honour it in the way you interact with the other.
Compassion is natural to some, less so to others. You can open up
your compassion for the suffering of the world and its beings by
focusing on the heart chakra in your meditations, seeing the light of
love emanating from your heart out into the world. You can also
meditate on achieving power with people rather than power over people
through the will centre chakra.
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