Welcome Back to Your 7-Day Meditation Kickstart
Day 3
Review the previous day
Understanding the settled mind
Misconception Buster
Today's misconception that we are going to bust is the idea that a settled mind requires great effort and going to battle with your thoughts. Or, that having a settled mind means having a perfectly quiet mind. The good news is you don’t have to battle your thoughts, nor do you have to hope your mind falls completely silent in order to become settled.
What is a settled mind?
According to our definition of meditation, we are engaged in the experience of cultivating present moment awareness and, when possible, quieting the mind. So let's talk about present moment awareness.
To be in the present moment means to be in the here and now. In other words, we can't obsess about the past or worry about the future and be in the present moment. Therefore, present moment awareness is being completely engaged in whatever activity we're doing in the moment. In this case, it's meditation.
In order to cultivate this state of present moment awareness, we want to practice letting go of control of our thinking mind. That means we ideally want to refrain from concentration, contemplation, analyzation, evaluation, and focus. Instead, we want to be in the flow of whatever's happening in the moment, without over-thinking about the fact that we're thinking. It's a lot like doing the backpack-kid dance. If you try to over-think it you can't do it. Instead you have to find the flow and lose yourself in the movement:
This is essentially the practice of meditation, because it sets the conditions for a settled mind. To be more specific, here are common symptoms that your mind is indeed settling in meditation:
You're having seemingly unrelated (i.e. random) thoughts
You feel as though you're gathering your thoughts, or mulling over your to-do list
You may feel like you're falling asleep
You sense that time is speeding up or slowing down
The other good news is you don't have to do anything extra for your mind to settle. In fact, the less you do in meditation, the better it works. The motto of this approach to meditation is to err on the side of “doing less to accomplish more.”
Just when you want to manage your thoughts by envisioning the white light, or pushing out negative thoughts, remember to do less, do least, and ultimately, to do nothing. Instead, allow your mind to do whatever it's doing.
This is the key to initiating a settling effect. And I admit, it's easier said than done. But over time, you'll get used to doing nothing, and that's when your practice will grow to a new level of simplicity.
Today's Practice:
Scale back on the doing to increase the settling
In popular culture, the poster boy for laziness is Homer Simpson. He's notoriously lazy in nearly everything he does. In meditation, we want to adopt the Homer Simpson approach when it comes to handling the mind. Do less to accomplish more. In other words, be mentally lazy. Reduce expectations. Heck, fall asleep if you want. It really doesn't matter. This is your attitude. Whatever happens is fine by you.
Instructions
Sit comfortably
Set your “chime” for 10 minutes
Practice embracing your thoughts
Let go of any need to control your experience
When the chime sounds, you're done.
Conclusion
A freely-thinking mind is a settled mind. It's not more focus that we need in order to initiate the settling effect, it's less focus. Tomorrow, we'll introduce the secret ingredient for refining the settling effect. But first, you need to practice letting go of control. So don't skip your homework meditation.
Be Accountable
Post an image that represents how you've been feeling after three straight days of meditation, and make sure to tag #lightsmeditationkickstart so we can all follow your progress..
