Meditation Skill 01

Intentional relaxation of effort and tuning into how nice it feels to relax will train your mind to let go of the world around you and rest deeply within your body. Gentle diaphragmatic (belly) breathing is a natural doorway to developing deep physical and mental relaxation that will lower your experience of stress and increase your body awareness throughout the day.

.............................................

• Set a countdown timer on your phone (set to DND) and place it behind you. 
• Meditation Length: Meditate for 20 min, gradually increasing to 30 min.
• Benefits: This Meditation Skill will teach you how to lower your experience of stress & restlessness in your daily life and help you feel more relaxed in your body throughout the day.
• Attention & Awareness: Allow your attention to focus in the foreground on the subtle pleasantness of relaxing your body while keeping a background, peripheral awareness of the growing feeling of comfort and increased awareness of your body.
• Progression: You feel comfortable in your body during your meditation and no longer experience physical restlessness or the desire to move around during your session.

.............................................

Meditation Instructions:

When joined, these five steps create the complete meditation for Skill 01: Body Relaxation. Learn each step individually and then, when comfortable, combine them all together. For insight, be curious about how to calm restlessness and enjoy how nice it feels to relax your body.

1. Preparation: Sit for meditation, reflect gratefully to sweeten your mind, then allow your eyelids to gently close, relaxing them.
2. Mindfulness:  To develop mindfulness, listen to the flow and change of sound around you, allowing it to hold your attention > Once you feel more settled, develop stable mindfulness by being aware of your clothing touching your body.
3. Belly Breaths: Next, place your palms below your belly button to feel the breathing movement, and enjoy taking 5 slow in & out-breaths in your belly to further relax.
4. Body Breaths: Take 5 more slow breaths starting in your belly and filling your chest, allowing your whole body to relax with each out-breath.
5. Enjoy Relaxing: Once relaxed, allow your breathing to flow by itself for the rest of the meditation, and enjoy the feeling of relaxation and comfort in your body to completely let go. 
6. Insight: To develop insight, take interest in any feelings of restlessness or the desire to move your body around. Playfully, learn how to settle these feelings of restlessness by using slow belly breaths, as learnt above, to develop comfort in your body.

.....................................

Note on Anxiety: If you are currently experiencing anxiety, your ability to experience the subtle pleasantness of relaxing and letting go may not be easy for your mind to access. In this case, I recommend first retraining your stress breathing patterns by following these instructions: 

Meditation for Anxiety.  

Intentional relaxation of effort and tuning into how nice it feels to relax will train your mind to let go of the world around you and rest deeply within your body. Gentle diaphragmatic (belly) breathing is a natural doorway to developing deep physical and mental relaxation that will lower your experience of stress and increase your body awareness throughout the day.

When joined, these five steps create the complete meditation for Skill 01: Body Relaxation. Learn each step individually and then, when comfortable, combine them all together. For insight, be curious about how to calm restlessness and enjoy how nice it feels to relax your body.

Step 1: Preparation.

Sitting comfortably and reflecting gratefully brings your focus toward your meditation.

• Sit in Meditation: Find a comfortable place to sit on a chair or the floor for meditation that is secluded from disturbance for this short time. This may be a quiet room, garden or sitting in your car.
• Reflect Gratefully: Begin your meditation by sweetening your mind with reflections on simple things in your life for which you can be grateful, including this opportunity to meditate, then allow your eyelids gently close, relaxed.

Step 2: Mindfulness.

Begin your meditation by taking your time be mindful of these two things one after the other..

• Flow of Sound: To develop mindfulness, spend a few minutes listening to the flow of sounds around you. Let the flow and change of sound hold your attention. 
• Clothing on Your Body: Once you feel more present, become aware of the touch of clothing resting on your body. Allow this simple experience to hold your attention.

Step 3: Belly Breaths.

Once you feel mindful of sitting in meditation you can relax further with belly breaths.

• Place your palms below your belly button. Slowly extend the lower part of your belly away from your body and notice how the breath comes in through your nose.
• Slowly lower your belly and notice how the breath goes back through your nose. Play around with this belly-breathing movement, being careful not to overextend your belly or to try too hard. This is simply a way of reminding your body to relax.
• Observe the effect: After taking 10 breath cycles allow your breathing to happen naturally and see how your body feels over the next few minutes. Notice any changes in how your body feels such as your breathing becoming deeper and your body feeling more relaxed.

Step 4: Body Breaths.

Once you are comfortable with belly breathing, learn to breathe up into your whole body.

• Place your hands on your ribs and extend them out slightly to open your chest. Slowly from your belly up into your chest, filling your chest like a balloon. 
• Allow the breath slowly out and feel your body relax with the out-breath. The secret is to allow your body and rib cage to rest on your lungs as they inflate and deflate. This allows your body muscles to stretch and fully relax with each breath.
• Observe the effect: After taking 5 breath cycles, remove your palms and allow your breathing to happen naturally noticing any feeling of increased relaxation and comfort within your body.

Step 5: Enjoy Relaxing.

Your next step is to learn to enjoy the relaxed feeling of your body to allow it to grow.

• Relaxing your body with softening breaths can only take meditation so far. For relaxation to deepen you need to actively enjoy how pleasant it feels to relax.
• Once you have completed the previous steps, let go of any intentional control of your breathing and allow it to occur naturally for the rest of the meditation. Focus on the gentle stretch and relaxation of each in-breath and out-breath. 
• Take a moment to release extra effort in your shoulders, chest, and upper back by slowly letting them drop with each exhale. Allow the feeling of relaxation to flow through your arms, hands, legs, and feet and most importantly: enjoy the feeling of relaxation.
• Restlessness: If you feel any restlessness building in your body as the desire to move around, take a few more slow belly breaths and relax.

Step 6: Insight.

Once you are familiar with relaxing, you can now use it to develop insight.

• Insight into restlessness: Develop insight into restlessness by noticing any feelings of restlessness or the desire to move around, particularly when you begin your meditation or near the end. Playfully learn how to settle these feelings of restlessness using slow belly breaths as in Step 3. Understanding restlessness and how to calm it will teach you how to truly relax and let go, in all aspects of your life. 
• Insight into other hindrances: At this stage of meditation, your mind will wander to thoughts, become sleepy, or even forget that you are meditating. This is a normal part of meditating in daily life and should not be taken personally. These are simply mental habits we have developed throughout our life, and as your mind becomes familiar with how nice it is to relax and let go, all these things will settle down. During Meditation Skill 01, all you need to focus on at this time is learning to calm physical restlessness and to develop relaxation and comfort sitting in meditation. This is a foundation for Meditation Skill 02: Mind Relaxation.

Tip: Positivity is everything in insight meditation. Everything can improve in some way, even if it is just a little bit. It is little improvements accumulate into significant life changes. If you have a habit of feeling stressed, you can learn how to be a little less stressed. If you tense up in your body during the day, you can learn how to be a little more relaxed during the day, and so on. Each Meditation Skill in this course will offer you its own reward that will significantly transform your life. I encourage you to recognise and celebrate each one as you develop it. This will lead you in the right direction.

Progression in mindfulness of breathing can be accurately tracked by observing your ability to access the 12 Meditation Markers. This can be done by developing insight into their associated Meditative Hindrance and changing the conditions that support them.

Your first step in meditation is to develop Marker 01: Body Relaxation (right column) to calm Hindrance 01: Physical Restlessness (left column). 

Progression Map for Mindfulness of Breathing

Meditative Hindrances.                       Meditation Markers.

01: Physical Restlessness.      →    01: Body Relaxation.

02: Mental Restlessness.                  02: Mind Relaxation.

03: Sleepiness & Drifting.                  03: Mindful Presence.

04: Habitual Forgetting.                     04: Content Happiness.

05: Habitual Control.                          05: Natural Breathing.

06: Mind Wandering.                          06: Length of Each Breath.

07: Gross Dullness.                            07: Breath Sensations.

08: Subtle Dullness.                           08: One Point of Sensation.

09: Subtle Wandering.                       09: Sustained Attention.

10: Sensory Stimulation.                  10: Whole-Body Breathing.

11: Anticipation of Pleasure.           11: Sustained Awareness.

12: Fear of Letting Go.                      12: Access Concentration.

Physical Restlessness: Being physically restless will hinder your ability to relax and calm down during meditation. During this stage of meditation, you can develop insight by being curious about what it means to find enjoyment in relaxing and letting go of effort in your body until all feelings of physical restlessness disappear. 

Other Hindrances: It is important to note that although your focus is on settling the Hindrance of Physical Restlessness at this stage of meditation, all the other Hindrances listed above may also be present. It is essential to settle each Hindrance in the order presented in the above Map for Mindfulness of Breathing, as each Marker is the antidote for its associated Hindrance.

Progression: Once you can calm physical restlessness and feel comfortable sitting in meditation without the need to move around, you are ready to settle Hindrance 02: Mental Restlessness by developing Marker 02: Mind Relaxation.

There will be times during meditation when you find it difficult to feel comfortable and relaxed in your body. These difficulties, known as the 12 Meditative Hindrances, are viewed in MIDL as opportunities to develop understanding and insight into your mind and body. 

Below, we can see that in Meditation Skill 01, the first Meditative Hindrance that you develop insight into is feelings of physical restlessness in your body.

Meditative Hindrances.

01: Physical Restlessness.

02: Mental Restlessness.

03: Sleepiness & Drifting.

04: Habitual Forgetting.

05: Habitual Control.

06: Mind Wandering.

07: Gross Dullness.

08: Subtle Dullness.

09: Subtle Wandering.

10: Sensory Stimulation.

11: Anticipation of Pleasure.

12: Fear of Letting Go.

Meditative Hindrance: 

Physical Restlessness (01).

Unable to experience physical comfort.

Physical Restlessness refers to when you feel unsettled in your body and need to move around and fidget to get comfortable during meditation. It occurs during meditation due to energy build-up from stress/aversion or overstimulation in our daily lives. Simplifying your life and relaxing with slow, softening breaths will lower your experience of stress and anxiety and weaken your desire to distract yourself with sensory stimulation.

Antidote: Be curious about what it means to find enjoyment in relaxing your body with slow-gentle belly breaths. Retraining your breathing patterns with diaphragmatic breathing will aid in lowering your experience of stress and anxiety. It is also helpful to bring gratitude to your mind by reflecting on the small things you are grateful for. Include in this how fortunate you are to have this time to meditate and spend time with yourself.

Other Hindrances: When developing Marker 01: Body Relaxation, it is normal to experience mind wandering, becoming sleepy, or even forgetting that you are meditating. At this stage of the development of skill in relaxation and calm, your only concern is bringing relaxation to your body. When you notice that your mind has wandered or that you have forgotten that you are meditating, smile with your eyes to reward your mind and take a few belly breaths to bring mindful awareness back to your body.

If anxiety is present, I recommend retraining your breathing patterns following these instructions: Meditation for Anxiety. This technique lowers the experience of stress & anxiety, as well as making it easier to develop calm during meditation and feel it in daily life.

You are ready to progress to Meditation Skill 02: Mind Relaxation when:

• You feel comfortable & at ease in your body during your meditation and no longer experience physical restlessness or the desire to move around during your session.

Added Note: Your mind will wander, and you may feel sleepy during this stage of meditation. This is perfectly ok and a sign of successful relaxation. These are both signs of imbalances in your mind's energy and will be addressed as your meditation practice deepens. For now, take an interest in how your mind wandering and sleepiness happen by themself (anatta). 

Observing in this way will increase your mindfulness and begin to teach your mind to let these imbalances go. The most important part of this stage of meditation is that when you notice that your mind has wandered, you come back to being curious about how deeply you can relax your body.

• SoundCloud: Guided Meditation.
• Insight Timer: Guided Meditation.
• You Tube: Video Instructions.

Your first step in bringing insight meditation into your daily life is to create a foundation / reference point from which to develop insight. The foundation/reference point the Buddha recommended is kaya-gata sati: mindfulness immersed within your body.

The first step in immersing mindfulness in your body is to learn to relax your body, with clear comprehension of what it feels like to relax. The purpose of Meditation Skill 01 is to develop your skill of immersing awareness within your body through relaxing and letting go.

Meditative Hindrance.                        Meditation Marker.

01: Physical Restlessness.      →    01: Body Relaxation.

In Meditation Skill 01, you will learn four things that you can bring into your daily life:

1. To recognise physical restlessness.
2. To relax physical restlessness.
3. To appreciate how nice it feels to relax your body.
4. To notice that whenever you relax your body, with clear comprehension of it, that awareness of your body increases.

Once you are familiar with Meditation Skill 01, you can integrate it into your daily life. The key is to check in on how you feel throughout the day, starting with when you hop out of bed in the morning.

• How am I feeling now? 
• Am I holding more effort in my body than I need to?

If yes, take a few softening breaths to relax effort in your body, notice how nice it feels to relax, and then immerse yourself back into life. This simple act of taking a few softening breaths will withdraw your awareness from your intellectual mind and bring awareness into your body, therefore developing mindfulness of your body (grounding).

How to do it.

The key to being mindful of your body in daily life is not to try to be mindful of your body in daily life. 'Trying' will take you in the opposite direction, as your mind will see mindfulness as something else it has to do, with another problem to solve. 

It is important to make being mindful during the day something enjoyable for your mind to do rather than another job to complete. 

This is done by:

1. Enjoying noticing when you have forgotten to be mindful.
2. Taking a few breaths to relax your body when you notice.
3. Finding enjoyment in the relaxing breaths.
4. Clearly comprehending awareness returning to your body as you do.
5. Being satisfied with creating small gaps in mind wandering.

It's all about the gaps.

Being mindful in daily life is not about striving and straining to be mindful; it is about making being mindful a fun and enjoyable thing for your mind to do. By checking in every now and then throughout the day and softening/relaxing your body, you will create small gaps in the habitual patterns of your mind and body. With repetition, these gaps of habitual 'mindlessness' will gradually decrease, and your enjoyment of increased mindfulness will increase. Through enjoyment of how nice it feels to return to mindfulness, mindful awareness will begin to naturally rest in your body creating a place of safety for your mind from the stresses of daily life.

Stress throughout the day.

You can use the skills you have learnt in Meditation Skill 01 to gradually weaken your experience of stress throughout your day by re-engaging your diaphragm muscle in respiration whenever you notice you are feeling stressed. More information can be found in this section of the MIDL Insight Meditation website: Meditation for Anxiety: Reengage Your Diaphragm.

Add an answer to this item.