Struggling With Mindfulness Meditation

[improvementedward]

Like the title says, I'm struggling with mindfulness meditation. I've been doing a pretty good job of actually meditating every day, but feel like I haven't been making much progress with mindfulness itself. That is to say that I meditate, but it still seems like my mind is always wandering and I'm not really getting anything out of it.

Has anyone else struggled with this? What's worked for you? Do you have any recommendations for something like a guided meditation?

Right now, I aim to do at least 5 minutes of meditation per day (though I sometimes do more). When I meditate, I sit in a distraction-free environment, close my eyes, and focus on my breathing at the nostrils. When I feel my mind start to wander (which happens a lot), I gently turn my attention back to my breathing. Is there anything I could be doing better in my process?

I really appreciate your responses in advance!

[tedens]

Mindfulness medit.doesn't depend on focusing at breath.

[DrewNows]

I’d recommend to watch/meditate on this series

 

[improvementedward]

8 minutes ago, tedens said:

Mindfulness medit.doesn't depend on focusing at breath.

What do you recommend instead? Thanks for the response!

[improvementedward]

@DrewNows Thanks for sharing that! I'll definitely start listening

[tedens]

See Leo' s video at this title.

 

[ivory]

When working on day to day mindfulness I find it helpful to work with the breath first. The breath makes the mind calm and tranquil and more ready to practice mindfulness. There's much less resistance with the mind is calm.

[Nahm]

@improvementedward

For the meditation, focus on breathing from your stomach, just under your belly button - while sending the “let go signal” to every individual muscle until you feel it “let go”, from the crown of your head, then eye sockets, cheek bones, jaw, neck, etc, down to your toes - over and over and over. Do this while maintaining / returning focus on stomach breathing.   Don’t try to stop thoughts, they’re just thoughts.

For the mindfulness - everything, every single thing, changes. There is one exception, one thing which never ever changes, awareness. You, obviously, are the awareness, as you, are, aware. Not mindful is lost in the world / thoughts. Mindful is being, awareness of you - that which is aware of all changing things. 

[improvementedward]

Thanks to everyone for all of the advice, I'll definitely give it a shot! I'll also check out Leo's video on this as well, I haven't seen that yet.

[Highest]

Be the observer, the witness of mind activity. Observe them come and go, don’t identify, don’t judge, give them no interest, just let them come and go, just be the observer. Another good and important thing is to contemplate and self-inquire. All three combined should work good.

[Sahil Pandit]

@improvementedward Look into the work of Shinzen Young. 

He's got plenty of mindfulness videos that are high quality and will really help you.

Especially when it comes to labeling your sensory field (Seeing, touching, feeling, hearing..etc.)

His videos have really helped me with mindfulness, although there are infinite levels of depth to it, of which i have only scratched the surface. 

[SgtPepper]

I like to do a yoga-inspired stretch and breathe deeply, stretch my body, relax, takes about 10 minutes. Then I meditate, which to me is just the process of being. I try to stay aware, and I focus on my breathe, but I also try to stay peripherally aware of everything else in a way, while noticing my breathe. I naturally go on thought adventures, notice it, and just come back to awareness. 

Thoughts aren't a bad thing, the coming back to awareness from the thought is the important part.  

Edited February 26, 2019 by SgtPepper

[Anton Rogachevski]

Hello and welcome,

Just keep at it, and gradually increase the duration of practice. Expect long plateaus and feeling like you are totally wasting your time. It's the thoughts that try to convince you to quit. Don't believe thoughts and emotions, they are not yours, nor do they want what's best for you. Meditation is just a pure and simple self dicipline method.

Let go of all expectations, progress, and purposes you hold about meditation.

You will feel progress retrospectively after months of practice. It's so gradual you won't feel any change on the day to day.

A modern zen master said:

"Meditation is good for nothing." And it's true.

Edited February 26, 2019 by Anton Rogachevski

[Wisebaxter]

Yeah Leo's 'noting' method, (developed by Shinzen Yung I believe) will help you I think because the act of noting and focusing on what you've noted for a few seconds helps calm your monkey mind. Otherwise the mind will jump around quite a lot from object to object. 

Edited February 27, 2019 by Wisebaxter

[Markus]

@improvementedward You can google "Five Ways to Know Yourself" by Shinzen Young. It is a free pdf format book where Shinzen describes his mindfulness system and all the options one can do within that. Perhaps it'll give you a broader understanding of what mindfulness is about and the opportunity to experiment with different techniques to find a good fit for you.

[Mart]

My best advice would be to meditate twice a day for 20 minutes and build up to 30 minutes. Also doing a long session a couple of times a week (90min+) can be really beneficial for some. 

It might not be like this for everyone, but for me this type of quantity is nessecary to get quality in the first place.