Mindfulness Meditation

[Morzart]

Recently i switched from Do Nothing Meditation to Mindfulness Meditation. What i'm basically doing is focusing on my breath and noticing how my abdomen raises and lowers. I also count from 1 to 10 with each breath and then start from 1 again.

Today i rewatched Leo's video on that topic where he explains mindfulness meditation as to focus your awareness on inner and outer sights, inner and outer sounds and inner and outer feelings and then label and savor it for a few seconds.

As i tend to meditate with closed eyes, i will not have that much of outer sights that will arise. Does it have any negative effects if i don't focus on that part of experience? Also, with eyes opened it would also be not that effective, because i don't think it's recommended to look around that much during meditation.

So would it be enough if i focus just on the inner experience with sights? Of course it is possible to keep awareness on outer sights during normal life, but during regular meditation it doesn't make that much sense to me.

Please share your experience on mindfulness meditation if you do it the way Leo is proposing it.

 

[Guivs]

It depends.

Closing your eyes might help you focus better on your breath, so that you can achieve a concentrated state of mind. With this method, the rest of the environment is kind of discarded and if you go deep enough and let go, other sense of hearing, seeing might disappear altogether. This brings a lot of relaxation and seeing the mind empty of most sensorial inputs can bring insights.

On the other hand, having your eyes open might help you be aware of everything with the breathing within the space of awareness. This is a meditation which is much more open, and that allows you to embrace the environment, so to speak. With practice, every sound might seem as if they come out of you and acceptance of everything gets enhanced and brings insights as well

Two techniques that might make it easier in one way or another, so you decide  

[Nahm]

Just a suggestion from what I like, but try this for a while and see if it serves to increase the mindfulness of your breathe during meditation-

http://m.wikihow.com/Sing-Using-Your-Diaphragm

 

My meditations are served by this practice as it increased the acuity of my awareness of my breathing.

 

[Morzart]

@Nahm That's funny, i did the singing part in a band some time ago and doing the right breathing is also very important there. Thanks for reminding me 

@Guivs I have to see for myself i guess. Today i meditated with eyes open for half of the meditation and i seemed to be more in tune with my environment. With eyes closed it's just that i get more relaxed. But that's just my opinion from todays practice.