May Meditation Nudge 17
Sunday, May 17, 2020
Awareness and Mindfulness
This is an ongoing series running through May to compliment the twice weekly meditation sessions that I will be hosting on YouTube (and are now archived on my YouTube page). If you have any questions, please contact me.
Awareness and mindfulness live side by side when we are meditating. We hear more about mindfulness these days.
Mindfulness is constantly, or as constantly as I can muster, checking that my mind has not wandered off from the object of meditation. If my mind has become distracted and is lost in story, it is mindfulness that catches that and brings it back to the object of meditation.
Awareness is being conscious of what we are giving our attention to in that moment. If my object of meditation is the breath as it enters and leaves the nose, awareness is fully with that sensation, watching the breath come and go and not getting in its way. Simply observing.
In choosing to meditate, in choosing to bring awareness and mindfulness into our lives, we are choosing to live with a form of discipline. Note the word choosing. As a meditator this is not being imposed upon you. It is voluntary. You are voluntarily choosing to bring some control to your mind, to train your mind. You are choosing to not let the mind wander off whenever and wherever it feels like. Further more when it does, you are choosing, you are striving to not react, but rather note the distraction and gently return to the object of meditation using the combined actions of mindfulness and awareness.