Back to the Breath - Week 2 of our 6 Week Meditation Series at ArcStone

If you missed why many of us at ArcStone are meditating in the first place, take a quick peek at "Practicing Mindfulness at Work – A 6 Week Meditation Series."

If you've taken yoga, have meditated before, or simply used deep breaths as a technique to calm down, you already know the benefits of focusing on your breath. I've tried this myself before, however the latest lesson from my boss, David, indeed enlightened me a bit.  

After our first session and then a week of meditating on our own, the ArcStone team came to our week 2 session and reflected on the first few tries at mediation. A common theme heard around the room was that our minds were still racing, even when we tried our darndest to slow them down.

David's solution for this was what some meditators refer to as "binding awareness to the breath." 

The process of binding

Binding: a basic practice to help achieve the balance of relaxed alertness necessary for this style of meditation.

Instructions from David: 

So, in short, you repeat binding in an exaggerated manner for a few minutes, until it becomes more natural and you get into a zone of being very relaxed, but entirely alert.

This may come as a surprise to you as the purpose of meditating is to quiet your mind, right? However, David pointed out how those noises are always around you, just as your thoughts are always bouncing around in your head. What we're trying to achieve through meditation is to cultivate an increase level of awareness and attention - mindfulness.

Developing mindfulness enables us to choose how we react to the constant thoughts and sensations in our lives. We can choose to not fly off the handle when we hear a criticism or we can make better choices as to how we spend our time and energy - bottom line it helps us to not be on automatic pilot all the time. 

And underneath all the chaos there's another huge piece of the puzzle – the shared silence that connects us all. 

How can you try this yourself? 

First practice binding...

If you haven't already, try sitting for 10-20 minutes. For the first few minutes, focus on a sharp inhale to pull your thoughts to that one focus, and then a relaxing exhale to let some of that go. When your mind drifts, bring your attention back to the breath and use it as the anchor of your practice.

From there, hear the buzz of the world around you, and shift from thoughts about the day, to the current moment.

Try this focused style of breathing, and once that's comfortable, start listening. Once that feels more comfortable, find the silence underneath it all. 

Secondly, journal... 

 Thoughts? Questions? Reach out to us @arcstone or at info@arcstone.com.