Cultivate Your Witness Self with Mindfulness Meditation

If I’ve inspired you in my last blog entry to give meditation a try, here’s a very basic form of mindfulness meditation, adapted from Vipassana Buddhism:

• Find a quiet place to sit in a chair or on the floor, with your eyes open or closed, whichever is most comfortable to you. Set a timer for the amount of time you plan to sit.
• Become aware of your breathing, focusing on the sensation of air moving in and out of your body as you breathe.
• When thoughts come up in your mind, whether worrying, planning, wishing, don’t try to ignore or suppress them. Simply note them and return your awareness to your breath without judging yourself, no matter how many times you do it.
• When the timer goes off, get up gradually.

Loving Kindness Meditation

This practice also comes from the Vipassana Buddhist tradition. It is an offering of kind wishes to yourself and others. It can be done anywhere, anytime. I started doing it when I was going through a difficult time in my publishing company and felt helpless. I’d wake up in the night worrying. This gave me something else to do. It operates on the principle that the energy of well-wishing helps bring the good result into being. And even if that is not true, it creates happiness as you offer kindness and compassion to yourself, those you know, and all those you don’t. Plus research by Harvard psychology professor Richard Davidson has found that such compassion meditation can reduce activity in your amygdala. Sit or lie down quietly. The point is to find 4 or 5 phrases that represent what you most wish for yourself and others. Think to yourself: what do I wish most for myself and for those I love?

Here are mine:

• [You begin with yourself]
• May I be peaceful,
• May I be happy,
• May I be safe and protected,
• May I be free from suffering,
• May I be filled with loving kindness.

[Then bring someone close to you to mind and say the same to him or her]:

• May ____ be peaceful,
• May ____ be happy,
• May ____ be safe and protected,
• May ____ be free from suffering,
• May ____ be filled with loving kindness.

[Keep on going until you have included everyone you want to, moving from those close to you and ending with]:

• May all beings be peaceful,
• May all beings be happy,
• May all beings be safe and protected,
• May all beings be free from suffering,
• May all beings be filled with loving kindness.