by Joelle Marlow
The one certainty about meditation is that our ‘monkey mind’ will
try its best to distract us. This is the case for beginners and
experienced meditators alike. Here we look at specific methods to help
focus our concentration when developing our practice. This part covers posture, mindful activity, the body and breath. Part II covers nature; mantras; audio material. None of these is intended to be
taken in isolation - they overlap and are outlined here so you can
experiment to see which are most useful to you. These articles were written with M.E specifically in mind, but many of the ideas will also apply to other chronic illnesses.
Posture
Posture is important, but doesn’t need to be punishment - especially
if you spend much of your life already in pain or discomfort. There are
ideal postures explained in most meditation instruction literature, but
here we will assume that special conditions apply.
Having the spine straight is advised for meditators who are
physically fit enough to manage it, as this has beneficial effects on
the whole physiology. Even in good health, Westerners attempting long
periods of unsupported sitting can end up with joint and muscle pain
however. Some gentle exercise can help [but is recommended only with a
qualified instructor and your GP’s consent]. Gentle yoga is recommended
for those who want to build strength in their musculature and
flexibility in the spine, whilst tai chi and chi kung movement aids the
management of core energy within the body. Both of these methods have
some exercises that can be done whilst lying down.
However, being realistic, people with weak musculature, a high level
of fatigue, or severe ME (which medical research has established makes
it hard to maintain an upright position) - should experiment to find a
suitable position. “I never attempt to sit up to meditate,” says Dido,
who has been practising Buddhist meditation with ME for 25 years and
run an ME meditation group. Sheila wrote: “if I attend a meditation
group, I ask for a seat with a back or I sit up against the wall with
cushions keeping me upright.”
If you lie down to meditate it is suggested that you find a location
that is not the one you usually take to sleep at night. This helps to
make the practice in some way set apart from the ordinary, to aid your
concentration. Strategies can be as simple as moving the pillows where
your feet would be and lying the opposite end to the bed to normal.
Ideally however, find a surface softer than the floor and harder than a
mattress. A full length thin foam mattress or the cushioned part that
comes with some sun loungers can be useful. If lying on your back you
might want to place cushions under your knees to prevent lower
backache, and use a neck cushion pillow under your head.
Observing the posture can be a simple aid to concentration: we can
carefully bring our conciousness to how we are sitting or lying, how
our muscles and joints feel, how our clothing, as well as the seat or
floor feels against us. As or minds wander, we return over and over
again to our position, and the nuances of the body’s relation to its
environment. It can be particularly relaxing to imagine the surface
we’re resting on holding us as we sit/lie passively on it.
Mindful activity
Enlightening chores?
Although most people think of meditation as sitting still, your
practice can be directly nourished by activity. By perceiving ordinary
activity as special and worthy of total attention, we can transform our
experience of it. Some who are housebound discover a surprising freedom
in having a life pared down to the bare essentials.
“The biggest hurdles of an average day with ME are washing, and
eating.” Tina says. “It varies depending on what care is available to
me and my level of illness. Sometimes I’m able to wash dishes or
prepare food whilst sitting on a stool. They then have to be my daily
aims and I focus on them completely. It’s like climbing Everest for a
healthy person. I have to be careful not to risk the relapse that comes
if I go beyond my available energy. But I have found that sometimes, if
I do the tasks really slowly and mindfully, chores are less tiring.
They become almost a meditation. I can find a strange pleasure in just
staying with the task, doing it with all my attention.”
Zen practice: 'every minute meditation'
"I would like to share with you… a practice common to many schools
of Buddhism known variously as 'working meditation' or 'every-minute
meditation'. The method can be summarised in five steps:
- Do one thing at a time.
- Pay attention to what you are doing.
- When your mind wanders to something else, bring it back.
- Repeat step number three a few hundred thousand times.
- But,
if your mind keeps wandering to the same thing over and over, stop for
a minute; maybe it is trying to tell you something important."
by Rev. Daizui MacPhillamy (excerpt from An Introduction to the Tradition of Serene Reflection meditation, [out of print].
Crafts and concentration
Crafts and mindfulness seem go hand in hand. Many people notice a
calm centredness when they work in a garden, bake bread, or use their
hands in some kind of craft activity. The process harnesses our ‘busy’
mind, and brings us closer to the place where thought stops taking
over. The act of creating requires concentration as we use our skills
and our senses. We need to concentrate just enough, but not think
too much. “When I’m at the wheel, I have no choice but to be in the
present.” says Clara, a potter. “If I try to follow a line of thought,
even something simple like deciding where to go for lunch, I just have
to stop as my work starts to suffer!” For Marion, knitting is as
integral to her life as her Buddhist meditation practice, since each
influences the other. “The concentration required seems to be very
similar”, she notices, “as you notice thoughts but don’t allow them to
take over. It has definitely helped my practice.”
The body
'The more consciousness you bring into the body, the stronger the
immune system becomes. It is as if every cell awakens and rejoices. The
body love your attention. It is also a potent form of self-healing.
Most illnesses creep in when yo are not present in the body.' Eckhart Tolle
The body offers us a wonderful tool when beginning to meditate. The
best known technique is to scan the body part by part from head to toe
- or toe to head, noticing which muscles are tense, and noticing
sensations as the meditation proceeds until the whole body has been
surveyed.
Another way is to focus your attention on the hara/tantien, the
place just below the belly button. It can help to place your hand
lightly on the area. If the mind wanders you simply return to this
place with your awareness. One member described a meditation exercise
that involved imagining a flame in the hara, and warmth coming from it
which then radiates to the rest of the body.
An further method still is to spend your meditation period taking
the cue from the body: search for where any the sensations are, and use
them as a focus in practice. Notice them without judgement. When
distractions come, return to the body. If you struggle with an
analytical, busy mind it can help to employ a ‘right brain’ approach
that is more abstract. Rather than labelling, naming or explaining what
you feel, (eg this is tension/pain in my leg because xyz happened and I
am taking xyz medicine) which acts to close down our intuition with a
full stop, you might ask in open way… ‘in which part of my body does
the sensation reside? What quality does the sensation have?’
Bring felt sensations into your consciousness rather than names. eg.
you might sense the feeling as hot, cold, hard, soft, give it a texture
or a colour. When your attention rests on it, if the sensation changes,
try watching that too in the same way with imagery rather than labels
or explanations.
Body Scan resources: There are free guided audio body scan meditations from Wildmind, Dan Darnell (both online only) and Insight Meditation Center
(online or download). Note that these meditations assume a sitting
posture, but it's easy to practice them lying down too. There's a
written meditation at abc-of-mediation.com.
Breath
‘The breath is a very good one-point for concentration, because it’s
fresh every second; it helps us bring the mind into the present
moment,’ wrote Bo Lozoff, in We’re all Doing Time,
the excellent resource he produced to accompany his project bringing
meditation to prisoners. ‘And the present moment is the only place that
true meditation every happens (in fact, it’s the only place anything
ever happens).’ Using the breath as a focus for meditation practice is
to be distinguished from breathing exercises, such as those used in
Yoga, which seek to change the pattern of the breath in some way, in
other words use it actively. In meditation we observe the breath
without judgement.
Walpola Sri Rahula teaches how to begin awareness of breathing
meditation. “You breathe in and out all day and night, but you are
never mindful of it, you never for a second concentrate your mind on
it. Now you are going to do just this. Breathe in and out as usual,
without any effort or strain. Now, bring your mind to concentrate on
your breathing-in and breathing-out; let your mind watch and observe
your breathing in and out.”
There are a variety of additional methods of using the breath. A
commonly taught technique to beginners of Buddhist meditation is the
Mindfulness of breathing: observe the breath without changing it, and
count the breaths. ‘In, out, one; in out, two,’ etc. Count to ten, and
start again. Resume at the start if you lose your focus completely (as
most people do when they start!).
The aim is to observe the breath from within the body, not the mind.
So you can also try focusing on relevant parts of the body as you
breathe. There are two well known methods. In the first, one
concentrates on the exact part of the nostril where the air enters and
leaves. It can take a while to establish exactly where this is
depending on the person’s physiognomy. Once you have found the spot,
this is where your attentions rests with each in and out breath.
Alternatively, bring awareness to the lower abdomen as it gently rises
and falls with each breath. The area of the second chakra, also known
as the Hara or Tantien, is a powerful area for healing the mind/body
connection.
Why is it so hard to meditate on my breath?
The bad news is, however, that for many people with ME, the breath
just doesn’t feel like a friend in our meditation - nor is the counting
helpful. Our feedback usually has been that it’s the opposite. Margaret
was exasperated with her experience of breathing meditation practice.
“My breathing has got so rapid in recent years (but still abdominal)
that just watching it is exhausting and v stressful!” She was not
alone. In her ME meditation group, Dido Dunlop recalled that “working
with breathing in meditation has been such a problem that we have had
to avoid it most of the time and do other things. It has produced
tension, distress, and even near panic - because as soon as they watch
their breathing they get in touch with how shallow, or hyperventilated,
or fast, and uncomfortable it is.” These difficulties arise as a result
of the predominance of hyperventilation in ME/CFS. Some health
commentators feel that hyperventilation is epidemic in Western society
- see the treatment section (find page at top of left hand side bar) for suggestions for tackling hyperventilation.
Using imagery
If counting finds you too stuck in your analytical, left-brain mode,
it’s possible images and a more flexible awareness will enhance your
meditation on the breath. Gary recalls his Soto Zen teacher’s imagery
was most effective for him for meditation on the breath: “we used the
image of a gate swinging open and closed with each breath in and out.”
Stella, who has practised for some years, emailed, “I do recognise what
you say about the counting. I found it unhelpful and it kicked into all
sorts of obsessional anxiety stuff. Nowadays I tend to just drop in
words as a way to encourage my focus and occupy the ‘wordy’ part of my
mind with something helpful to the meditation. I tend to use words like
- stillness or depth or space of aliveness or whatever seems helpful at
the time. I also use images to integrate more of my faculties with the
breath watching - a rising and falling waves image works well for me.”
Dido found using an abstract, imaginative approach enabled a
breakthrough with breath- related anxiety. “Just by chance we found
that for at least one person, it began to be possible when we were
meditating on the air element. We were being aware of the air all
around us, in the room and outside, the breezes and winds... and how
that air was flowing in and out of our lungs. - then she felt there was
at last enough air to breathe and was able to be relaxed enough with
it.”
Exercise:
“Let yourself be breathed. This exercise is best done while lying
on your back ... close the eyes, let your arms rest alongside your body
and focus attention on the breath without trying to influence it. Now
imagine that with each inhalation the universe is blowing breath into
you and with each exhalation withdrawing it. You are the passive
recipient of breath... As the universe breathes into you, let yourself
feel the breath penetrating to every part of your body, even to the
tips of your fingers and toes.” Excerpt from Andrew Weil, Spontaneous Healing, p205.
::next: part II - nature, mantras, audio material and Don't give up!
