Oakville Zen Meditation
Easy steps to be in the NOW
“To experience reality is to be mindful to the now, away from the control of the mind using daydreaming.”
Here is a list of few tools to consider.
Don’t let your mind be a relentless time machine travelling from past to future:
Being in the past and future are sources of nostalgia, regrets and expectations often unrealistic.
You exist only in this present moment, when you are reading this.
Breathing.
At first it is hard to focus once a while on our breathing because we are busy and our mind is racing all over the place, but, after a while, we became aware of your belly motion and subtle energy sensations in your body. Focusing on breathing is focusing on the now and forcing the mind to stop wandering.
Awareness & acceptance of our red buttons triggers.
Notice the small things that make you angry, depressed, jealous, worried, etc...Negative emotional effects of triggers. Logging them is very useful. They can be controlled by becoming aware of them and accepting their effects. Triggers can be anything coming from the past to the future.
Conjure.
When you became aware of your negative triggers, look for the positive ones.
It is not always pleasant to be in the now especially if we are feeling down or facing a bad event. Thinking positively about x,y,z. may counter balance the negative ones.
Practicing mini meditations on the go.
Try to do mini-meditations on the go anywhere from few sec. to 1-2 min. by focusing on whatever:
Breathing, walking, washing the dishes, or cleaning your house, listening to the surrounding sounds.
As long as you are mindful to the current moment and one of its components, you are, in control of your restless mind ,at least for a short period of time.
It's chemically impossible to keep a negative feeling inside our body for more than 2 min. unless you are throwing more wood in the fire by such as fighting it. . That means that, when you're feeling bad for a long time, you're doing something to keep the bad feeling there. When you meditate, you’re in the present moment, and those feelings simply dissipate because they run out of fuel.
Paying attention to:
Self: Try to have fun observing yourself such as body scanning, what I am doing in this moment
and being mindful on what I am thinking about w/o analysis.
Environment: Paying attention to your environment such as space around, sounds, colors, etc...
Utilize “bad time” as a message.
Look at where/when and how , in your life, you have been suffering, and ask yourself what life is trying to tell you. You might be surprised at the answer.
Let go & accept things especially what we cannot control:
We have all the resources we need to be more serene. The problem is that you have these ego driven layers such as desire, haters and illusions to prevent us from acceding it.
It is not the outside world that causes all our problems; it’s us—you and me, it is an inside job.
Two people can experience the same event and come out of it with completely different stories to tell? This is the strange power of your mind.
Practice patience.
It feels much better to be patient. It allows us to accept the present moment and just be with whatever is.
