December 23, 2014 By Admin

Mindfulness and Concentration – Body Awareness Activity

Mindfulness and Concentration – Experience Differences

In this post I will explain some basic differences between mindfulness and concentration, both of which are required for effective meditation practice. This will be the first of three posts dealing with what mindfulness and concentration are, how to experience them briefly in a body-based activity, and how to improve them in practice. We will begin with the body mindful awareness activity as outlined below.

Introduction to Mindfulness

First, a brief introduction to mindfulness. Mindfulness brings initial, usually neutral, attention to your awareness of some object, experience or phenomenon. It also signals you when your mind has wandered off the target or object of attention. When the mind wanders, gently bring attention back to the selected object of your attention. Mindfulness skills build the foundation for concentration skills, or the sustained strong attention of the mind on an object you have purposely selected to pay attention to. Mindfulness often includes mind-wandering with gentle return of attention back to the object, while concentration often includes stronger and stronger focus and attention on the object. There is less distraction in concentration, and usually more depth to your awareness.

Body Awareness of Mindfulness in Time and Space: Now we will use your body to become aware of a mindfulness moment in time and space. While standing or sitting in a state of gentle attention, place your hands in a prayer pose or mudra. Your initial intention is to observe and maintain attention on your hands in this pose. Now take a few deep, slow, cleansing breaths and pay full attention to your prayer-posed hands in front of you. You may also become aware of the interoception of how the hands feel to your body as they touch in prayer posture. Really focus full visual-mental attention on your hands and feel the sensation of them touching. Then open up your hands and break the prayer mudra; move your hands and arms upward and outward so there is no direct contact between the hands. Make a big circle with your arms. NOTICE what this change feels like; notice what is different once you break your focused attention on your hands in prayer posture. Repeat this movement several times – from prayer mudra to opening up the hands and moving your arms outwardly and upwardly in a slow but deliberate fashion. Notice carefully the differences in awareness in the prayer mudra versus the change in hand-arm position. This is an example of impermanence in awareness of hand postures. Be aware of the tendency to return your posture to prayer mudra each time you change it from still, prayer position to open moving position up and out. Continue for a few more minutes just to be sure you notice the differences in awareness.

Body Awareness of Concentration in Time and Space: Now we will practice concentration on prayer posture. Have an initial intention to place complete concentration on your hands in prayer mudra in front of you. Remain fixed on concentrating on your hands in this posture. Each time you notice that your attention has weakened or wandered off into some other awareness, simply place a slightly stronger mental focus on your hands in prayer posture in front of you. You may also want to pay more attention to the sensation of the hands touching each other. Do not change the position of your hands; remain in prayer mudra. Notice each time your concentration has weakened or moved away, and again place stronger more forceful effort into concentrating on your hands in prayer position. NOTICE the differences between your more stable concentration here and the flow of mindfulness above in the first activity. This is a more stable and forceful level of intense concentration. It feels quite different in the body; it has a more energetic feel to it. If you are experiencing difficulty maintaining a strong intensity of concentration, it may help to increase pressure just a bit stronger – one hand against the other hand in the prayer position.

Repeat concentration on your prayer mudra a few more times, and Notice!

By Anthony R. Quintiliani, PhD., LADC

From the Eleanor R. Liebman Center for Secular Meditation in Monkton, Vermont

Author of Mindful Happiness

CLICK HERE to Order!

Henry David Thoreau & Walking Meditation Henry David Thoreau is, perhaps, the most individualistic of the American Transcendentalists. He asked us to consider what we have learned that is useful as we travel our own “stream of life.” He cautions us not to regret when we die that we “had not lived.” He advised us to […]

College Students – Mental Health in The US R. Quintiliani, Ph.D., LADC The Association of University and College Counseling Center Directors has released data on the mental health status of American college students. Two survey between 2016 and 2018 yielded results from as far back as 2014. Here are some selected statistics (rounded): Anxiety 47-61%; […]

Mindfulness & Happiness – Tools In this post I will provide basic instructions for several mind-body practices that allow calm equanimity both at rest and in action. We will cover RAIN, RAINDROP, Cloud Journeying, Gratitude, Tapping, and other Body-Based practices. RAIN (Tara Brach) – This simple to use approach helps you to maintain a cognitive […]

Using Lectio Divina to Improve Your Self-Esteem LectioDivina is an ancient form of Christian (Benedictine) meditation. This meditative prayer is sometimes called “Sacred Seeing.” Lectio Divina follows specific steps as a process: lectio or reading a passage; Meditatio or meditating on the passage or image; Oratio or praying (I add – in your own way); […]

What The Buddha Taught About Metta In the Metta Sutta (Anguttara Nikaya, 11:16) The Buddha said that we should seek the following characteristics in how we live our lives: Wholesome goodness; Gentle speech; Human Humility; Personal contentment; Personal calmness; and, Pure-heartedness in all we think, say, and do. By living this way we would be […]

Meditation at the Deepest Levels In 2007 M. A. Singer’s The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself, opened up a whole new, deeper perspective on why consciousness or pure awareness is the root of self. Even in a Buddhist “no-self” view, Singer’s inquiries leave us with a great deal to unravel. Here are some reasons why […]

Stress In America – How to Deal with it Effectively The American Psychological Association just released the results of its annual stress survey for 2014. This comprehensive study of stress in America has some serious implications for our health and happiness. Although self-reported stress levels in many categories are lower than in 2013, the overall […]

Advanced Meditations – Middle Way -Wisdom Path Between Extremes These meditation practices are advanced, and combine complex ideas from Nagarjuna (Indian Master), T’ong-Kha-Pa (Tibetan Master), and The 14th Dalai Lama (Tenzin Gyatso). In keeping with the mixed secular nature of my meditation center, I have decided to present these complex ideas with several of my […]

Mindful Happiness – Happiness – Guided Imagery of Your Life This experience will include guided imagery and multi-sensory memory of happy experiences in your life. At time, shadow experience may pop up, in which a happy memory has an unhappy component. Your mindful concentration will be needed to remain on track with only the happy […]

Beyond MBSR – Quick Start Skills Self-calming for counselors and other helpers is one of the most important survival practices to master. Self-calming consists a set of basic mindfulness skills, all of which must be practiced regularly to achieve desired emotion-regulation effects. The utility of these skills is well established in clinical research, and not […]

Alternative to Buddhism as Religion – Simply put and Clearly Stated In case you become too serious about yourself in this life, note that there are reportedly 400 trillion subatomic vibrations every second. So be humble! And being humble is something I have had to do regarding my experience with Zen Buddhism as my […]

Stress in America – On the Rise – The American Psychological Association recently completed its national survey on stress in America. Stress in America for adults is on the rise! I will review below a selection of reported percentages from the 2015 survey (published in 2016). 1) Younger people are more stressed; Xers and Millennials […]

Contemplative Practices – Affirmative Self-Inquiry Contemplation and affirmative self-inquiry may be helpful in improving your awareness of your better parts of self – your positive strengths and traits. Our self-critical mind often causes us to spend far too much time on critical, negative thinking about ourselves and about others. The practice below may be helpful […]

Spiritual Mantras from Buddhism Spiritual Mantras: Mantra practice is certainly not informal Buddhism, nor is it a way to apply practical mindfulness skills to life. The path of mantra practice is much deeper than the psychological applications for good health. Mantra practice is a highly important part of formal Buddhist practice, especially on the spiritual […]

Interpersonal Mindfulness Various forms of mindfulness-based compassion training help us to care more about the needs, happiness, and health of other people. However, direct applications of interpersonal mindfulness activates these influences into direct action on behalf of others. Thus, if lucky, we learn to care more about others and less about ourselves. The self-centered ego […]

Behaviors People Display When in Groups After more than 35 years of facilitating hundreds of classes, workshops, family therapy sessions, group therapy sessions, and work project groups it has become clear that we do some strange things when we participate in groups. It appears to me that many of these in-group functions serve both ego […]

Are You Happier Yet? Use Practical Mindfulness Skills Two recent books offer sound advice about YOU becoming a happier person. L. Cypers Kamen (2017) Are You Happy Yet: Eight Keys to Unlocking a Joyful Life. New York: MFJ Books and D. Altman (2016) Cleansing Emotional Clutter… New York: MFJ Books offer practical ways to improve your personal level of happiness. […]

Meditations and Mantra: Try Them Out in Your Practice There are many forms of meditation. In most cases, the common meditation forms fall into one of two categories: Mindfulness and Insight. There are also demanding concentration meditations, chakra meditations, and mantra meditations. Here we’ll deal only with the two forms noted above and the use […]

Using Your Compassionate Mind in Psychotherapy For you to become a more compassionate therapist, follow the details noted below. These preconditions, skills, and practices are required as a baseline for compassionate practice. You need the ability to access calmness in an environment of emotional suffering, chaos, or conflict. Most people do this by breathing in […]

Mindfulness-Based Emotion Regulation The following emotional regulation practices (also called emotional balance skills) have been supported by over 2500 years of mindfulness training and current psychological research on human emotions. These practices/skills are to be practiced before they are needed, and directly applied when they are needed. Here is the list. 1) Practice noticing and […]