Daily Meditation Techniques: Mental Noting

Time: 21 mins.

App: Insight Timer.

Mental Noting or simply Noting meditation is a very helpful technique when you feel your mind has been elsewhere most of the time - like mine has been today since I got up!

It is a mindful breathing meditation actually for training yourself to watch your mind wondering off and gently bringing it back to the here & now, to what you are actually doing at that particular time. A wonderful technique to ground yourself to the moment you are in, you are living and experiencing - to whatever you might be doing here and now.

Very well led by Charles Freligh who, using a soft bell, keeps reminding you to get your awareness back to the sensation of the air into and out your nostrils, when you notice your mind is elsewhere. It is not an easy technique, specially when you are asked to feel the sensation (cold air in/warm air out) at the same time that you keep counting your in-breath/out-breath (1-in, 2-out, 3-in, 4-out) until 10, restarting it again every time your mind wonders off plus noticing the space between each in-breath and out-breath (and vice-versa). Sometimes, I found myself getting a bit distracted with his continuous vocal reminders, though his voice eventually goes off to leave you on your own - reminding you to get back (if your mind is actually elsewhere which it certainly will!) using a bell every now and again. I really like this meditation as I get much more aware of the present moment after (and during) the meditation, watching gently every movement of my mind. Really a worthwhile meditation indeed.

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This is part of "Meditation Journal" - 11th of January 2018.