Presented by Dr. Rick Hanson
Tags: focus, meditation, mindfulness, practice
What is Mindfulness?
- Sustained, present moment, awareness
- Externally or internally directed
- Having a sense of awareness about everything (builds connection)
- E.g. A feeling built up internally or noticing someone’s emotional shift in a conversation
Four Steps of Practicing Mindfulness
- Steady Mind
- Open Awareness
- Disengagement with Experiences
- Abiding as Awareness (being aware of being aware)
Research on Meditation
- The frontal cortex is what keeps us on track when our mind wanders
- With practice, focused attention becomes less effortful (the frontal cortex becomes quiet)
- This then moves us into open awareness (less neurological effort)
In the beginning nothing comes,
In the middle nothing stays,
In the end nothing goes.
-Jetsun Milarepa
The Benefits of Long-Term Practice of Mindfulness Training
- Lasting physical traces in the brain
- Connects different parts of the brain better
- Calms reactive alarm bells of the brain (amygdala)
- Increases brain wave activity
- Synchronizes large parts of the brain
Tips for Lack of Focus

- Honour your temperament
- Find objects of attention that are stimulating enough to keep you focused
- Move beyond breath to feelings of gratitude, walking around, practicing mindfulness while doing tasks, such as walking the dog, washing dishes, etc.
- Take into consideration experiences that can be affecting meditation
- Make skillful adjustments such as the time of day you practice or the type of meditation you engage in
How to Stabilize Mindfulness When Experiences Come Up
- Step back from upsetting experiences/imagery
- Have kindness and self-compassion for yourself
- Know yourself
- Focus on objects of attention that feel good and are comforting
- Connection, kindness, compassion
- Focus on objects of attention that feel good and are comforting
- The greater the challenge, the greater the resources need to be
- If you’re feeling vulnerable:
- Self-regulate: slow it down, protect yourself
- Disengage: stop meditation, engage in something else
- Establishing focused attention is key for stuff that may come up
- E.g. Count up to a number
- Noting your practice by incorporating language
- Breath: “In, Out”; Chest: “Rising, Falling”
- Know why you are practicing
- To know self better, feel comfortable in own skin
- To be less afraid of the doors closed in mind over the years
- To become more autonomous/self-reliant
- To influence who I am being
Closing Points
- It’s useful to deliberately cultivate aspects of warmheartedness for others with respect for self (does not happen through mindfulness practices alone)
- Mindfulness is not choiceless awareness
- Becomes a way of life as people mature in their practice
- There’s opportunity for more active forms of practice and to be mindful through:
- The barest forms of consciousness
- Self-development
- Learning from difficult situations/experiences
- We live in mindless times
- It’s more important than ever to establish a sustained presence of mind in each moment
More from Dr. Rick Hanson
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