How to Do Awareness Meditation
More and more studies link meditation to a multitude of health benefits. There are many kinds of meditation and what works for one person may not work for the next. One simple but effective meditation technique is awareness meditation. With a little patience and practice, even beginners can use this meditation technique.
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Instructions
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Choose a meditation posture. For this meditation technique, you'll want to sit comfortably, in a position you can reasonably maintain without a lot of wiggling and adjusting.
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Start by noticing your breath. Pay attention to the pace of your breath, how it sounds and where you can feel it in your body. Just observe your breath, without forcing it to be any particular length or depth. Do this part of the meditation technique for at least five minutes.
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Shift your attention away from concentrating solely on your breath and notice your thoughts. Put yourself in the role of observer. You want to observe your thoughts as they pass through your mind, rather than lingering on any one thought.
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Acknowledge other things that demand your awareness. If you have an itch, place your awareness on the itch.
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Label your thoughts and distractions in a nonjudgmental way. Instead of thinking "That mosquito bite itches me like crazy," try labeling it with awareness with a single word like "itch."
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Allow your awareness to go where it needs to. Keep from forcing anything. But, always come back to the main part of this awareness meditation technique where you simply breath, and place your awareness on thoughts.
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Tips & Warnings
With this awareness meditation technique, you're not trying to achieve anything. You aren't looking for any particular kind of experience. You are simply aware and observing.
As you bring your awareness to different sensations, such as an itch, it helps to be almost clinical in your observation, as though you were an outsider taking notes. Be aware of what the sensations do, if they move, get stronger or weaker, stay or go away. Just note what happens without judging.
