When we use an anchor to bring our attention back, it can help us to realize that to strengthen focus we have to temporarily devalue the importance of whatever distracted us in the first place. Often the thoughts that come in convince us to move our attention to them because they ARE important. They are things that we worry about or things that we are responsible for doing. They are the things that we worry we should have done earlier or the things that we know we must do later. The things that take us out of our practice ARE important things, but they are usually things that we can not act on when we are worrying on them. They are things we needed to do in the past or that we will need to in the future, but they are not what we have access to in the present.
During a mindfulness practice time, we dedicate ourselves to being in the present moment knowing that the practice of moving our attention to a purposeful place will result in a mental pattern that we can continually draw on when we need it. We intentionally rest our brains from the past and future responsibilities and voluntarily take up the strengthening exercises in the present that will make us more capable of actually handling those responsibilities and truly alleviating those worries when it is the right time to do so. I often find myself much more productive after a mindfulness practice.
Our minds are powerful and we are responsible for much in our lives, no matter how old. These responsibilities, worries, and plans pull at our attention and awareness constantly. To support our minds in this process, we often discuss what are the actual actions that help us to "bring our attention back." Attention itself is a very abstract concept, for us to "bring it back" is a level even further abstracted. Mrs. Pender's class and our class have both been practicing mindfulness all year, and have become some solidly wise practitioners. They helped me make a list this week of the actions that have been productive for us for keeping our attention on just one thing during this limited practice time. Enjoy their insights in this photo below:
When practicing, it becomes apparent to us that our minds run toward the past or the future constantly and consistently. Remember, our brains are built to think, but they have a typically untapped potential for deep awareness that supports our thinking in becoming increasingly and cumulatively more effective for us with each practice. Jon Kabat-Zinn reminds us when instructing a focus on the breath as an anchor, "Each time you become aware of this while you are sitting, the instruction is to first note briefly what is on your mind or what carried you away from attending to the breath, and then to gently bring your attention back to your belly and back to your breathing, no matter what carried it away. If it moves off the breath a hundred times, then you just calmly and gently bring it back a hundred times."
Kabat-Zinn, Jon. Full Catastrophe Living (Revised Edition): Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain, and Illness (p. 61). Random House Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
Kabat-Zinn, Jon. Full Catastrophe Living (Revised Edition): Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain, and Illness (p. 61). Random House Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
Try It Out: Set a timer for 2 minutes. Choose an anchor (something without a screen...more on why we don't typically use screens in Mindfulness10). You might read, write, draw, color, build a puzzle, fold paper, follow your breath, etc. See if you can bring your attention back to that anchor every time your attention wanders.
