i usually try before going to sleep. I'll admit, i haven't been doing as much as I use to.
i usually try before going to sleep. I'll admit, i haven't been doing as much as I use to.
I'm anticipating having a little more time as winter approaches, and I want to use it well. So I thought I'd carve out a little time every day to work on myself. Figured I'd document my efforts here to create a little accountability and maybe give some ideas.
Today I worked on improving my attention span through meditation.
Meditation is not only beneficial for the purpose of increasing attention span, but that's what I focused on today.
I used a timer set to 1 minute. During this time, I tried to be aware of what I was sensing.
If I found that my attention was drawn into my thoughts while doing this, I would try the one minute interval again.
After a few tries at this, I found I was in the right mental state to meditate for a minute, and then I increased the timer to two minutes and tried for that. I did a couple 3-minute stretches and felt fairly comfortable with that and stopped.
My goal in meditation today wasn't to banish thoughts. Instead, I wanted to notice the thoughts I was having, and keep my sense of self-awareness while thinking. The usual problem is one thought sort of hooks onto the next, and that one onto the next, and you lose control of where your attention is while your processing becomes more frantic and less tied to coherence. If you observe your own thoughts, from beginning to end, you are able to remain in that resting state, even as one thought progresses to the next. You can watch a series of linked ideas unfold but still direct it. You can experience it more fully.
The purpose of the timer here was two-fold. When it goes off, it reminds you that you were trying to meditate, so if you have totally gone off the rails you can pause and start again. It also lets you know where you're at as far as your ability to concentrate and lets you set challenges for yourself so you can push the limits of your attention span.
I'm anticipating having a little more time as winter approaches, and I want to use it well. So I thought I'd carve out a little time every day to work on myself. Figured I'd document my efforts here to create a little accountability and maybe give some ideas.
Today I worked on improving my attention span through meditation.
Meditation is not only beneficial for the purpose of increasing attention span, but that's what I focused on today.
I used a timer set to 1 minute. During this time, I tried to be aware of what I was sensing.
If I found that my attention was drawn into my thoughts while doing this, I would try the one minute interval again.
After a few tries at this, I found I was in the right mental state to meditate for a minute, and then I increased the timer to two minutes and tried for that. I did a couple 3-minute stretches and felt fairly comfortable with that and stopped.
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My goal in meditation today wasn't to banish thoughts. Instead, I wanted to notice the thoughts I was having, and keep my sense of self-awareness while thinking. The usual problem is one thought sort of hooks onto the next, and that one onto the next, and you lose control of where your attention is while your processing becomes more frantic and less tied to coherence. If you observe your own thoughts, from beginning to end, you are able to remain in that resting state, even as one thought progresses to the next. You can watch a series of linked ideas unfold but still direct it. You can experience it more fully.
The purpose of the timer here was two-fold. When it goes off, it reminds you that you were trying to meditate, so if you have totally gone off the rails you can pause and start again. It also lets you know where you're at as far as your ability to concentrate and lets you set challenges for yourself so you can push the limits of your attention span.
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