Homework - Week 2

Homework

• Meditate every day

  • Set a timer for 10-15 minutes

  • Start with the seven-point relaxation (3-5 minutes)

  • Breath meditation for the remaining time

  • End with a moment of gratitude after the bell

• Keep pondering the two important questions

  • What do I want to cultivate?

  • What have I been cultivating?

For a detailed summary of a breath meditation routine, check out this:

A basic meditation routine

Recap

A concentration exercise

This is what most people think about, when they think about breath meditation

• You feel the physical sensations of breathing in a specific spot.

• Eventually you get distracted and start mind-wandering.

• At some point you notice—you wake up—and you bring yourself back to the breath.

This is the first step in practicing to be more present. You’re practicing waking up, over and over again.

• After a while, you start to notice mind-wandering quicker.

• After a while, attention will stay longer where you place it.

Cultivating kindness

When we meditate, the following cycle can start to emerge:

Maybe not initially, but after losing the breath for the 100th time this is very common. We don’t want to be frustrated; there are a few reasons for this:

• It is not enjoyable.

• The mind doesn’t want to become aware anymore. Every time you become aware, you punish it, instead of rewarding it. We should be happy when we become aware; this is why we’re practicing. We want to catch those thought loops.

• What you practice often, you become very good at. So, in the worst case, you’re systematically cultivating frustration, doubts about yourself and maybe even anger.

We want to work towards the following cycle:

Kindness comes in many flavors, but it is always good to start with the “first aid” equivalent of kindness, the first line of defense, which is acceptance. So, to be clear, there are many forms of kindness, but we start with acceptance, and we will deepen the concept as the course progresses.

Acceptance is the willingness to experience a situation as it is.

How to apply acceptance during a meditation session? Every time you wake up, try one of the following options:

• Say in silence to yourself, “It’s okay”, in a kind and gentle voice.

• Give a little compliment, things like “Good job” or “Nicely noticed”

• Smile a little bit

After a while, the whole acceptance thing becomes a non-verbal move, but we start by using language in the beginning.