Homework - Week 3
Meditate every day for 10-20 minutes
The main goal of this week is to integrate "intention" into your daily meditation practice.
When you sit down to meditate, most of the mind seems to agree that this is a good plan, but when you actually start a lot of stuff comes up to distract you. Planning, an argument or an assignment that needs to be finished—apparently these parts of the mind didn't check in on the meditation train. You can use willpower to move your attention, but you can't use it to make it stay in one place, no matter how much willpower you use. Only by systematically setting the intention can you get the whole mind to align on the same goal.
Intention—before the meditation
Don't rush or skip this part but make a real effort to verbally think about the following things.
Motivation: Take a moment to think about your personal reason for meditating.
Permission: Give yourself permission to let go of anything that arises. A lot of seemingly important thoughts will come up, but during the meditation session, you allow yourself to let go of them—no matter how important they seem.
Commitment: For the next 10 minutes you make a strong commitment to practice meditation consistently. Yes, you will get distracted, but you commit yourself to systematically return to the meditation object with kindness. Don't forget to commit with kindness—it is the heart of the practice.
Intention—during the meditation
The mind is very skilled at forgetting. At the beginning of the meditation, all the subminds might have checked in on the meditation train, but after a while they get distracted and check out. They are not ill-intended, they simply forgot why staying with the breath was a worthwhile thing.
When you notice this, interrupt the meditation for a moment and remember your motivation, give yourself permission and make a commitment to work diligently, just like in the beginning.
Another way of systematically setting the intention is by using language. More on that here:
Using language and imaginationGratitude—after the meditation
We always end a meditation session with a moment of gratitude, because we have taken care of ourselves in a way that isn't always easy. This moment will make it easier to start next time and can be especially important after a difficult meditation session.
It can help to remember your motivation from the beginning of the session. You have taken some time to work towards this motivation, which is great, especially if it was difficult! Saying "thank you" to yourself in silence can help as well.
Informal meditation: bringing some extra attention to daily life
Ten times a day, see if you can slow down for just a moment, using that moment to bring some extra attention to the world around you. It could be a moment to notice the breath, a colour, or a shape, maybe an interesting sound or feeling. Anything is fine, just try to be present with it.
For some inspiration and you can always return to the raisin meditation we did in class:
Multiagent Models of Mind
During the course we introduced the concept of subminds. This idea seems very simple and unscientific, but in actuality it has a lot of depth. If you want to explore this topic further, we recommend the following.
Drop-in Guided Meditation
We organize guided meditations on a weekly basis—they are the perfect support during the course. The guides share their own practice when they're guiding—they're literally meditating out loud. This allows you to compare your own practice and see if you're remembering all the steps correctly.
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