A Meditation for Conscious Awareness

The meditation presented here is meant for developing conscious awareness of the current moment and your relationship to it. You can start as you do with any meditation, comfortably seated or laying down (if you can stay awake laying down). Then take a few breaths and relax your body.

In preparation for the meditation, consider how much you live in your mind, in the future or past, and in imagination of these "other" times. You relive the past though there is no way to change it and little to learn on the sixth or sixtieth revisiting. You worry about an imagined future, even though what actually happens may be nothing like the picture painted in your mind. You see the things around you without truly seeing them because your attention is on the landscape in your head.

With this process in mind, close your eyes and breath deeply through your nose. Pay attention to your breath coming and going from your nostrils. Let the tension drain from your body.

As thoughts arise, label them as a way to dismiss them. Use the appropriate specific label from the following three, "imagined future," "imagined past," or "imagined place." Then bring your attention back to your breath. As your mind calms a bit and the flow of thoughts slows, start to become aware of the feeling of your body touching the surface of your floor or chair. Listen to the sounds around you.

Continue to label the thoughts and images that pop into your head, and continue to return attention to your breath. As you calm your mind even further, allow your eyes to open and see what's around you. Don't engage in any mental commentary on what you see or hear or smell or feel. just experience it and dismiss what thoughts do intrude.

After working on this conscious awareness of the moment and the setting for a few more minutes, stand up and say "Here I am." Look around, stretch if that feels good, and try to maintain some of that sense of "being in the moment" as you resume your other activities throughout the day.