Reprogramming The Mind For Success

WOW. What an awesome meditation this one is. This week we are focusing on Emotions in Mindfullness Meditation which I have to say is one of my favorite topics. Once again we are concerned with our breathing and body position, but this time I had to ask myself how I am feeling. At first I recognized that I was feeling sadness which was such a strong emotion. But I wanted to look to see if there was anything else there. And there was. There was a part of me that was happy as well. The thing is, it depended which emotion I was focusing on, which then dictated my mood. This may sound a little strange, but let me explain a bit more. So where was I?

I was sitting in a 3rd class sleeper carriage on a train that must have been built in the 1960’s. I’m on Sakhalin Island in Eastern Russia and I’m trying to get to the north of the Island. It’s 3am and I can’t sleep so I decide that now would be a great time to meditate. So, I sit up check my posture and begin to breathe. At first I am overcome by sadness. I’m on the other side of the world from the United Kingdom and I really miss my family already. My beautiful wife and 3 lovely children are all at home wondering why I have to go away for another six weeks. Then the conversations start. Why am I doing this, I should be at home, 5 days to get to work is rediculous, I’m so tired already and I haven’t even started work yet. My mind was wondering all over the place, but as soon as I became aware of it, I would come back to my breathing again. And this is where I was able to notice a different emotion. When I really thought about it (which I probably shouldn’t have been doing because that is a distraction in itself) I realized, “hey, take a look at where you are right now”. Your traveling all over the world, I have an exciting job, I’m providing for my family and at the end of the day, life is pretty good. It could certainly be a lot worse.Yet I find it so easy to dwell on the negative influences of my life. Surely, this little meditation session is a great introduction to the power of emotions and how they affect my outlook on life. Hmmm.

So is this one of the important parts of reprogramming my mind for success? Recognizing my emotions and focusing on the ones that benefit me the most. I wonder?????

I cant wait for the next session. This is so good.

Until then, take care.

Yours sincerely,

Stuart Ginbey

Tonight we start a new week in our meditation program and this means moving on to something new. Whilst we are still focussing on our breathing to keep us centred, we are now going to focus on the body rather than the mind. This week is all about mindfulness meditation for the body and I have to say it’s been a pretty good session. During our sessions last week we were concentrating on our breathe and whenever we found our mind wandering, we could focus on our breathing which would help bring us back to our meditation. Well this week we have a slight but very important variation that applies. This week we can allow our mind to wander if it is thinking about a particular feeling or sensation in the body. By focussing on our body, we become acutely aware of all the little aches and pains that are a concern at that particular time. By staying in tune with our bodies, we can come to realise the state of our health and a healthy body has all kinds of obvious benefits.

Another very important point that was mentioned tonight was our ability to pass judgement and criticise. By this I mean the way it is so easy to punish ourselves if we don’t do something right. An example of this could be where you call yourself a bad meditator, just because your mind wanders all the time. Passing judgement has absolutely NO benefit in the world of Mindfulness Meditation.

I also found I had to concetrate more this session compared to last week. It is a longer session at 1hr 20 minutes (including the commentary) so I really had to work at staying focussed. Having said that I walked away feeling good so I look forward to the next session.

Until then, STAY TUNED……..

Yours truly,

Stuart Ginbey

Reprogramming Your Mind For Success

Todays meditation was really distracted. Yesterday I returned from 6 weeks offshore and had just finished an important business meeting 30 minutes before I sat down to meditate. Therefore, my mind was very work orientated. I was constantly drifting off thinking about contracts and things that still needed to be finished at work. It really was at the forefront of my mind. Each time I brought myself back to the meditation I found I was drifting again within seconds. It took me longer than usual to realize how distracted I was each time, but when I did I used my breathing to bring me back to my inner self. It’s amazing to start to realize how distracted my mind gets. Trying to cope with so many things all at the same time, can be very stressful and also mean that you are only putting a little bit of effort into a lot of different things. If I can start to focus my mind on the specific task that I am performing at that time, then surely I will have much better results.
Once again, I finished this meditation feeling  a lot more centered.  I can see how this works to keep me focussed on the present and how it is used to reprogram the mind. Whilst I am very tired at the moment, it does leave me feeling very calm and peaceful. My stress levels are lower after each session and I am more in tune with who I am as a person. Perhaps a sleep rejouvination plan is in order too.

Yours truly,

Stuart Ginbey

Week 1 – Session 2
Listened to 1 hr Introduction mp3
Results: I found tonight’s meditation quite painful. Rather than laying down, which I did on my previous session, I decided to follow the instruction’s and meditate in the sitting position. Concentrating on posture became quite difficult and really high-lighted how much I slouch. This pain became a distraction in itself and I often found myself focusing on how sore my back was. I was sitting on my bed and on the edge of a cushion, so that my knees were pointed down and a slight curve in my lower back. My back and neck were straight, with relaxed shoulder’s that were pulled back. I had a pillow on my lap to raise my hands so that they were closer to my breathing “home base” and I sat with my finger tips touching together forming a circle. Once again I found my mind wandering, but this time it was easier to notice it and bring myself back to my breathing. Something that I am really noticing is how difficult it is for me to focus on one thing for 15 minutes. It sounds crazy, but my mind just wants to be doing 10 different things all at the same time. This obviously creates distractions and makes it difficult to focus on the task at hand.

Yours sincerely,

Stuart Ginbey

Week 1 – Session 1
Listen to 1 hr Introduction mp3
Results: Fell asleep after the first 15 minutes. This guy is way too calm. Woke up at the exact point where he started the guided meditation. Phew! Really enjoyed the meditation and found my mind wandering a lot. It was good to have the breathing as something to focus on to bring me back to the meditation. Found myself so relaxed that just about every muscle in my body ached. Especially my forearms. After reviewing the session, it made me realize how distracted I really get. I spend so much time doing a million different things that I lose sense of being in the present. All in all, a good intro.

As part of my journey to ‘Reprogram The Mind For Success‘ I will be joining a group of like minded friends in a 6 week Introductory course on Mindfulness Meditation. The aim of the whole exercise is to clear the ‘Noise’ from inside my mind and hopefully learn some new techniques about how to maintain a sense of  inner calm.

I guess I should start by explaining what I understand Mindfulness Meditation to be. I see it as one of the many different forms of meditation and one that focusses on being aware of the present moment. In its Buddhist context, mindfulness meditation has three purposes: knowing the mind; training the mind; and freeing the mind. The first stage is about ‘The Noise’. Knowing what it is that makes your mind so busy all the time. This is the clutter that keeps us getting distracted from the task at hand. Once we understand what we are looking for, it is easier to clear it out. The next step is ‘Training The Mind”. This is where I will literally train my mind to operate in a way that benefits me the most. Just like anything else in life, in order to improve, I need to step out of my comfort zone and put in the extra effort.

So I invite you to join me on this little journey of self discovery. I will be meditating a minimum of 3 times per week for atleast 20 minutes per session and I will share the experience with you. I will talk about how it felt, was it relaxing, what was I distracted by, and whether I found it difficult. Hopefully, by the end of the 6 weeks, we will see some sort of progression.

Yours sincerely,

Stuart Ginbey

Reprogramming The Mind For Success