Mindfulness – What’s next? – Beyond Mindfulness Meditation 101

Ok, so you have been practicing mindfulness and feeling more relaxed and focused. Great. What’s next you might ask?

What’s next is amazing.

The present moment if full of possibilities. What you experience in the next moments usually depends upon what you unconsciously or consciously expect or believe will happen. If you are not pleased with the way your life experience seems to be going there are a number of ways of attempting to change these experiences. You can work hard to change your beliefs and expectations. There are hundreds of techniques and strategies for accomplishing this. Or you can try the following method. This one is the most difficult and is seldom attempted but it is also the one that will most assuredly achieve the perfect life for you. The life your Soul wishes to experience. The life which you will have no regrets about when it is time to leave.

Meditation gull by Jon Shore

You will not have any control over what you experience as a result of doing these practices. What you will experience will usually be beyond your expectations but you cannot choose or control these experiences. Anyone who tells you that you are in total control of your reality and the creator of your reality does not understand how creation works. If this were true then you would probably already have everything you have ever wanted and more. Creation is infinitely complex. The human mind is not capable of dealing with this vast complexity. Your intellect or ego is certainly too limited to deal with all the contingencies inherent in creation. ‘Create your own reality’ may be very appealing to the ego or human intellect and it seems to make a significant amount of money for those who teach these things but the resultant reality is usually far from what is promised. The human mind or intellect may be a filter to what we experience but it is not the creator. But this can be a discussion for another time. If you want to experience who and what the creator is then do the following practices and discover this for yourself.

Here are some steps you can take to explore and experience these things for yourself.

Mindfulness Meditation

Stop, Observe, Let go

With eyes closed or eyes open. Breathe deeply. Release your deep breaths like sighs of relief. Just relax. During your meditation you have absolutely nothing else to do.

Stop trying. Stop looking for answers. Stop struggling. Stop everything and just observe. Just be quiet, mindful and watch. Judge nothing. Just watch. Ask for nothing. Just observe. No attempt to understand anything. Just watch. During your meditation you may feel the need to do something come up. Just watch this, do not judge or evaluate these thoughts and do nothing about them. Just observe. Thoughts will come and go. Just observe. Emotions may float up. Just observe without judgment. Do not try to do anything about them. Just watch. Physical sensations may appear, just watch them. If there is discomfort then do what is necessary to end the discomfort and continue your mindful meditation. At some point a sense of peace will come. Surrender to it. Melt into it. Dissolve into it. Fear may appear. Just observe it. Do not react to it. Continue to dissolve into the Peace until there is nothing left of you. Lose control. Feel what happens.

Then, when your meditation time is over move on to the next step.

If you would like some guidance for this meditation try either, The Peace Meditation or Walking Into the Light

Mindful Living

Observe and Act

Now with this experience of peace and relaxation it is time to act.

Conduct all your activities today in a mindful way. Pay attention to everything you are doing. Everything around you. Every few minutes take a deep breath and relax and return to the peace you felt during your meditation and then to this present moment and pay attention. Observe without judgment and then act. Each activity you do, do it while paying minute attention to each and every sight, sound, thought, emotion, color, sensation, insight, action and result. (Accomplishing this will take practice but you will become very good at it and the results will be amazing).

Do each task with 100% focus and to the best of your ability until it is completed. But every few minutes take one deep breath and return to the peaceful and mindful state of your meditation. It takes only a moment to do this but it is a moment well worth taking.

Do this practice for as many hours as you can. If you find yourself getting caught up in the drama again just stop, relax and be mindful of the moment again. Do not judge yourself for being distracted. It is fine and it is normal. Just come back to this moment.

Mindful Day

Living your Soul for 1 day

Every one of us has things we want or need. We all have things that we do not want and do our best to avoid. We spend a great deal of fall apple tree sigulda by Jon Shoretime worrying that we will not have what we want and we expend a great deal of energy doing our best to avoid the things we do not want and working to get what we do want. By the time the day is done we are often exhausted from this struggle.

What do you think would happen if you stopped struggling on this treadmill? What would happen if you just stepped off the treadmill and rested? If you just let go?

If you are curious then try this exercise for 1 day:

Do your mindfulness meditation after you wake up in the morning.

After your meditation relax deeply and contemplate what you would love to do right now. Feel what your soul wants to do this moment. If it is within the realm of possibilities available to you in the moment then do it.

After you have done that then contemplate would you would love to do right now. If it is within the realm of possibilities available to you in the moment then do it.

After you have done that then contemplate would you would love to do right now. If it is within the realm of possibilities available to you in the moment then do it.

After you have done that then contemplate would you would love to do right now. If it is within the realm of possibilities available to you in the moment then do it.

After you have done that then contemplate would you would love to do right now. If it is within the realm of possibilities available to you in the moment then do it.

And so on. You get the picture. Do this for 1 day. Some of the things you will do will only take a moment. Some may take hours. If you have a feeling that you would love to go to the airport, buy a ticket for Venice and then go to Venice but you do not have the money available to do that then let that idea go. Do not allow the old shadow mind set you up for frustration and failure. Feel what is available to you right this moment. Feel what is right for you and for those around you. Your mindfulness meditation will have set the stage for this. You might even have had the imagery of doing this presented to you during your meditation. Remember to stop periodically and take a deep breath and come back to this present moment and that feeling of peace you had during meditation. Whatever it is you are to do next will usually come to you. Follow it.

I would suggest you take a few minutes at the end of this day to take notes about your experiences during the day. If you like you may share them in the comment section below.

Who is being mindful?

Discovering who and what you are.

Now that you have practiced mindfulness in a number of different ways it is time to explore and to discover your real self.

Begin by doing your mindfulness meditation. The one you learned at the beginning of these practices. When you are dissolved into the Peace contemplate ‘who is observing?’ Imagine taking a step back and watching the one who is being mindful, meditating, breathing, sitting and who has a physical body. Watch this one for a while.

Then step back and observe the one who is watching the one with the physical body. Relax into this state and just observe. There is nothing else to do. No questions, no answers, no desires, no needs.

Now step back again and observe the one who is watching the one who is watching the one with the physical body. Relax into that state and just observe.

Keep going with this practice as far as you wish. At some point you will experience your true identity and the freedom that comes with that experience.

Great White Egret Photo by Jon Shore © 2016 All Rights ReservedBe a fearless explorer. See what happens.

There are theories in physics that deal with multiple potentialities or multiverse theories. These theories are based on the concept that for every decision you make in life all alternatives are also experienced in alternative universes. I have often wondered how to experience some of these alternatives. I have found that doing these practices allows me to find out. We can discuss this further later if you wish.

Be a fearless explorer and see what happens for yourself.