try micro meditation

In this episode of Things to Try, I'd like to suggest what I call micro meditation. By this, I mean a very brief meditation: just a few seconds. But not as a one off, but rather something to do throughout the day, whenever the opportunity arises or whenever the thought to do it pops into the mind.

So what do I mean precisely? How about just stopping, whatever you're doing, whatever you're thinking, and taking three slow, deep breaths, with your awareness on the breathing...

If you are used to meditating, this will be a very simple exercise. Probably you will not have any thoughts during the course of those three breaths. It's only ten seconds or so, maybe less. If you are completely new to meditation, keeping your full attention on your breathing, even for three breaths, might not be completely easy. I'll talk more about that later.

So that's a micro meditation: three breaths, with your awareness on the breaths. And you can do it any time. So, one way to use this is whenever the thought pops into your mind, whenever you remember, oh, I could do a micro meditation, just do it right there. And of course, it's useful if you do this many times throughout the day. If you just do it once, it's not going to have much impact. But if it's interrupting your thoughts and your habits enough, then it will start to break down that habitual way of being. That's really the power of it – something to do often.

And to help remember to do it, it can be useful to try and have some triggers, some situations that will remind you. A good one is if you find yourself getting stressed, agitated, disturbed in some way. In such moments, it's great to breathe deeply anyway. It's a natural way to relax a little bit. So that's one thing: if you notice, oh, I'm agitated, in that moment, do a little micro meditation.

Another good one is if you find yourself waiting, perhaps a little bit impatiently – you're at the traffic lights, or you're waiting for a bus, or you're waiting for some web page to load on your computer – these moments can be frustrating, if we're in our goal oriented mind. It's another great moment to do a micro meditation, when we're waiting for something. Make use of that time, see it as a gift. Ah, great, an opportunity for a little meditation.

But it doesn't have to be these negative situations that we respond to with a micro meditation. It can be any time. It could be when we're about to start eating our lunch: why not gaze at the food, and take three deep breaths before you start eating. It's just one example. You can find many of your own. And this way, hopefully, if we're lucky, throughout the day we'll have many little reminders, many moments when we remember, ah, now would be a good time for a little meditation.

And if you can do this throughout the day, and keep doing it for a few days, a few weeks – try and make it a part of your life, your lifestyle – you'll find that you'll be calmer, that you will be more aware, more present, and less responding from habit in your life.

If you're used to meditation, that's probably all you need to listen to in this talk. But I'm going to carry on with a few words of advice for people who are perhaps new to meditation.

With meditation, we're aiming really to take our energy out of the thinking mind, away from thoughts; to create some gaps in our thinking. If you pay careful attention to your mind, you will notice that in between thoughts, your awareness is on one of your senses. It might be what you're looking at. It might be the sounds you're hearing; the taste in your mouth; the smell, the touch; the sensations in your body. And during those times, even if it's a fraction of a second, it can be that there are no thoughts present. And we're trying to encourage that with meditation.

And the aim really is to take some of the energy out of the habitual thinking: that non-stop thinking, that many of us live with, day in, day out. Because all that thinking is actually rather a distraction from the present moment. It's not to say that thinking has no place in our life. It's just that it's gone a bit out of control in most of us. So that's the gist of meditation.

What we find when we start to meditate is the mind is actually really busy. And even for those few seconds as you take three breaths, you might find that some thought comes. Don't worry, just try and keep as much of your attention as possible on the sensations of your breathing – perhaps the movement in your belly, or the feeling of the air going in and out through your nose or mouth – just the sensations, the feel of it. And with that, even if thoughts arise, they won't carry much energy. They won't really grab your attention. And sooner or later, you'll find that no thoughts arise.

If that's not really working for you, you can try also counting the breaths: one, two, three. It's a sort of thought, but it doesn't need much energy, and it kind of occupies the wordy part of the mind. So whilst the mind is occupied with the counting, it tends to be that other thoughts do not arise.

Another very important thing is not to get too angry with yourself, if thoughts are interrupting all the time. When we start meditation, this is always the case, for everyone. The mind is so used to thinking, thinking, thinking. It just keeps running like that, even when we don't want it to, to begin with. With time, it subsides. And we begin to enjoy those periods of silence, even if only for a few seconds at a time.

With this micro meditation, we're trying to get to the point where for ten seconds or so, there are no thoughts arising in our mind. And preferably, we're not having to count either. And that alone will bring tremendous benefits, if we do it often enough throughout the day, and adopt it as part of our lifestyle; not just try it one day and then drop it. Keep it up for weeks, for months, and it will begin to erode this habitual thinking.

Of course, you don't have to stop at three breaths, if you want to make it five breaths or ten breaths, as many as you like. But for the micro meditation, don't overdo it. We don't want to get to the point where we're feeling, now would be a good time for a micro meditation but I don't have the time, I'm too busy. No, keep it short. That way there's no excuse.

Another thing about meditation: watching the breath is only one approach. There are many other things that you could bring your awareness to instead. And different meditation teachers and schools use different approaches. But let's start with watching the breath. It's a classic method, very well proven, and easy because we always have the breath with us. We don't need to carry a candle around with us. We don't need meditation chimes. We don't need any equipment. We can do it anywhere, anytime.

So give it a try: try micro meditations throughout your day, wherever you are, and whatever you're doing.