Mindfulness Meditation a 21 Day Guided Programme

An overview of the 21 programme. This covers the preparation you need to think about for this programme and the objectives for this section, which is a reflection of the daily points of focus. It is important to plan ahead for the next seven days, as you are at the start point of developing your own habit of practise.

As you start this programme and prepare to listen through your first full guided exercises, it is normal to have difficulties following all the instructions given, So try and relax as much as you can with today's point of focus as your primary aim. Trust in the process ad remember to take each day, exercise by exercise.

Each day we start with a point of focus, giving a specific aspect of the practise your attention throughout the morning and evening exercise. This short lecture reminds you of the key aspects of posture to help you remain alert throughout your practise.

The exercises this week also start with posture set up, with today's aim being to maintain this throughout both exercises.

Reconditioning our breathing habits and connecting more with our breath, is at the heart of mindfulness and so today the focus is on the breath. It varies hugely how in touch with the breath people are and although throughout this programme breathing is starting point for each exercise, this habit of connecting with, being aware of the breath and your breathing will permiate beyond these exercises into everyday life.

The first day of directing you towards the more subtle aspects of the breathing and the different aspects of the breath. Bringing you, for the second day in a row, to your breath.

developing the habit of breathing more fully and easily is one of the aims of this programme. In line with this, this lecture draws your attention to the abdominal breath and the mechanics of that breath. This conscious development of this normally automated motor skill will be left to its own devises later in the programme, but for now we are asked to bring our attention to it.

For the second day in a row we are staying with the mechanics of the abdominal breath, but also asking to notice the sensation of the breaths movement as we again draw attention to more subtle aspects.

Focusing today on a more subtle aspect of our awareness as we are asked to notice the movement of our attention and the impact that using our breath has on this as a way of focusing the mind.

Morning Exercise: Audio download for days 1 to 7

Evening Exercise: Audio download for days 1 to 7

Welcome to the start of your next section and two new morning and evening exercises. This lecture overviews the objectives for this week, as you continue to work on the physical demands of breathing fully and maintaining posture, then also more importantly, how your attention is directed to ever more subtle aspects of mindfulness practice.

Really well done for getting through the first seven days and keep commiting day by day and exercise by exercise.

This day one of the next seven day cycle, with two new exercises to work with for the week, this lecture reminds you of the importance to listen fully, especially as the direction within the exercises is calling on the development of more focused and subtle awareness skills

There are subtle and not so subtle differences, between controlled breathing and when breathing is natural, or without conscious effort. Developing the ability to recognise these differences helps to develop sensitivity and connection with the breath, which slowly gives us information about how the breath responds to different emotional states.

As you continue with this programme and through the daily exercises, the connection with your breath will become easier and the ability to understand and influence your breathing patterns more natural. Today's focus is part of that development of connection and control, when required of your breathing.

As the mind moves away from habits of being over busy, influenced by and driving unwanted emotions, so a sense of stillness and being at ease is seeded and grows within. Today's focus begins to direct our attention to the point in the breath cycle that really supports this process.

Many congratulations as you have officially made it past the half way point. As we progress we will be building on the idea of honing your sensitivity to sensation. Such a fundimental part of strenthening and tuning the mind body link.

Our sense of hearing, allows us to extend our awareness far beyond our bodies, and when we consciously focus on sounds, place then spatially, we are practising moving our point of attention and learning the difference of directing and moving our awareness away from and toward ourselves.

Back on Day two of this programme you were asked to focus on posture and we return to that today. With more familiartity of what good posture feels like, with the body more physically conditioned, todays focus give you the chance to refine and notice when subtle changes in posture take place.

Morning Exercise: Audio download for days 8 to 14

Evening Exercise: Audio download for days 8 to 14

Into the final section of this programme and although the format remains the same, there are new exercises and new objectives that will help to develop the next level of mental focus and sensitivity. It is expected during these last seven days that your attention will wonder and it is important to know that when you become aware of this and so bring ourselves back to the task in hand, that this is an important part of developing our mindful skills

Welcome to the first day of the last seven day section. As with the start of previous sections you have two new exercises, so again, as before with previous sections, listening fully through is today's focus. This time round it is made more challenging with the format of these exercises.

When we speak about observing without judgement, we are talking about being fully aware, mentally, free from the mental chatter of the mind commenting on, trying to make sense of and judging what we are observing. We are therefore developing an objective outlook and accepting what we are observing, without trying to make changes. As we develop this skill we begin to understand that everything we experience is in a constant state of change, nothing is permanent, everything we experience will pass.

This sections exercises have longer periods of silence where you are left to practise a discipline of mindfulness on your own. These longer pauses will at times mean the mind becomes distracted. You are now asked to bring your attention to the process of returning to the exercise.

However you experience a sense of calm within yourself, today's point of focus is to connect with this and expand the experience of it, while remaining alert

Drawing your attention closer and focusing it internally, by becoming familiar with and learning the difference between internal and external sensation, is refining further the sensitivity of our awareness and powerfully places us in the present moment.

Returning again to the focus of attention, from small areas to broader awareness, helping us to close in on ever smaller areas of sensation. When we are focused in on a smaller area and able to keep it there for expanding periods of time, so we receive more information, in a simular way that information gained from a fleeting image is far less than the information you can gain from the prolonged study of that image.

Very many congratulations on making it to the final day of this programme and as with day one, step by step today, as you focus now on the remaining two exercises. Throughout this 21 day guided programme, the daily points of focus have ended with a invitation to enjoy. As annoying as this may have seemed, It has been there to remind you of the importance of enjoying whatever you do in life. because as you nurture a sense of enjoyment with your own mindfulness practises, it will make practise easier, more interesting and rewarding.

Morning Exercise: Audio download for days 15 to 21

Evening Exercise: Audio download for days 15 to 21

Having completed the 21 Day programme, you now have the option to repeat the daily exercises in sequence and with the same points of focus, or choose your favourite audio exercise and use this as your guided practise, with the ultimate goal of being able to sit in practise without any guidence