The Headspace Guide to: Mindfulness & Meditation

by Andy Puddicombe

Well, if I knew how to ‘just relax’ and ‘just let go’, then I wouldn’t have been there in the first place. And as for sitting 30 or 40 minutes at a time, forget it.

But most of all they wanted to know how to deal with that nagging feeling that all was not quite as it should be, or could be – that feeling that there must be more to life than this.

While the transition from monk to clown may not sound like the most obvious one, there are perhaps more similarities than first meet the eye.

When you learnt to ride a bike, I’m sure you were simply shown how to ride the bike, not how you should use that ability.

Mindfulness means to be present, in the moment, undistracted. It implies resting the mind in its natural state of awareness, which is free of any bias or judgment. Sounds nice, doesn’t it?

So mindfulness means to be present. It means being ‘in the moment’, experiencing life directly as it unfolds, rather than being distracted, caught up and lost in thought. It’s not a contrived or temporary state of mind that you need to somehow create and maintain. On the contrary, it’s a way of stepping back and resting the mind in its natural state, free from the usual chaos.

replied that it hadn’t changed the way he felt, but had instead changed his experience of those feelings.

By focusing less on your own worries and more on the potential happiness of others you actually create more headspace for yourself.

But in that one short meeting I’d learnt that meditation, within a mindful context, was not about stopping thoughts and controlling the mind. It was a process of giving up control, of stepping back, learning how to focus the attention in a passive way, while simply resting the mind in its own natural awareness.

‘Happiness is just happiness,’ he went on, ‘no big deal. It comes and it goes. Sadness is just sadness, no big deal. It comes and it goes. If you can give up your desire to always experience pleasant things, at the same time as giving up your fear of experiencing unpleasant things, then you’ll have a quiet mind.’

‘When you experience discomfort in your meditation, whether it’s the restlessness of a busy mind, physical tension in the body, or a challenging emotion, I want you to imagine it’s the discomfort of the people you care about. It’s as if in an act of extraordinary generosity, you are sitting with their discomfort so they don’t have to.’

One of the most important was that the emotion itself is often not the problem. It’s the way we react to it that causes the problem.

After all, it’s very difficult to separate thought and feeling. Do your thoughts define the way you feel? Or

Mindfulness is the willingness to rest in that natural state of awareness, resisting the temptation to judge whatever emotion comes up, and therefore neither opposing or getting carried away with a feeling. Meditation is simply the exercise that is going to give you the best conditions to practise being mindful of these emotions. And headspace is the result of applying this approach. Headspace does not mean being free from emotions, but rather existing in a place where you are at ease with whatever emotion is present.

Now for some people this is enough. Simply to sit each day, observe the breath, let the mind settle, and allow all the tension to work its way out of the system. And as I said earlier, there’s nothing wrong in using meditation in this way, it’s just that you won’t be getting the full benefit.

Getting ready: 1 Find a place to sit down comfortably, keeping a straight back. 2 Ensure you’ll be left undisturbed during your meditation (switch off your mobile). 3 Set the timer for 10 minutes.

Checking-in: 1 Take 5 deep breaths, breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth and then gently close your eyes. 2 Focus on the physical sensation of the body on the chair and the feet on the floor. 3 Scan down through the body and notice which parts feel comfortable and relaxed, and which parts feel uncomfortable and tense. 4 Notice how you’re feeling – i.e. what sort of mood you’re in right now.

Focusing the mind: 1 Notice where you feel the rising and falling sensation of the breath most strongly. 2 Notice how each breath feels, the rhythm of it – whether it’s long or short, deep or shallow, rough or smooth. 3 Gently count the breaths as you focus on the rising and falling sensation – 1 with the rise and 2 with the fall, upwards to a count of 10. 4 Repeat this cycle between 5 and 10 times, or for as long as you have time available.

Finishing-off: 1 Let go of any focus at all, allowing the mind to be as busy or as still as it wants to be for about 20 seconds. 2 Bring the mind back to the sensation of the body on the chair and the feet on the floor. 3 Gently open your eyes and stand up when you feel ready.

With that in mind, the journey to acceptance is about discovering what we need to let go of, rather than what we need to start doing.