Introduction to Mindfulness Meditation @ Frederick Meditation Center

This 10 minute practice offers a review of the "training wheel tips" offered during the first class at the Frederick Meditation Center. It is lightly guided, with periods of silence for you to develop your focusing skills. To get started, find a comfortable seat and relax. 

Week 1: Guided Meditation for Focus & Concentration

During this 20 minute guided breath meditation, you will use your breath as your main object of focus and concentration. The practice begins with a brief body scan, followed by a three part breath deconstruction exercise. There is a long period of silence for you to practice focusing on and returning to your natural breath. This meditation is done seated, so find a comfortable position on a cushion or in a chair.

Week 1: Guided Breath Awareness

This 20 minute Body Scan Meditation invites you to observe the physical sensation of your body, while simultaneously witnessing your mindscape. Do your best to "stay" with each part, and notice when you attach to pleasure or push away pain, and then return to direct experience of sensation. This meditation may be practiced standing, seated or while lying down(but try to "fall awake" and "tune in" as best as possible).

Week 2: Body Scan Meditation

During this 20 minute meditation, you will learn to shift your focus between three objects of meditation, and open your awareness to the entire play of phenomenon - sound, sensation and anything else that arises. This meditation is performed seated.

Week 2: Body, Breath & Sound Meditation

During this 20 minute guided meditation, you will explore your relationship to your mind state and emotions using the practice of RAIN - recognize, allow, investigate and non-identification. You will learn how to observe your emotions without being carried away by them, and without feeling bad about having negative emotions in the first place. If you become overwhelmed during this practice, remember you can always drop the process of RAIN and return back to the safe harbor of your breath. 

Meditation For Emotions Using RAIN

This meditation is designed to be used for your daily practice. It contains intention setting, a brief body scan, breath focusing, choiceless awareness and brief compassion meditation. Practice this or any other meditation from the series for 20 minutes a day six days a week.

Week 4: Daily Mindfulness Meditation

The practice of metta (compassion) is an ancient Buddhist tradition of sending well wishes to yourself, a mentor, a friend, a neutral person, a difficult person, and all beings. Formal practice can lead to informal, on the spot practice in real life situations. The point of metta isn't to force yourself to like everyone, it is to explore your relationship to yourself and other human beings so you can cultivate awareness of your reactions, and perhaps temper your habitual reactions with understanding and compassion.

Week 4: Compassion Meditation

Heather Stang is the author of Mindfulness & Grief: With Guided Meditations To Calm Your Mind & Restore Your Spirit. She is also a thanatologist and certified yoga therapist. Her focus on teaching others to use mindfulness-based techniques to reduce stress, cope with grief, and cultivate personal growth is inspired by her own journey of love, loss and posttraumatic growth.

Introduction to Mindfulness Meditation @ Frederick Meditation Center

Heather Stang, MA, C-IAYT