Craig Daniels

Craig is dedicated to helping small businesses grow and their marketing success by developing a deeper connection to Curiosity, Intention and Gratitude. Curiosity is the foundation of all business endeavors, capture curiosity and you’ve captured momentum.

How Do I Sit In Meditation And Watch My Breath

Craig Daniels ·Leave a Comment

Introduction – Watch My Breath

Often those new to mindfulness practice find themselves a bit confused upon receiving the instruction to watch your breath. Frequently I’ve heard people exclaim, “Watch My Breath?” And then rather sheepishly add a follow up, “How?” How indeed.

Is watching your breath an act of concentration, attention, focus or is it something else altogether? The simple answer is that it’s none of those and yet it’s all of those. An example might help. Walking in a field one summer I looked up into the sky to see the most beautiful clouds I’d ever seen and immediately I became part of the scene. There were no words in my mind yet I knew and felt the beauty clearly. I was aware of being in those moments without thought, judgement or any need to capture any of it. Watching your breath is the same thing, you’re aware of it and even focused on it, but it’s not exertion or willpower holding your attention. Does that make any sense? If not, try letting it marinate a while.

Watch My Breath, awareness within a moment, without thinking. As Suzuki Roshi would say “nothing special.”

Mindfulness practice may seem like it’s mostly about the command “Watch My Breath” without falling asleep, but the practice also continues once you get out of your chair or once you standup from your sitting cushion.

The time after watching your breath becomes the time to watch each moment without exertion. You’ll notice space unfolding within each moment, maybe for the first time. The present moment is not only all around you, but it’s where each of us exists in time. Whether we are washing dishes, reading a book, listening to a friend share a story or merely sitting on the back steps watching the grass grow, The present moment unfolds into the next present moment.

“Watch My Breath” (WMB) is the key that unlocks our awareness of the present moment. WMB opens a glorious panorama of each moment as it merges into the next moment into the next moment into the next moment. WMB allows us to see, feel and know the richness of each moment (without thought) and to be inoculated from the constant distractions arising from the noisy world around us.

WMB gives us place, within the present moment. To be.

I created a short story (below) about how Alice searches for the how to best watch her breath. We all search differently, right?

For reasons only known to Alice, she sets out on a journey to find the perfect chair for meditating, a comfortable chair while at the same time a chair to give her lots of support for extended sittings. Alice wants a chair that will keep her from slouching and falling asleep, and so she embarks on her quest at a local bus stop in hope of finding the perfect chair that is “just right”.

Enjoy the story. In a rush? Scroll down the page where you’ll find an infographic with 7 Tips for Sitting in Meditation.

The Journey

A dilapidated city bus rolls into its destination emitting a squeak as it’s tires scrape against the granite curb and stops. The driver turns the ignition off, and the exhaust puffs with relief. Behind the dusty split windows a few passengers turn to stare blankly out toward an equally dilapidated bus stop and if they care to look further they’d also notice a curiously situated storefront, it’s crooked sign lazily dangling in the soft breeze spelling out, Local Haberdashery.

No one on the bus wears a hat, not even the ancient bus driver. Very Curious.

Alice, our heroine patiently waits on the edge of the same granite curb. She teeters slightly backwards as the bus pulls up but doesn’t flinch from its closeness, nor from its rather pedestrian squeak.

The buses rusted framed doors swing inwards with a whoosh as they open, and Alice steps into the buses dark opening, where she climbs the four steps of the bus. On the landing Alice stops and turns to watch the doors squeak shut, she smiles at the empty bus stop which waits silently for the next scheduled bus to arrive.

The bus driver turns the ignition on and slowly spins the enormous steering wheel to the left while deftly pressing the accelerator, the bus lumbers forward into the traffic stream.

Alice, who’s still standing on the landing next to the driver quickly surveys the scene noting to herself all the empty seats available. And once sure of her bearings she asks the driver, “Would you know where I might purchase a chair, a chair that is just right, so I can sit down and Watch My Breath?” The driver smiles while gazing into the big mirror above Alice’s head that reflects all the passengers on the bus, sitting quietly. “I know three places” he says, “one of which I’m sure will be just right,” he pauses and then poses his own question. “But, are you sure you’re getting onto the right story?” He asks hesitantly. Alice smiles and says, “Oh yes fine sir, I assure you I know just where I am.”

“You can get help from teachers,
but you are going to have to learn a lot by yourself,
sitting alone, in a room.”
Dr. Seuss

The bus rumbles and grumbles as it inches forward toward its many destinations, passing by bookstores, tea-shops and a whole sundry of interesting establishments. Alice moves deeper into the grungy bus, each hand giving her balance as they by slide upon the chrome bar hanging from the ceiling. Going deeper into the bus reminds her of something she may have read in a book, or maybe it was a dream, but she can’t for the life of her remember for sure. She sits on an empty seat moving a little left and than right till it’s just right. Once settled Alice watches the establishments and people outside the bus drift by without as much as a thought bouncing in or out of her head.

After a myriad of stops along it’s route the bus pulls over next to a big box store with huge red letters proclaiming Everything Office. The bus driver turns noisily on his vinyl seat and shouts at Alice, “hey, looking for a chair? This is your stop.” Startled a bit by his gruffness Alice waves and exits from the buses side door. Once on firm ground she quickly turns back toward the bus waving again while softly mouthing “thank you.”

Before entering the store Alice peers through it’s tinted windows, “I wonder if this is the place?” she muse’s, before going inside, “I hope they have a chair that is just right for me.,” she says softly, to no one in particular. The door closes behind her.

Before she can take three steps into the store a rather short and cute young Bear greets Alice. “Welcome,” says the bear. “Oh!” Alice exclaims as she takes one step backwards.”You’re a Bear!” “Indeed I am” the bear replies.

Looking directly into the eyes of the young bear Alice says, “I mean no offense but I didn’t expect to find a bear when I walked in.” “No offense taken,” the bear says, and he continues, “I didn’t expect for you to walk into this story either.” Alice ponders the bear for a moment and reply’s with a wink, “I assure you I am just where I’m supposed to be.” .

The sales-bear proceeds to show Alice the only chair he carries in stock. “I consider this overstuffed chair to be nearly a perfect chair.” the bear says. And he continues his pitch, “It will quickly take you to dreamland, leaving you refreshed and energized ready to accomplish great things” When the bear finishes Alice puts her fingers to her mouth and utters a stifled “oh!”

“The chair is wonderful” says Alice, “but falling asleep will just not do, I believe I need to look elsewhere. “I understand,” says the bear, “I wish you all the best,” and with that the bear ushers Alice through the door and back out into the busy world.

Once outside Alice stops, and for a moment thinks to herself “that was a rather rude exit” but being Alice she turns back toward the store with a big smile and waves.

“I love going to coffee shops
and just sitting and listening.”
Julia Roberts

Alice walks toward the bus stop and as she gets close she notices the bus is waiting with it’s door open, and it’s engine running. She peers inside the door and the driver says “ready for the next stop?”

Once again in the bus Alice looks around to get her bearings, and she notices 3 rather boisterous pigs sitting all the way in the back of the bus. The 3 pigs notice Alice and they wave and each one blows rather loud party horns.

Alice turns to the bus driver and asks “who are they?” “they’re regulars” the driver says, and then adds “they heard you were in this story and wanted to see for themselves.”

Putting her hands on her hips Alice thinks to herself “Bears, pigs and overstuffed chairs such a curious reality I live in.”

Before Alice can get comfortable the bus abruptly comes to a stop and the doors open. “This is your next stop, I believe” says the driver.

Alice quickly stands, waves goodbye to the pigs and climbs down the buses stairs to the sidewalk. And being Alice, she turns and waves to the driver, mouthing “thank you.”

Alice stares up at yet another big box store and reads to herself the sign. Green Tea Emporium and 2nd Hand Furniture. “My,” she thinks “ what a curious name for a business.”

[sc name=”7 sitting tips”]

Watch My Breath (Continued)

Alice walked across a nearly empty parking lot carefully not stepping on one of the many cracks in the weathered surfaced black top. “Curious” she thought to herself upon realizing she was acting on a long ago learned superstition. “Don’t step on a crack or you’ll break your mothers back” she said aloud. ” I wonder where all these thoughts come from,” she pondered and then deliberately stepped on every crack remaining in her path.

Alice stood at the stores entrance framed in bright flowers with a huge welcome sign hanging askew on the door. She reached up, pulled the door’s handle and let herself into a cavernous space. The first thing she noticed was the overwhelming smell of flowers, it was as if she’s stumbled into a florist shop and not a second hand furniture and tea shop.

“My how sweet and welcome I feel, ” Alice said. “That’s the goal” said the Bear standing next to Alice. Anxiously, Alice stepped back 2 or 3 steps, “why I hadn’t noticed you, standing there” said Alice between deep breaths. “If I may, Are you related to the Bear in the Everything Office?” asked Alice in a timid voice. “I am indeed” answered the Bear while extending a tray full of fresh baked cookies she’d had been holding, adding, “He’s my son.”

Seeing the cookies Alice realized how very hungry she felt, and seemingly reading her thoughts the Bear said, “please take as many as you’d like, you must be very hungry from traipsing around in a new story?” Alice gratefully took 3 cookies from the tray. “Thank you,” she said.

“Sometimes you need to sit lonely
on the floor in a quiet room
in order to hear your own voice and
not let it drown in the noise of others.”
Charlotte Eriksson

Once she’d eaten her fill of the delicious cookies Alice asked the Bear, “please can you help me find the right chair so I might sit and watch my breath?” “I have what may be the most perfect chair already picked out for you,” replied the Bear.

The Bear walked over to a golf cart and said, “please Alice won’t you join me for a quick ride to the chair department?” “Wow,” thought Alice, “a chair dept, surely I’ll find just what I’m looking for there.” “I’m sure you will,” said the bear as she shifted the cart into gear, and they sped away down the long long aisle into the hugely cavernous space.

Where Am I?

The ride to the chair dept seemed very long to Alice and little by little she allowed her eyes to close. She nodded off, for how long she did not know. But finally the cart stopped with a jerk and Alice woke up. “Where am I,” she thought to herself. “You’re in the chair dept of course,” said the Bear. Alice blinked repeatedly as she looked around the empty space surrounding her, why she couldn’t see any walls or ceiling but she knew she was in a room.

“There’s the chair,” said the Bear. Alice looked and looked and finally she made out what looked like a huge egg maybe 50 yards from where she sat. “It’s an egg,” exclaimed Alice. “Yes indeed, ” said the Bear. “I call it The Cosmic Egg Chair, “” It will help you crack open your awareness while meditating.” Said the Bear. “Crack open my awareness, oh my!, may I sit in it?” proffered Alice, her arms open wide. “Go right ahead,” said the Bear.

Alice walk by herself toward the cosmic egg chair deliberately. Once she reached the chair she walked around it a few times running her fingers over its smooth fiberglass surface, and climbed inside. “It’s much more comfortable than I had envisioned,” she thought to herself. “I’ll close my eyes and try it out, though I do hope nothing cracks open.”

For nearly 20 minutes Alice sat in the cosmic egg watching her breath, but she was not able to sit still. Alice watched as she breathed in and watched as she breathed out, she even watched the little pause at the end of her out breath, but she could not stop fidgeting. Finally Alice opened her eyes and clumsily climbed out of the egg chair all the while carrying a big frown on her face.

The Bear watched Alice follow the path of watch my breath for the whole time and yet not even her good wishes had any effect on Alice. The Bear knew the cosmic egg chair was not the right chair for Alice and her heart sank.

I’m sorry,” said Alice, “But this chair just won’t do, it’s not the right chair for me to sit on and watch my breath, oh what shall I do?” The Bear gave poor Alice a big bear-hug and gently led her to the stores exit. “Try the next store and you may find the chair that is just right,” said the Bear.

Without saying anything Alice walked slowly through the exit door and toward the bus stop, but being Alice she turned back, smiled as she waved and mouthed “Thank You” to the Bear in the Tea and Furniture Store.

The Search Continues

Though a bit slumped over and tired Alice proceed to walk toward the bus stop once more. A few yards from the bus stop Alice stopped, and asked herself, “what am I doing running around to find the perfect chair?” There was no answer either in her head nor from the the small crowd of onlookers who were watching this story with keen interest. Alice sighed and set off on foot to the next store.

Alice noticed as she walked that if she picked up her pace she could lose even the story onlookers and be alone for the first time on this journey. She really did appreciate all the advice and encouragement she’d received so far from the onlookers as well as the bus driver and the bears but she needed space to find her chair by herself.

“If I want to Watch My Breath and sit in meditation I need to stop all this wrestling and grasping with thoughts about what is and what isn’t the right chair, why maybe I don’t even a chair at all” she thought hurriedly. This last bit of thinking caused Alice to stop walking altogether, she took a deep breath. “Maybe any old chair will do,” she said aloud, and this thought spurred her quickly on toward the next store. The onlookers, who now had caught up with Alice noticed she walked with a sprightly spring in her step and everyone mimicked her newly found spring and moved forward.

What Was It You Wanted ?

Alice walked a short while to reach the 3rd store the bus driver had told her about. What she saw as she turned the corner was a huge expanse of cracked concrete with yellowed grasses inhabiting the cracks of a deserted mall parking lot. In the center of the wasteland sat a small vendors cart with a red and yellow striped awning protecting it from the sun. And sitting in a lawn chair next to the brightly colored cart was a huge brown Bear.

Staying in character, Alice found all this very curious and more than a bit surreal. For a moment she teetered upon the granite curbing surrounding the wasteland, her hesitation achingly passed and she continued her journey forward. The loyal onlookers decided to venture no further and setup a small waiting area they named Highway 61 where they could sit and watch the final act.

A few steps before reaching the cart Alice noticed a weathered sign dangling crookedly from the vendors cart, it read Chop Wood, Carry Water, she smiled and spoke out-loud for the first time since leaving the last store, ” it’s missing the After Enlightenment part.” “Are you quite sure of that?” said the Bear in a very deep and booming voice. “Maybe it’s missing “Before Enlightenment.” he continued and quickly before Alice could speak again he added, ” are you enlightened, Alice?”

The questions was so unexpected, Alice could feel her face turn red and Alice couldn’t identify the other feelings. Alice replied boldly “I most certainly am not,” and at that statement everything came back into focus. At that moment she noticed a rather large rusted animatronic likeness of Willy Nelson standing quietly next to the Bear’s chair. The Bear nodded in her direction while raising his arm toward the animtronic man and dropped a coin into a slot in its chest and with rusty squeeks it began to sing a gravely version of Dylan’s 1989 tune, What Was It You Wanted

Written by: Bob Dylan

1. What was it you wanted
Tell me again so I’ll know
What’s happening in there
What’s going on in your show
What was it you wanted
Could you say it again
I’ll be back in a minute
You can get it together by then

2. What was it you wanted
You can tell me I’m back
We can start it all over
Get it back on the track
You got my attention
Go ahead speak
What was it you wanted
When you were kissing my cheek

3. Was there somebody looking
When you gave me that kiss
Someone there in the shadows
Someone that I might have missed
Is there something you needed
Something I don’t understand
What was it you wanted
Do I have it in my hand

4. Whatever you wanted
Slipped out of my mind
Would you remind me again
If you’d be so kind
Has the record been breaking
Did the needle just skip
Is there somebody waiting
was there a slip of lip

5. What was it you wanted
I ain’t keepin’ score
Are you the same person
That was here before
Is it something important
Maybe not
What was it you wanted
Tell me again I forgot

6. Whatever you wanted
What could it be
Did somebody tell you
That you could get it from me
Is it something that comes natural
Is it easy to say
Why do you want it
Who are you anyway

7. Is the scenery changing
Am I getting it wrong
Is the whole thing going backwards
Are they playing our song
Where were you when it started
Do you want it for free
What was it you wanted
Are you talking to me
Copyright © 1989 by Special Rider Music

Alice stood transfixed as the metal Willy Nelson sang the haunting tune, she had no thoughts and nothing to say. When the performance was over the Bear once again lifted his arm and pointed to a chair atop the vendor cart which much like the animatronic man she had not noticed till it was pointed out to her. Alice walked over to the cart and touched the rather plain brown wooden chair and placed it on the ground next to the Bear. “Take the chair” the Bear said gruffly. “Oh thank you very much,” said Alice and she picked up the chair and walked away. She did however turn back at the edge of the grass for a moment, and waved to the Bear and being Alice she mouthed “Thank You.”

“A simple brown wooden chair I can sit in and watch my breath.” thought Alice. It was what she had been looking for all a long. It was “just right,” she said out loud as she walked back to the bus stop with her chair. Once on the bus the drive asked ” how what your journey?” Alice replied with a smile, “very curious, very curious indeed.” And with that she walked to her seat and looked out the window for the first time.

***NOTE*** Prior to the advent of Social Media and Smart Phones it was not uncommon for stories to be populated with guests from other stories that just dropped in to see what was going on in a new story. In this story the 3 Pigs were very curious to see what Alice was up to so they came and went a few times to keep track of her adventures. And onlookers or fans also would frequently show up in stories to watch things play out. Occasionally the onlookers would give advice or ask questions of the stories main characters, but for the most part they kept a respectful distance and stayed very quiet, much like the crowds of yesteryear did at golf tournaments. All very different from today’s loud and intrusive social media fans. But, we all know that everything changes. Right?

7 Meditation Sitting Tips from Craig Daniels

This Slideshow is a short view of the 7 sitting tips from the above infographic.

Be Aware Of Your Thoughts

Craig Daniels ·Leave a Comment

Be careful how you are talking to yourself, because you are listening.
Lisa M Hayes

A new study recently published in Nature Communications from a team at Queens University suggests that we have 6200 thoughts each day. And while this is a radically different number than those of the past which had pegged the number at 60,000 thoughts each day, each of us thinks a huge amount of the time. And few of us are aware of what we are thinking about. Few of us are aware of how much time we spend in the past or in the future.

Few of us are aware that the vast majority of our thoughts are negative and judgemental.

Often I find myself deeply in conversation with myself. I become aware I’ve constructed a conversation built upon layers of how I’d like things to be and not how they really are. I become aware of my attempt to rewrite the past or control the narrative in the future.

Can you relate to the above scenario? Do you see similarities in your own internal dialogue with rewriting the past to make it more favorable to yourself, or coloring the view of the future with rosy shades of winning?

Think about being in conversation with yourself for a moment.

I wonder, how many conversations do we have with ourselves each day? And though these conversations are occurring in our mind how strangely unaware we are of what’s being discussed.

This unawareness is not limited only to internal dialogue, but at times includes daily mundane routines such as walking down a flight of stairs. Often while engaged in one of these routines I become aware of two things. The first is that I’m actively engaged in conversation in my head and secondly, I don’t fully remember walking down the flight of stairs.

Of course I have a faint memory of the descent down the stairs, but most of my energy was directed to the conversation, meaning my awareness was not in the moment, my present moment awareness was absent. And surprise, my awareness was not in the conversation either. My mind was lingering in the past or quite possibly grasping toward the future, but I wasn’t paying attention to the content. I wasn’t working through options to solve a problem.

When I say conversation in my mind I’m not referring to the thinking we all do when we are working through a logistic problem at work, or trying to decided which school is best for our children. What I’m referring to is the mindless (automatic) conversations we all have throughout each day. Conversations that have a life of their own, and generally these streams of thoughts are judgmental or fantasizing in nature. It’s when you are listening that the amount of thoughts being produced becomes clear, and at times somewhat disturbing.

Whatever you focus your attention on will become important to you even if it’s unimportant
Sonya Parker

Examples of mindless thinking may include telling someone how to live their life, explaining to a friend why another friend is wrong or a myriad of subjects being created non-stop within our mind. It’s these conversations we need to become aware of if we hope to fully integrate with mindfulness and the present moment. If we want to embrace the power of dialogue you need to be aware of your thoughts.

Take a short break (10-15 minutes) a few times each day and listen to your thoughts. Be aware while you listen to the continuous stream of thoughts randomly bouncing around or maybe forming conversations in your head. Ask yourself, am I these thoughts I’m listening to? And also ask yourself if you are the one who is aware of your thinking. These short (10-15 minute) breaks can also be used for more directed mindfulness practice, such as watching your breath

It’s not even necessary in the beginning that you answer these questions. What’s important is to ask them each time you sit to watch and listen to your thoughts. The questions are only a device to help sweep away some pretty thick cobwebs. It’s the questions themselves that sharpens our awareness of these floating thought streams. The questions are like your windshield wipers on your car, and each time you focus your attention by asking a question you pull open the curtain in your mind.

Trust me I know this little exercise and the questions I’ve asked you to think about may seem way out in left field if you’re new to this. But if we have any hope of slowing down or even stopping the internal dialogue crashing around within our skull it’s important that we grow our self awareness. Our mind is populated with bias, assumptions, judgments and a myriad of mazes and tunnels we are not even aware that we’ve created.

Once you settle into sitting and listening to your thoughts try adding paying attention to the space that forms between your collection of thoughts. This space will appear as one thought fades and before the next one takes center stage. When you can let your focus rest within these thought spaces the size of the spaces will grow as will your silent awareness of current reality.

Throughout each day our minds generate thousands and thousands of mostly random thoughts. Current estimates of 40,000 to 60,000 thoughts appear in our mind each day. Most of these seemingly random thoughts escape our notice, they pop into our mind and pop out only to repeat themselves over and over and over each day. We want to become aware of these thoughts, become aware so we can move beyond random thinking.

Whoops! I looked up as I was clicking on publish to realize I was caught in a swirl of thoughts having nothing to do with what I’m trying to convey here. I forgot to include what may be the most important tip about how you are listening.

“Awareness is the greatest agent for change.”
Eckhart Tolle

When you take a break from your busy day to learn more about how you are thinking, the first and most important thing to remember is to not be judgmental as you watch your thoughts. Your thoughts will pour in like a waterfall and our job is to watch but also to be aware of when our judgment side starts yapping loudly about how bad, negative, terrible or even how good your thoughts are. Your thoughts are simply your thoughts and are neither good nor bad, your thoughts are automatically being generated within your brain, you’re not sitting there plotting to do something horrible. However, If you’re worried please talk with someone who can listen and offer help such at the national mental health resource page.

The more you watch the more random you’ll see your thoughts are. As you go about your day and you notice thoughts remind yourself they are only thoughts, and gently go back to what you were doing. When I see myself trapped in thoughts I simply say to myself or at times out-loud “thinking” and return to what I was doing. At times I have to say “thinking” a few times in a row to break the spell the thoughts are casting on my imagination, but mostly I know I’m thinking… Nothing more.

Becoming aware of your thoughts by using the word thinking merely brings your attention to what’s going on inside your mind, this word usage is not a judgement as to the goodness or badness of any particular thought, Our random thoughts will be happy and sad, angry and calm, bright and dark, silly and serious, Our thoughts sometimes may be disturbing and violent, and then turn into joyful and loving. I’m pointing all this out to share with you how random our 60,000 daily thoughts are and to assure you we all think violent and loving thoughts each day, it’s the nature of our minds randomness.

“Thinking” is merely a tool to show each of us how to be aware of your thoughts.

Leave your judgements and assumptions outside in a heap, as you watch your thoughts. This exercise is not about labeling your thoughts as “thinking”, no the act of saying to yourself “thinking” is simply a tool to snap your awareness into focus. I may become aware of having a spirited argument with a friend and instead of attempting to stop or judge the conversation I say “thinking”. Once I acknowledge I’m thinking I turn my attention back to the present moment or at times I’ll imagine the thoughts as balloons that float away and silently pop. Poof, poof, and poof. All this happens in less than a second.

When we don’t paint our thoughts with the big brush of judgement we are waking up our awareness from its distractions. Another benefit to not adding judgement to the mix is we avoid stuffing our thoughts and emotions down deep into our mind.

Acknowledging our thoughts allows you to Be Aware Of Your Thinking, we add nothing to our thinking and nothing will be left.

Here’s An Example

Imagine yourself in the shower, out of nowhere you find yourself having a conversation with a coworker, a loved-one or someone you don’t even know on a street corner. Now imagine the conversation turns into a heated argument, but of course you rise to the occasion and with wit and sparkle you prevail. Your conversation partner changes their mind gleefully adopting your point of view.

Is this a familiar scene? Do you have conversations with others in your mind, or should I say do you debate and lecture others while you are in the shower, in the car, riding an elevator or maybe walking around the block. If you’re like most people you have over 60,000 thoughts a day and many long discussions with other people.

All those thoughts and conversations take place in your mind, not in the physical world. All your thoughts are confined to your mind. What if you called your best friend and started yelling at her for things she said in one of your conversations that occurred in your mind. What do you think she her reaction would be?

Be Aware Of Your Thoughts

It’s simple, all our thoughts streaming through our mind come and go without having much effect on us until we grasp them. It’s the grasping onto our thoughts that creates a cascading ride on our emotional roller coaster. Once we start to connect out thoughts with the glue of belief, we’ve attributed reality to them and we suffer.

Choosing to be aware of your thoughts takes away their power over your emotional well-being. this disconnecting from your thoughts allows you to more clearly see and understand current reality.

Heading Photo by Samuel Austin on Unsplash

Motion In A Moment

Craig Daniels ·Leave a Comment

In the mid 1980’s I managed a catering – wholesale foods operation which gave me the opportunity to reinvent everything. I researched the competition from the Canadian border to NYC looking for trends and new thinking, I spent time wondering, pondering and brainstorming with abandon. Some of my mad stirring of the pot paid off, and some deepened the dent in my forehead from repeatedly connecting with the desk. And no it doesn’t feel good when you stop.

Early on I found motion in a moment. Within each moment opportunity exists, opportunity that is always in motion. Each moment is in dynamic motion spinning and churning without ceasing. What’s this have to do with running a busy catering operation, you may be asking right about now? I’ll tell you.

During the 80’s business coaching and personal development schemes where taking off, you couldn’t turn around without being offered an opportunity to take your business or even your life to a higher level. If you couldn’t make it to a live seminar there were VHS, Audio Tapes + CD’s available for home study. Remember this was not only before the internet it was also the same time compact discs had just come on the scene, and people could for the first time rent movies for home viewing. The information revolution was rolling through towns and cities with gusto.

Excitement about the possibilities to create something new was everywhere, you could feel the motion within each moment revealing itself. I happily allowed myself to be talked into taking a 12 week Robert Fritz course 0n expanding creativity and vision. So for 12 weeks it was me and the teacher spending 3 plus hours teaching me to crack open my creative side while embracing the vision. Wow, how could this not be worth all that cash I paid. I was learning to tap into the moment and find my higher self and learning how to attach vision to motion, though I didn’t know that at the time.

“Don’t be so loyal to your mind; the mind is not loyal to You.”
― Bert McCoy

A couple of months after completing the course I got all my employees together in a local deli for a creative jam. I asked everyone to think about where they thought the business could grow and how we would go about implementing those ideas. Of course the joke was on me because I never bothered to ask if they even had ideas or cared one way or the other. I had the vision thing and I was going to make sure everyone else joined me.

Six of us sat in the local deli and discussed their roles in the business with a few ideas peppered in between. The big ideas soon came from an outsider I’d invited to sit in with us for her business experience along with her wildly fertile imagination. I was counting on her input to help move the group forward. I was right about P. having a fertile imagination and before long the group had enthusiastically got on board with her ideas for serving our market.

Before I knew it I was free falling without a net, I had yet to share my vision and I was bereft of ideas to insert my beautiful technicolor vision within a group that was congratulating P. for her wonderfully stark, simple and easily understandable B+W plan.

Technicolor Technicolor (remember Technicolor?) I cried inside my mind as I gently shook while clinging to resistance from a place of fear. My vision was stalled and my grasp of the motion in a moment vision derailed. P. knew the space I was in and touching my arm she smiled with compassion telling me we could always do Technicolor next.

Motion In A Moment Unfolds

I didn’t then know about mindfulness, noticing assumptions, reserving judgement, active listening and it would be quite a while before the power of Generative Dialogue would cross the threshold of my consciousness.

Motion is what’s happening right now, right here. There is no past to retreat to, no future to rush toward. What we have is one moment unfolding smoothly into the next. Each moment presents motion, it’s a bit like a flower blooming right before our eyes. It’s only when we are distracted that we miss connecting with the motion embedded within each moment, always unfolding and always arising. The motion in a moment presents itself to us as a infinite opportunity.

Within each unfolding moment is an opportunity to pivot out of the deep chasm of ego we often find ourselves in. It was not knowing about using mindfulness to pivot that tied me in knots and doomed my vision. I clung to my vision ignoring the group as they moved forward. I was left in a heap along the side of the road not knowing how to listen or dwell in the motion in that moment and my employees moved on without me.

Part of being human is to attach to our memories, our brain runs more efficiently when it can repeat the same actions over and over, ignoring current reality in favor of efficiency. What’s happening in the here and now becomes stalled, and we kill motion. Our mind feeds us prerecorded perceptions of what we’ll see as we round life’s corners. As we climb the mountains and descend into the valleys of the familiar we believe we know what we’ll encounter before we get there. How is that possible, how can we know?

“It’s only when you’re forbidden to talk about the future that you suddenly realize how much the future normally occupies the present, how much of daily life is usually spent making plans and attempting to control the future. Never mind that you have no control over it. The idea of the future is our greatest entertainment, amusement, and time-killer.”
― Erica Jong, Fear of Flying

Below is a mindmap I created with a moment at its center. The map shows how the past and future are but memories and hopes we’ve created in our minds. Using mindfulness with this knowledge can aid us in living and functioning in each unfolding moment giving us access to new levels of creative collaboration and dynamic innovation.

Don’t get me wrong, memories are wonderful and help us to navigate and live a much richer daily life but they become distractions when we live our lives through our memories. Mindfulness can be like a new set of windshield wipers making your vision clearer and richer.

There is a warning sign along this road that’s labeled Shinny Objects, these are the distractions we all are exposed to 24/7. Unplug when you can and don’t forget to turn off those bleeping notifications living on your connected devices.

Mindfulness practice can be much more than sitting crossed legged on a cushion. Check out Bicycling Into Mindfulness for an alternative view of practice.

Steps To Mindfulness

Craig Daniels ·Leave a Comment

“The crux of the biscuit
is the apostrophe”
Frank Zappa

Steps To Mindfulness

The above image will automatically cycle through tips for mindfulness practice, or you can click on it to move things along at your own pace.

A Mindfulness Roadmap For Breakfast

Each morning I create (construct) a large salad for breakfast with a base of kale, mushrooms and delicious tomatoes. Of course I pick and choose a myriad of other items to complete it, and top it off with some type of salad dressing. But this morning it occurred to me, how I construct my salad each morning is exactly how most of us construct our view of reality each morning when we awake. I immediately put the unopened bottle of dressing back into the refrigerator and instead sprinkled a mere teaspoon of vinegar over the top of the big salad.

Practicing mindfulness is a bit like putting the salad dressing back in the icebox, you end up with a clearer, crisper and healthier view of reality than you would have had without the practice.

As I ate my naked salad I was struck by the boldness of the flavors that usually are hidden under the creamy dressing. The tomatoes popped with freshness, the kale and the lettuce crunched loudly while mixing flavors with the salmon topped with slices of avocado and fresh ground black pepper. And the vinegar? Why it tied everything together, and accented the newness of the summer morning I watched awaken before me as I ate breakfast on the concrete back-steps, outside my house, this morning.

So what the heck is a Mindfulness Roadmap anyways? Simple, it’s a series of tips or guideposts worth (I think ) knowing as you journey from point A to point x,y and z. There are no miraculous finds within this list of steps, yet I think the twelve tips below are illuminating if you remember them as you practice. It’s easy to forget the basics as you spend more hours and months practicing mindfulness. Remember the basics and the rest of the work will take care of itself. Or I hope it will.
It’s easy to forget to keep your foot flat to the ground when you’re pedaling a bicycle, (bicycling into mindfulness) but if you do keep each foot flat you’ll go further and faster than if your technique is sloppy. It’s the same with practicing mindfulness, don’t get cocky or sloppy

The crux of any practice is to remember to do it. That little tip is what I kept in mind as I was assembling this mindfulness roadmap. And to get a good start to our journey I created the first step and titled it Start Small. How’s that for recognizing the difficulty in starting any new practice in our way too busy lives.
1. Start Small
And keep it simple. Mindfulness is not complicated, though it does require that we put the work (practice) into it on a regular basis. Are there any goals (not really) we need to keep in mind? Make your practice something you do each day, sit and watch your breath for a few minutes when you start out and work your way up to 20 or 30 minutes each day. At some point you may want to sit and watch your breath a couple of times each day but hey, don’t worry about that. If you do, you do and if you don’t, you don’t. Sit for a few minutes each day watching your breath and you’ll be fine.

2. Watch Your Breath
How the heck do I watch my breath, there’s nothing to see (grumbles). in your mind or watch it by being aware of the sensations of the air coming into your nose and leaving your nose. Feel the in and feel the out of your breath. In the beginning you may want to count your breaths until you have practiced a while and once you feel ready, drop the counting and start feeling the flow of your breath.
I do have a big suggestion (Rule) don’t get attached to controlling the in and out of your breath. It’s easy to fall into a rhythm where you are controlling the in and the out breath as you watch it. (complication, I know). But if you practice just feeling the breath come in and go out and not when or how strong it comes and goes you’ll be fine.
I promise your body knows how to breathe all on it’s own, without your help.

3. This is my favorite step, Sit and Repeat.
I like it because of its simplicity but, also because it reminds me of the saying Rinse and Repeat, both are clear and simple and as far as I know don’t have alternative meanings to confuse things (I could be wrong). Many people find little trouble in doing the sitting for the first time, but the hard part is in the repeating the sitting. Yep, it’s the doing it again and then doing it a 3rd and 4th time that becomes the problem.
It’s no bad enough that out minds will race and stream tons of thoughts and feeling while we sit in mindfulness practice but then we’re supposed to repeat it. Oh No!
The repeat part is the key to this whole thing, think of it as the goal (the one I said didn’t exist). Pretend I didn’t use that 4 letter word and think of sit and repeat as the same as rinse and repeat, the more you repeat the practice the more suds and dirt you get out in the rinse. Sound good?

4. Thoughts Come and Go
Thoughts appear to the tune of 60,000 thoughts racing through our minds each day. I’m sure no one walks around with a meter connected to their head that counts this stuff. But no matter if the real number is more or less, the fact is our minds our awash in a stream of thinking that has a mind of its own.
When we first start mindfulness practice we may be surprised at how much we think and how hard it is to control it our shut it off. But like watching our breath, observing our chatty mind is not about shutting it off or controlling the amount of thoughts that flow in and out.
When we are sitting in practice and thoughts flow in we can acknowledge them by mentally saying “thinking.” Saying “thinking” gives us a pause so we don’t jump down the rabbit hole of carrying on a conversation with ourselves, and then we can resume watching our breath. I sometimes will see a thought as a balloon and will gently pop it instead of saying “thinking” to myself.
The key here is to know you’re thinking and to gently bring yourself back to the breath without engaging with the thought and without judging yourself for thinking. Believe me your mind will throw thoughts at you no matter how much you grit your teeth and tell it not to. Acknowledge the thinking and come back to your breath.

5. Stay With It
Stay with what? You may ask. Stay with the emotions that you feel and experience while traveling the steps along the Mindfulness Roadmap excursion.
You may be tempted when uncomfortable emotions appear to distract yourself or crunch them into a paper ball and toss those pesky emotions as far as you can, don’t do it. And even though I know you’ll want to analyze, categorize, peg, rank, pigeonhole or classify the emotions as they appear as sensations, itches, irritations or creeping crawling pesky rawness, please don’t. Don’t grab onto any of them. treat the large or small sensations of anxiety, fear, confusion, anger and yes even joy the same way you treat your thoughts as they flow in and out of your mind. Gently and without judgement bring your attention back to the breath.

6. Tune Into Posture
If we slouch while sitting in meditation there is a good chance we’ll fall asleep or at least restrict the clear flow of our breath. Likewise if we tilt our head back there’s a good chance we’ll go into a dream or chattering state. Our back should be straight and our head very slightly tilted forward (I mean Very Slightly). If our eyes are open i suggest looking downwards just a bit in a gaze and not a focus. Even if your eyes are closed it’s good to check that you are not staring as this will cause the muscles around your eyes to tighten.
I find checking my posture often allows me to catch tightness in my neck and shoulders, around my eyes and in my fingers. Simply feel the position of your body as you finish exhaling. You can lightly scan your body after each exhale or you can do it every few exhales. No need to think about the scan just become aware of tightness in your body, loosen or straighten up and move onto your next inhale. After awhile you’ll be aware of tension without doing a scan, release it and inhale.

7. Join With Others
Finding a group to sit with on a regular basis can be difficult. I for example live in a small city of over 100,000 people and there are no daily AM sittings groups closer than 40 miles from me. When I lived in Hanover NH there was a group sitting everyday at 7:00 AM that had no requirements, you could show up sit for 45 minutes and leave or talk with others after the sitting or make arrangements to meet later. The group was perfect for those who wanted to sit with a group but had work or family obligations that prevented them from sitting at inconvenient times (my rant).
The point of all this before I got on my rant is that if you can find a group there are huge upsides to interacting with others who are sitting on a regular basis and if you can find a group that has open sits so you can easily pop in and out, get thee to the group.

8. Is That You?
Often people will get a bit concerned with he thoughts that flow in and then out of the their mind while sitting and watching their breath. First all the thoughts are transient and will leave and be replaced with other thoughts unless we grab onto them with concern or worry. That’s the key, the lifespan of thoughts is directly related to how much energy we give to them. Hold onto thoughts and they’ll hold on to you, so to speak. Acknowledge a thought as a thought and you dis-empower it.
When dark thoughts arrive don’t be surprised. Our minds throw some pretty weird stuff at us as we sit and watch our breath. When we are placing our attention on our breath we become more aware of your thoughts and dark thoughts don’t make you a bad or evil person. We all think of hitting someone in the face from time to time, they are just random thoughts and not who we are. Some of us will be sitting and have violent thoughts flow in and flow out just as quickly as them came in. Again our thoughts and emotions are mostly random and don’t define who we are.
Ask yourself, am I my thoughts. if your answer is yes than you may want to talk with a professional. Having dark thoughts is one thing, thinking you are those thoughts or you might act on them is a different thing.If sitting becomes uncomfortable for you stop sitting and talk with someone. Maybe join a group of people experienced in sitting to get support and guidance.
Normally the longer you sit watching your breath the less thoughts steaming into your awareness happen. And I don’t mean to alarm anyone who’s new to mindfulness. Start slowly and things should be fine.

9. Savor The Moment
When I think about the unfolding of each moment I am struck by the magnitude of a moment and further thrilled by the opportunity being presented to us within each moment we are aware of. WOW! If we are at least somewhat resolute about our sitting we will experience a deeper awareness of standing within the stream of moments in our life.
This standing in the stream of moments with awareness is not magic, it’s not religious and it’s not special but to quote Shunryu Suzuki “it is something.” Standing in the midst of unfolding moments and being aware of where we are erases the past and the future, it puts us squarely in the present, puts us squarely in the Here And Now.
And boom we suddenly are transported back to our everyday reality pregnant with the the tugging of the past and the promises of the future. We ask ourselves how did I lose being in the moment? The answer of course if that we tried to grab hold of the stream of unfolding moments, we tried to posses it and lost it.
Trekking through life using guides like the Mindfulness Roadmap may give you a shot at standing in the stream of moments again, or for the first time.

10. Don’t Get Caught
Mindfulness is not possession of the present moment, it’s not owning the here and now. Mindfulness is awareness of the here and now, awareness of standing in the stream of infinite unfolding moments commonly referred to as the “present.” We lose that awareness once we get caught by grabbing, clutching, snagging, hooking and nabbing onto it.
The key is not to try and possess the present moment but to dwell in awareness of it. Don’t get caught by distractions, don’t be engulfed by desire to possess it. We are always standing in the midst of the stream of unfolding moments, we just don’t realize it most of the time.

11. Do It Anywhere
One minute of watching your breath on a busy train can transport you in mindfulness and for that reason alone I recommend you practice whenever and wherever you can. Close your eyes at your desk and watch your breath, maybe duck into a local library and sit for 5 minutes before you go to work. Wherever You Are, Watch Your Breath, Uncork Your Awareness.
It’s Also easy to carry the Mindfulness Roadmap with you on your cell phone with out handy Slideshare Slideshow Here.

12. Cluttered Mind
Uncluttering your mind is much simpler than many would have you believe and simpler than you probably believe. When you are ready to take a step you’ll only need a few minutes each day as a starting point. Sit, Breathe and Repeat. You’ll be on your way, do you wonder where that could be? Do you wonder what it will be like. Well, take a step and Sit, Breathe and Repeat. – It’s That Simple

Mindfulness – 12 Illuminating Guideposts – Slideshow from Craig Daniels

Unblocking Creativity Engage Your Active Side

Craig Daniels ·Leave a Comment

Within the chorus of David Bowie’s Changes, he sings “time may change me, but I can’t trace time.” When we first hear this familiar part it may seem nonsensical. It may make as much sense as a Zen Koan, but look at it for a moment and turn it over in your mind. What does it mean to “Trace Time“?

If we could “trace time” we’d be able to know exactly when change occurred in our lives, we’d see the pivot points and quite possibly know how to replicate them in the here and now. If we could “trace time” we’d easily be able to unlock the pesky creative blocks that encumber our businesses, our teams and ourselves.

Does my interpretation of “Trace Time” connect with how you see those lyrics? Or do you have a totally different understanding than I do? If you see it differently, and there certainly are different options available please comment on it below.

Musical lyrics and Koans are both related to blocked creative flow, think about it. Both song lyrics and Zen Koans require that we stretch ourselves beyond the ordinary, and move toward resolution. Both Zen Koans and Song Lyrics invite us to hear and see with an unknowing mind, to see with a beginners mind. Both musical lyrics and Zen Koans lend themselves to multiple interpretations and both require us to come at them with a non-ordinary approach to problem solving. Unblocking Creativity easily could be a 3rd category that fits easily into the same bucket of requirements of song lyrics and Zen Koans.

Actively Unblocking Creativity asks us to see things differently instead of banging our heads against the wall (or the block) while we wail about how frustrated we are. For a moment and for a bit of fun imagine your whole team finding their own spot on the wall, and in unison banging their heads in hopes of unblocking creativity.

In the above exercise do you think your team achieved a breakthrough? It’s more likely the only breakthrough achieved in this exercise was head going through the plaster wall. Of course the above exercise should be preformed only with a gentle bang of your head against the wall, or a slightly harder bang if you are using your imagination. I’m pretty sure no one would really smash there fragile skull against a wall (hard) to see if it unblocked creativity.

NOTE: If your team is tempted to try the above please be gentle in your head banging, and never slam your head into a concrete or metal wall. Not even for a creative breakthrough.

Unblocking Creativity will only grow and become ridge if we walk away from it saying, “I don’t understand or it makes no sense.” Approach the block with awareness grounded in the present moment and not chained to the past or future.

5 Activities for Unblocking Creativity

I walk most days as a way of shutting off the noise in my head, and shifting to a quieter place. Walking for me clears out the distractions better and quicker than any other activity I’ve found. And judging by the large and diverse group of men and women I see while on my daily walks I think we’ve all found a great way to shift our thinking into a more spacious place.

Where you walk is not as important as the act of walking itself. When I lived in northern New England most of my walking was along parts of the Appalachian trail, but now I walk along well traveled roads. The quiet and scenery are not nearly as beautiful on the streets but the opportunity to put myself into the here and now is equally expansive.

Walking feeds both the desire to quiet the internal dialogue and to give my body a nice extended workout. It’s nice to sit on the steps outside the kitchen door after my daily walk with the awareness of my physical body humming in sync with my now very quiet mind. These two activities birthed of something as simple as walking open fresh possibilities for creativity.

“Every walker is a guard on patrol to protect the ineffable.”
Rebecca Solnit

The action, to meditate is perhaps a misnomer. Meditation is not a verb, not something we do but instead is a space we inhabit when sitting or walking. Meditation can best be thought of as being present and aware within the body of each moment, without doing anything.

Now I’ve gone and thrown a wrench into the usual understanding of actively practicing meditation or mindfulness. Meditation is not something we actively engage with the way we go jogging or climbing a mountain but you can be meditation while doing both of those things.

Meditation like mindfulness is not concentration on a particular object of action such as washing dishes, thought you can be both in meditation and be mindful while washing dishes. Take a breath and sit with a moment and with the next moment without doing anything but being aware of what is there.

I often think of moments as a field of tall green stalks of corn that I’ve waded into. I stretch out my arms and carefully part the space between the stalks so I can move deeper into the streaming moments in search of creativity. Yet at the same time not in search of creativity.

Being surrounded by the field of moments creates its own sense of quiet, a quiet unfolding rapidly into the next moment without end. Being in this field heightens my awareness of connections I have not seen before.

The field of moments is meditation, be here now is meditation, chewing your food is meditation, folding and unfolding is meditation. And to paraphrase what Shunryu Suzuki said about enlightenment, It’s something, nothing special, but something.

“To understand the immeasurable,
the mind must be extraordinarily quiet, still.”
Jiddu Krishnamurti

Washing dishes as a tool for unblocking creativity may seem at first glance a bit suspect, I use it as an example to highlight the myriad of everyday tasks we can engage with to help us unblock. I could as easily used the Zen standby “carry water, chop wood.”

We all live within an endless stream of moments, moments imbued with opportunity. Each moment we find ourselves in the middle of is of equal value in unlocking the lost, and in turning the key that reveals the hidden treasures found when we unblock creativity.

The trick (it’s not a trick) is as simple as moving out of our own way and allowing our awareness within each moment to blossom. Chop wood, carry water and get out of your head, it’s as simple and as complicated as that. We can use anything we do as the catalyst to open the door.

Deliberately putting ourselves into the present moment with full awareness is the trick (non-trick) I’m pointing to.

“I find myself dreaming of doing normal things –
like staying home and washing dishes.”
Shalom Harlow

We all can draw, doodle, scribble, etch, paint, sketch, trace, outline or storyboard something. Applying pressure behind a pencil or pen to a piece of paper is all that is required. Feel free to ignore lack of talent or proficiency and draw whatever comes to you hand.

The writer-Zen teacher Natalie Goldberg encourages her students during writing periods to “let yourself go.” And the same goes for drawing, let yourself go and let your subconsciousness express itself. This is practice in itself.

Try expanding your drawing skills by capturing different objects, or maybe people in line with a mirror. The mirror gives you a new view from which you can pull inspiration from and open the doors to your creativity.

“See feel draw: One verb.”
Jandy Nelson

Journal writing can be as undisciplined as jumping up and down in a mud-puddle, do you remember doing that when you were a child? What were you feeling with each splash splash splash? Believe me, letting go of constraints in journal writing is a good thing.

In the beginning of writing in your new journal you may find it equally liberating to have a few constraints, and that’s great. Create a space, pick a topic, set the amount of time you’ll spend each day and write write write.

When I first started writing I choose the quiet time of first waking up each morning. I’d make a cup of coffee, sit myself down at the kitchen table so I’d get a clear view out the windows. The view from the windows became my muse, it stirred a writing stream within that relegated any worries about Unblocking Creativity.

“Journal writing is a voyage to the interior.”
Christina Baldwin

How Do You Go About Unblocking Creativity?

We’ve all heard stories that creativity is best accessed by drinking huge amounts of alcohol or by ingesting other mind altering substances. And while I’m sure partaking in conscious altering liquids can shine a light on new ways of seeing things there are many more ways to jog your center of creative ideas and visions that don’t require getting blasted on a regular basis.

I’m not wagging a finger in judgment to those who pursue altered states as an avenue to finding some creative panacea or the hidden riches of El Dorado. I’m merely sharing a lifetime of experience that has taught me there are many paths existing beyond the obvious.

Never cower, flinch or shy away from exploring the unusual, exploring the undocumented on your quest to illuminate that which you’re searching for. Building connections that have never been thought of (or at least never acted upon) is key to expressing yourself to the world, expressing yourself to yourself.

And while we all owe a debt of gratitude to those inner explorers who have gone before us, failing to attempt the journey because someone else has already done it is a poor reason to not explore the depths of creativity ourselves.

unlocking your creativity — 9 More Unlocking Tips

Please share your thoughts below on this subject. Thanks.

Check Out The Unblocking Creativity Web Story Presentation on Your Mobile

Unlocking Your Creativity

Unlocking Your Creativity

How Do I Sit In Meditation And Watch My Breath

Introduction – Watch My Breath

The Journey

Watch My Breath (Continued)

Where Am I?

The Search Continues

What Was It You Wanted ?

Be Aware Of Your Thoughts

Here’s An Example

Be Aware Of Your Thoughts

Motion In A Moment

Motion In A Moment Unfolds

Steps To Mindfulness

A Mindfulness Roadmap For Breakfast

1. Start Small

2. Watch Your Breath

3. This is my favorite step, Sit and Repeat.

4. Thoughts Come and Go

5. Stay With It

6. Tune Into Posture

7. Join With Others

8. Is That You?

9. Savor The Moment

10. Don’t Get Caught

11. Do It Anywhere

12. Cluttered Mind

Unblocking Creativity Engage Your Active Side

5 Activities for Unblocking Creativity

How Do You Go About Unblocking Creativity?

Check Out The Unblocking Creativity Web Story Presentation on Your Mobile