Healthy Habit #2: Focused-Attention Meditation

2 weeks ago was healthy habit #1: mindfulness. This week: focused-attention meditation. Wait. Aren’t mindfulness and meditation the same thing? These terms often get clumped together and are used interchangeably.

Mindfulness is a type of meditation. Mindfulness is under the bigger umbrella of meditation. 

If you recall, mindfulness is intentionally observing the present moment without judgment. The present moment could be full of different thoughts, feelings, and sensations, and “being mindful” is observing and acknowledging them instead of labeling and judging them. Mindfulness can also be understood as a sort of lifestyle or attitude to adopt in your daily life. Check out my blog post about mindfulness from 2/24/23.

Moving on to Healthy Habit #2, focused-attention meditation is more specific than mindfulness. In focused-attention meditation, you are asked to concentrate on the in-and-out cycle of your breath. In other words, you work towards taming and centering the mind in the present moment by use of an anchor (e.g. your breath). An anchor is used to focus your attention during the meditation session. Typically, meditators choose to use their breath as the anchor given how accessible it is and easy to disguise if you were to meditate in public. Other examples of anchors could be a lit candle, a tree in the front yard, or a picture on your nightstand. You choose.

To start, find a comfortable position or posture and begin to intentionally focus on your breath, noticing the inhale and exhale. Some find it is helpful to count up to 10, 1 being the inhale, 2 being the exhale, 3 being in the inhale, etc. Your mind will inevitably wander, as does everyone’s, and once you recognize this wandering, intentionally bring your concentration back to the breath and resume your focused attention on the inhale and exhale. Eventually, mind wandering will happen again so repeat these steps. And repeat. And repeat. Over and over. This is where the skill building happens. You strengthen your ability to focus and concentrate, redirect your attention when needed, tune out distractions, and live more fully in the present moment. 

You might be still wondering how this practice could help and/or why it’s recommended? The research is now clear that meditation can help you learn to be less reactive and more tolerant of unpleasant thoughts, feelings, and sensations. You take back the power and realize that you have a choice: I can react, latch onto, and let this unpleasant thought, feeling, or sensation consume and bother me. OR, I can acknowledge, figuratively greet and wave at it, and choose to refocus my attention back to the breath. THAT is power. That is being psychologically flexible, something I will write about it in future posts.

Consider introducing focused attention meditation into your life. It all adds up so think about adding 1 minute before bed or in the shower. Maybe 5 minutes with your cup of coffee or at lunch. Whatever you can offer is a start. Slowly chipping away. That’s how change happens. Get after it.

**Please see below for recommended meditation apps:

Headspace, Healthy Minds, Calm

Source: Ricard, M., Lutz, A., Davidson, R. (2014). Mind of the Meditator. Scientific American, 311 (5), 38-45.