{"id":750,"date":"2017-09-19T01:47:28","date_gmt":"2017-09-19T01:47:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jhanderson.biz\/?p=750"},"modified":"2017-09-19T01:47:28","modified_gmt":"2017-09-19T01:47:28","slug":"6-things-sitting-meditation-is-not","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jhanderson.biz\/index.php\/2017\/09\/19\/6-things-sitting-meditation-is-not\/","title":{"rendered":"6 Things Sitting Meditation Is Not"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sitting meditation is the classic mindfulness technique. Other practices like mindful walking or mindful eating may seem more accessible, and sitting in silence may seem a little intimidating. But sitting has a lot of merits as a way to get introduced to the experience of mindfulness. This post is my attempt to clear away some of the obstacles.<\/em><\/p>\n

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  1. Sitting meditation is not complicated.<\/strong> The task is to “sit and observe what’s happening.” Nevertheless, don’t be surprised if you’re laughably bad at it for a while. There is no limit to the number of times you might find yourself saying “woops, I’m completely lost in thought again” during a session.<\/li>\n
  2. Sitting meditation is not our normal everyday experience.<\/strong> We are used to doing things<\/em>, and it’s somewhat bizarre to do nothing<\/em>. You may find yourself thinking “What is this thing that we’re doing? Why are we doing it?” Those befuddled questions are a good start on the path to thinking differently.<\/li>\n
  3. Sitting meditation is not dependent on sitting perfectly still.<\/strong> If you’re wiggling, then your assignment is to notice that. It may be that your noticing will help the wiggling slow down, but whether it does or not is not really important.<\/li>\n
  4. Sitting meditation is not dependent on any special equipment.<\/strong> You might imagine (rightly) the huge variety of pillows, benches, and other gear available to aid in sitting meditation. My advice: don’t worry about that, and start out by sitting in a chair. It’s what you’ve been doing most of your life.<\/li>\n
  5. Sitting meditation is not dependent on any particular beliefs, or the suspension of any beliefs.<\/strong> It’s about noticing what is so. That noticing helps us apply our beliefs with greater utility and precision.<\/li>\n
  6. Sitting meditation<\/strong> (at least the mindfulness variety – there are others) is not a way to zone out, bliss out, or have amazing experiences.<\/strong> It’s just a way to pay attention to what’s going on in your mind, in your body, and in your sensory experience. Sometimes that’s amazing, and sometimes it’s not – just like the rest of life.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    We\u2019ll dive into all of this (including some experimentation with sitting meditation) and much more at my\u00a0Mindful Technology Delivery<\/a>\u00a0class, September 27, 2017 from 4-6pm in Pioneer Square.\u00a0Learn more and register here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Sitting meditation is the classic mindfulness technique. Other practices like mindful walking or mindful eating may seem more accessible, and sitting in silence may seem a little intimidating. But sitting has a lot of merits as a way to get introduced to the experience of mindfulness. This post is my attempt to clear away some […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-stable-attention"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jhanderson.biz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jhanderson.biz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jhanderson.biz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jhanderson.biz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jhanderson.biz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=750"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/jhanderson.biz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/750\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":752,"href":"https:\/\/jhanderson.biz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/750\/revisions\/752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jhanderson.biz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jhanderson.biz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jhanderson.biz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}