I’ve been taking up daily guided meditations lately, through this helpful app called Brightmind – the first 8 sessions are free, check them out!
One thing I really like about the Brightmind approach is they keep it simple, while organizing their meditations around various approaches, like reducing stress, improving sleep quality – important stuff like that.
As someone with ADD, I’m often frustrated with the typical sit-still-and-focus-on-your-breath strategy. But the directional approach really works for me.. And maybe for you too?
In today’s culture of instant-gratification, I feel strongly that practices like meditation help to counter our shortening attention spans and help us stay focused on what’s important to us. Here’s a few ways I’ve found it helps with that.
Less Procrastination
Have you ever seen an ad for a hamburger or pizza, and suddenly it was all you wanted in the world? What’s worse, the more you thought about it, the more you wanted it?
Meditation can help limit those unhelpful distracting thoughts. How? By making it easier not to think about them.
It’s funny how much pursuing long-term goals can be about distracting yourself from more immediately-pleasurable ones, like eating pizza.
When you practice focusing on what you CHOOSE to pay attention to, you make it easier to turn your attention away from impulsive thoughts that would keep you from working on your music.
Managing Anxiety
In a similar vein, meditating improves your awareness of feelings of anxiety that may arise – when working with a new instrument for example.
Spotting and watching those feelings as they arise is a critical part of keeping them in check – whereas ignoring or resisting them can create a buildup which makes getting work done harder and harder.
Spotting the Finer Details
The Brightmind app focuses on building three mental skills in particular: Concentration, clarity, and equanimity. Clarity is built by taking the time to be specific about what you feel, see, and hear.
I find this particularly helpful when listening to sounds around me, like I’m trying to break down what I hear into discrete “parts” I can reconstruct on my DAW later.
It’s not that meditation trains your ears per se. But it does help you suss out the details of what you are hearing, giving greater clarity to the kind of sound you’re aiming to make.
Now I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s been guilty of thinking there was only one way to meditate. Turns out, there’s potentially HUNDREDS of ways, so odds are good you can find a use for it to help your practice.
Here’s a few of my favourite meditations I’ve discovered:
- Movement Challenge: Basically finding something that’s easier to focus on, like how clothes feel on my skin, or what thoughts arise when I’m listening inward, then trying to hold the focus while going on a slow walk. A good solution for when it’s hard to sit still.
- Do Nothing: This means watching for any time I’m trying to focus, or not focus my attention on something – and letting go of the trying so my attention can move where it will. It’s an excellent way of getting out of my head.
- Decision Making: A super-useful practice where I consider two options, and check in with both my rational brain and emotional body to get a sense of which option is best.
Like I said earlier, very impressed with the Brightmind app, and I’ve only scratched the surface. Give it a try and let me know what y’all think!
Credits:
“Cat on Black Piano” by cottonbro from Pexels
“Couple Laying Down and Eating Pizza” by Maksim Goncharenok from Pexels
“Person Wearing Black Shorts and Blue Lace-up Low-top Sneaker Holding Black Barbell” by Victor Freitas from Pexels