Mindfulness Meditation Lesson 2

Dealing With Distractions While Meditating

The biggest challenge we face when we first learn to meditate is how to keep our attention focused where want it. Following up on the last lesson's video, How to Meditate in 5 Easy Steps, the video below explores some ways to deal with external distractions that arise when we meditate that pull our minds away from what we're trying to pay attention to.

Next lesson we'll look at what happens when we get distracted by our thoughts and how to manage mind wandering, and also how we can respond to emotions that arise when we meditate.

The most important takeaway from Lesson 2 is that whenever we're meditating and notice that our minds are no longer where we want them to be, we simply acknowledge where our minds have gone, and then as best we can, let go of this distraction and redirect our attention back to where we want it. A good way to accomplish this is to make a mental note of what's distracted us, by saying silently to ourselves a word or two, or a short phrase that describes wherever our minds are.

This is a technique we'll be using throughout this course for all sorts of distractions, and something that works not just when we meditate, but whenever we find ourselves distracted or our minds wandering throughout the course of our days, regardless of what we're doing at the time.