Mindfulness Meditation Lesson 3

Meditating in Silence

Once you've been practicing guided mindfulness meditations for a while, you may find that the instructions are no longer necessary, and can even be distracting and intrusive as you try to keep your attention focused on your own inner experience while someone else won't stop talking in your ear.

For home practice this week, if you like, try meditating without the audio files to guide you. If you find you prefer to meditate in silence, there's no reason you need to always meditate along with the audio track, but it's helpful to use the guided audio at least a few times with each new meditation as a teaching device before doing the meditations in silence.

There is a "Bells" track included with the Home Practice in which a bell sounds every 5 minutes, serving as gentle reminders to check in and see if your mind is still focused in the present moment, and if it isn’t, to use the bell as a chance to refocus your attention and bring it back into the present. The Bell Track lasts for 30 minutes, but you can use it for shorter periods as well. A single bell sounds at 5, 15 and 25 minutes, two bells sound at 10 and 20 minutes, with four bells sounding after 30 minutes to signal the end of the meditation.

You can also try a Mindfulness of Breath Meditation with "minimal" guided instructions. For the first half of the meditation there are reminders every few minutes to check that your attention is still focused on your breath. The final half of the meditation is in silence except for bells after 20 and 25 minutes. Three bells signal the end of the meditation. A bell also sounds after 10 and 15 minutes. This allows you to try longer periods of silence in your meditation but still have some guideposts to keep you on track, and the flexibility to meditate for up to 30 minutes if you like, or to stop at an earlier point.

On the next page we'll conclude this lesson with a 10-Minute Mindfulness of Breath Meditation with minimal instructions.