ICRAVE Meditative Attention

Meditation means paying attention

• There are a lot of things that you can pay attention to
• Especially early, we give ourselves objects of attention to pay attention to
• A mantra is one object that we may pay attention to
  • It has a calming aspect to it
  • It is a practice that is both powerful and limiting
    • It tends to cultivate concentration without cultivating mindfulness
    • By themselves, they can be seen as incomplete

• Meditation audios may not be too healthy if you are developing a dependence relationship.
  • It is good if used as a reminder or reinforcement of being more mindful
    • then it is like training wheels

Although they are calming they may not have that quality of the willingness to go nose to nose with the stuff that you don’t want to look at

• We are masters of escaping in our society
  • We are always looking for the next drug, bar, store, etc., that we can turn our addictive behavior towards in an attempt to escape the present moment

Re-source: Refocus

Mindfulness and concentration

• Without concentration you cannot be mindful because your mind will be all over the place
• However, without mindfulness you can be very one pointed
• You need to have a flexible range of attention cultivated through mindfulness practice

Mindfulness exercise: prepare to eat a raisin and be completely present. 

• Notice what is going on in your mind. 
• You love it or hate it. 
• Learn to see/feel it for the first time and be really mindful. 
• Continue as you begin to eat it and so on.

craving and resource from “Mindfulness Meditation in everyday life” by John Cabet Zinn