Meditative visualisation is a helpful exercise that may give you an insight into what your true and deep intentions in practising mindfulness are. When I first used this meditation, I was surprised and fascinated by the insights into my own deep motives. You can read through these instructions and practise on your own or record them as an audio and listen to it as you practise. Alternatively, ask a friend to read out the meditation to you slowly. Afterward, do the writing exercise described in the next section. Find a comfortable position seated in a chair or sofa, or lying down. Choose a position in which you feel cosy and comfortable. Close your eyes. Bring the visualisation meditation to a close, noticing the physical sensations of your body, taking a slightly deeper breath and, when you’re ready, slowly opening your eyes. Record what you discovered in your journal, if you have one. This may help to reveal further insights as you write. You look down and notice a pebble. You pick it up and look at it. It has a question engraved on it. The question is: ‘Why do I want to practise mindfulness?’ You look carefully at the question as you hold the pebble gently in your hand. You throw the pebble out into the water. You watch the pebble as it soars through the air in an arc almost in slow motion and eventually makes contact with the surface of the water. You see the circular ripples radiate out. As the pebble contacts the water you continue to reflect on the question, ‘Why do I want to practise mindfulness?’. The pebble moves down into the water. You’re able to see the pebble as it falls deeper and deeper into the water. As it continues to smoothly fall downwards in the deep water, you continue to watch it, and you continue to reflect on the question, ‘Why do I want to practise mindfulness?’. You keep watching as the pebble falls, and you keep reflecting on the question. Eventually, the pebble softly makes contact with the bottom and settles there. The question ‘Why do I want to practise mindfulness?’ is still visible. Reflect on that question for a few more moments. No right or wrong answers exist for this ‘intention’ meditation. Some people get clear answers about what they hope to get out of practising mindfulness, and others reflect on the question, yet no answers arise. Some people find ones but, as the pebble falls deeper, their reasons to practise clarify and deepen too. If the meditation was helpful, great; if not, don’t be concerned. Take a piece of paper, or your journal, and write as many answers as you can to the following questions in one minute, without thinking about it too much: I want to practise mindfulness because… I am hoping mindfulness will give me… If I am more mindful I will… The real reasons I want to practise mindfulness are to… Ultimately mindfulness will give me… Mindfulness is… These sentence completion exercises may help to clarify your motivation and intentions of mindfulness. Now read and reflect on your answers. Did any of your answers surprise you? Why did they? You may have to come back to these answers when you’re struggling to motivate yourself to meditate—reading your answers can then be a way of empowering yourself to practise some meditation. This excerpt from Mindfulness for Dummies has been posted with permission. To buy the book, click here. Shamash Alidina, M.Eng. M.A.(Ed) is the bestselling author of Mindfulness for Dummies, and has taught mindfulness in the UK for more than a decade. For more, visit his personal site, ShamashAlidina.com.
