What is a ‘Spot Meditation’ anyway?
If you’ve been wondering what a spot meditation is, it’s a short meditation that you can do anywhere and anytime, in as little as 10 seconds.
It’s opportunistic. You don’t need to carve out a special time in your day to practice. Spot meditations are great to do during down time – while you’re waiting in a queue, in traffic, at the lights or at the train crossing, or at school pick up. All the times when you might otherwise pick up your phone or get caught up in your thoughts.
The car is a perfect place, when at the lights, as you really can’t do anything else (legally), except wait.
Spot meditations are considered to be a meditation which can take as little as 10 seconds and up to 10 minutes. Formal meditations, on the other hand are longer, and typically 10 minutes and longer.
The beauty of spot meditations is they are a quick and can be an effective way to ‘release the pressure valve’ throughout your day; to get out of your head and into your body; to tune in to your sensory experience in the moment.
When you practice a spot meditation, you can either stop what you’re doing to give it your full attention, or you can continue what you are doing while mindfully introducing the activity.
There are many, many spot meditations, i using the breath, to body awareness, sense awareness and movement, to name a few.
Below are three examples you can try:
1. 3 conscious breaths
Stop what you’re doing. Consciously take your awareness to your breath. Follow your breath with your awareness as you breathe in and out three times. Feel the movement in your body as you breathe in and out. You might notice the body expand a little as you breathe in and contract a little as you breathe out.
2. FOFBOC (Feet on Floor; Bottom on Chair)
Take a moment to feel your Feet on the Floor (FOF) and your Bottom on the Chair (BOC); it’s that simple. If you’re standing, simply take a moment to feel your feet on the floor.
3. Tune in to your Soundscape
Take a moment to tune your ears in to the soundscape around you. Notice sounds as far away as you can make them out. Notice the faintest sound you can hear. Not labelling sound, just hearing sound.
In our Introduction to Meditation course we incorporate a variety of spot meditations with the aim for you to find one or two which resonate with you – that you find easy and enjoyable, so you’re more likely to want to do them. Of course, you may use more than one or two however as you’re beginning, it’s useful to be aware of the breadth of the opportunities and ways to practice while starting simple and practicing one each week; and build on this as we progress, or change.
For future courses and further information get in touch.
THE AIM OF OUR INTRODUCTION TO MEDITATION COURSE IS FOR YOU TO LEARN TO MEDITATE ON YOUR OWN, ANYWHERE, ANYTIME.
Week 1: What is meditation: dispelling the myths
Week 2: How to meditate: thoughts aren't the enemy
Week 3: What happens when we meditate?
Week 4: Thoughts & different meditation practices
Week 5: Integrating meditation into our busy lives
Learn practical ways to incorporate meditation and mindfulness into your day. This course follows a common sense approach to meditation techniques you can easily incorporate into a busy life and feel a difference after the very first session. We live in a contemporary world and can't retreat to a cave and sit in lotus pose and still our minds! And you know what, we don't need to stop our thoughts to meditate; you can meditate in as little as 10 seconds. Learn to meditate and experience the difference.