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Hello,
I’ve just started the 16 month Taoist Meditation course and am now in my second month. I’m finding that I can focus on various parts of my body quite well and for a reasonable length of time, but only without counting! As soon as I start counting, whether in my head or with my fingers, my focus is gone before I even notice it’s going to do that. The furthest I’ve come before I’ve spaced out is 3. (And I’ve been practicing quite frequently.) This doesn’t seem to depend on which part of me I’m focusing on, just the fact that I have to count seems to be enough to do that. Has anyone had a similar problem, and could give me some advice, please?Thanks in advance,
Marion
Try to focus with sight then gradually take away the sight and focus purely through feeling.
To start just put your index finger out in front of you and maintain focus for however long you need to. Then add in the counting and try and keep your visual focus on your finger without getting distracted by things in the background.
Once you have that then perhaps you would like to try focusing on your finger in the same way with your eyes shut.
Have you tried just counting for a while, that is isolate the challenge of counting and work on that separate from the instruction? Once you’ve managed to hold your focus during counting, then gradually try to integrated the guided instruction. One key thing is to stay mentally relaxed and within your comfort zone. I’m not suggesting that you stop the body awareness etc. until you can count, rather that you separate and stabilise each before gently combining them. Take care ‘keep calm and carry on’.
Many thanks for the good suggestions!
Colin, I’ve just tried counting on its own, and I seem to have no difficulty staying focused on that. But doing that I also noticed, and remembered, that I usually see numbers with colours and textures, and that keeps me entertained while counting alone. Maybe this is also what distracts me when I focus on my body at the same time, but I’m not sure how I can turn this off. But I shall try counting on its own for a while and see if it gets gradually easier to do both.
Cameron, I’ve also tried your suggestion today just focusing on my finger with my eyes open, and that feels a lot easier. Doing that it also occurred to me to try counting a little in German (my native language) instead of English, and that also seems to make it a bit easier to stay focused. I’ll continue practicing with the finger too!
On the one hand I know that I can’t force this, but on the other hand I’m a bit concerned that I’m only a month in and I’m already a week behind! I’ll keep on practicing as much as I can anyway.
Yeah it’s all about smoothing out your mind I guess. Counting in German makes it harder for me to focus as well because I think more goes on in our brains when we aren’t used to something.
Just make sure you don’t fall into the trap of moving on before you’re ready.
…..very interesting issue re. Focusing on counting. I agree it makes more sense to count in your native tongue and would suggest that you focus on sensations associated with breathing – try and keep this as your focus rather than the colours etc. Another thing that helps me is to count beads, passing beads on a thread through my fingers as I count. I found that I could quite quickly ‘multi-task’ on the body awareness stuff once I’d stabilised counting the breath with the help of ‘malla’ meditation beads. Key thing is to stay attentively relaxed.
Hm, yes, good points about staying relaxed and not moving on too fast!
I think I’ve managed to tie myself into a bit of a knot with thinking I should get this quicker and achieve everything in the exact week or month allotted for it. Thanks for reminding me of what this is all about! : )
I’ve made myself a bracelet with 10 big knots in it (to act as beads) that I can have with me all day and that way I can use little 10 or 15 minute gaps where I can practice focusing on the counting without actually counting in my head. I’ve tried counting and focusing on the breathing sensations more than on what the numbers look like, and that definitely needs a bit more work, for as soon as I think of numbers, I also see them quite vividly.
Your suggestions have given me quite a lot to try out, and so I shall get on with practicing this and give it a chance to work its way into my nervous system… Thanks again both of you! : )
Counting in my head that ‘ s exactly the fault. Come down into the body for a more haptical and relaxed feeling instead of stressing the head and its attitude to think or even see numbers.
This is already distraction though it may help in the beginning to built up a certain “powerful” focus and concentration in the third eye. But that is weak in comparison what nonthinking and the force the whole body can do for you. You enter an open relaxing space instead of being entrapped in rather a small focus with which you can nevertheless begin when concentration shows it in the sinuses, around the eyes nose bridge or forehead. Expand that into other places especially by belly breathing.
But this expansion and inclusion to other relaxed places is already the work of the whole course.
One further: you know that you have five and ten fingers in a whole. You need not count that but simply go or move a little bit through them for knowing how many rounds and numbers you did. The problem only often is that you forget in which counting round you are not remembering it. That’s called distraction losing the presence and awareness in the moment as one of the most important results to train in this course.
Axel
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