Spot Meditations

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Here are a few examples of Spot Meditations. This type of meditation can be done anywhere - while you wait in a queue, on a work break, between programmes on the TV, or whenever you just need to relax for a minute or two. Each one is quite short, and simple enough after the first few goes. When not try a few right now.

Red Light	Random Object
Freeze	Slowing Down
Liberation	Being Present

Red Light

The next time you drive down the road and stop at a red light, take this time for yourself. If you feel frustrated, especially if you are in a hurry, smile at yourself and let the tension drop away. You have been given perhaps a whole minute to stop and do nothing, so take a few deep breaths and let your face and stomach soften. Take the time to breath softly and try to focus on any part of the body you feel is tight or uncomfortable in order to ease the discomfort a little - gently shake it free as you settle back in your seat. Take a second to look around you slowly before returning your gaze back to the road as the lights turn green. TOP

Random Object

This meditation can be done at any free moment - while at your desk or waiting in a queue. First pick an interesting object in your field of view. It could be a colourful flower, a tree swaying in the breeze, the pattern on someone's shirt or anything which attracts your attention. Settle your mind there without concentrating strongly on the object. Drop the inner talk and shift into sensing mode. Let your eyes soften a little without staring, using your eyes like a zoom lens to focus in on the object at your leisure. Imagine it's texture, smell and taste as appropriate. Let your senses go to work as you image yourself feeling or handling the object. Let associations arise - what is it like? What does it remind you of? Let your body soften and relax, taking several deep breaths with a sigh as you breath out. Be aware of the stream of consciousness linking you to the object before finally letting the object go. Check our mindstate, are you calm and aware? TOP

Freeze

It's easy to crank up the tension during the day but we rarely give ourselves enough time to relax and to notice time rushing away. This meditation is designed to bring your focus back to the moment at hand while removing the top 20% of tension. It will also help us become more efficient at the task at hand. So stop whatever you were doing and tell yourself to "freeze". Hold the posture - but not the breath! Scan your body up and down, observing areas of excess tension as you go, but don't try to change anything yet. Notice how you are breathing. When you feel in tune with yourself say "Defrost" and allow all the tension to melt away. Make any adjustments if you need to sit/stand straighter, loosen the shoulders, the eyes, the neck, the stomach until the body is as perfectly relaxed as possible. Don't stop at the large changes, take the time and pleasure in the small adjustments. When you are satisfied, take a deep breath with a heart-felt sigh as you breath out. Notice how much your mood is changing and resume the next task at hand. TOP

Slowing Down

This exercise helps you slow down your metabolic rate and notice the speed you were moving at. The basic instruction is simply to take a few minutes to do everything the slightest bit slower. You can choose any activity you do every day such as getting dressed, having a shower, having breakfast or a tea-break, watering the plants, taking the dog for a walk, or even driving home from work, and make it into a spot meditation. Before you start, allow yourself an extra minute or two so you can take that little extra time over it without hurry. Now begin as usual but do everything the slightest fraction slower than usual. Notice the pace at which you walk, turn, sit, lift things - otherwise be natural. You may be able to see when you are hurried things become jerky but as you slow down things are smooth and easy. Relax your breath and make it soft and flowing. Consciously enjoy your surroundings and the time you are making for yourself, the taste of toast, the hot shower water, the sounds of a purring car engine. Try to keep the mind in the moment of here and now, noticing each time you drift into thought and gently bringing the mind back to the sensation of the present again. When you finish your minutes of care, be still for a few seconds and notice how you feel. Try practising the same task slowly for four days and see how it changes. TOP

Liberation

If your head is to full or too fast paced to meditate, here is a small meditation just to give you a little time to let everything go and relax. The process is very easy to do and not really a meditation at all, rather a way of disciplining the mind when is seems too full of thoughts to try anything deeper. Don't try to sit correctly or follow any instructions for now. Just sit, close your eyes and open the cages of your mind. Let it run riot by itself - unleashing pain, fantasy, fears, anger, grief, guilt, everything and anything. Let them all go - resist any compulsion to run after them, just be content to experience your problems. Don't try to achieve anything or make sense of anything, give up on all that. Tell yourself you are incapable of producing productive thought, it's probably true so why bother? Let the kids run wild for just five minutes if you have to, ignore their troubles and questions - smiling sweetly if they persist. After a while you may see your head has cleared on its own, your worries have run off into the distance and left you still sitting there. Total burn out. Now you can lay each problem out in a logical order of priorities and deal with the first thing that matters. TOP

Being Present

If you feel scattered or 'not with it', here's a remedy for you. It shifts the mind from the thought world into the sense world around you. It can be done anywhere or at any time when you need an extra focus; like when driving, shopping, washing the dishes, out on a walk, on holiday. Also, you know when you've been looking forward to an event or going somewhere, and then when you get there it all seems to be over too quickly? This is the situation where this exercise really excels. Start by asking yourself 'Where Am I?' Shift the mind into sense mode and bring your field of feeling/awareness back towards yourself; in from your left and right, from behind and from in front of you, from above and below you, until your focus rests simply on the vision you can see and the sounds you can hear. Realise where you are, right there on that spot - your could be anywhere in the world but you are right there! Notice your attention then moves from place to place, hearing and seeing your surroundings with more interest. You can also taste, touch and smell things around you in the same way. Take a second to examine your emotional state with equal detachment; are you hungry, excited, tired, enjoying?. Notice how quickly your mind can slip back into thought, and as it does bring it gently back to any immediate sensation, however trivial. Continue to passively observe the sensations and emotions that come and go as long as you like, without trying to think about or analyse anything in particular, just content to exist in the place you find yourself in. TOP

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