Focus, Fall, Re-focus. Whether You're Learning to Meditate or Stand on One Leg

s you come into balance, keep your gaze soft and steady.

Notice your breath moving in.

And back out again.

Recognise your wobbles.

If you can let those wobbles flow through you you might be able to maintain your sense of balancing.

If you lose your focus, notice that and come back to the practice.

Every time you notice your wobbles and how you react to them you practice mindfulness, each time you bring yourself back you build strength and focus, if you can do all of that without self-criticism you practice self compassion.

Are you meditating or standing on one leg?

It's pretty self evident that if you stand on one leg regularly you'll get stronger. The same rule applies to meditation and relaxation too. Whatever we do regularly becomes easier and we get better at it. The tough part is getting up after we fall again and again and again. It's only after we've picked ourselves up numerous times, or in the case of focus meditation, drawn our attention back to our breath or another point of focus, that we'll create enough space to notice our wobbles - the fluctuations of the mind - and not be completely distracted by them.

Both learning to stand on one leg and learning to meditate require strength and a certain softness. The strength helps to steady us but without softness we couldn't adapt to the air moving around our standing body and we would not be able to remain calm during meditation.

The delicate balance of these two qualities is perhaps a greater balancing act than any acrobatic trick and it is one that will help life to flow in us and around us with greater ease.

As they say, do your practice and all is coming. Or in other words, keep on keeping on! You won't regret it.

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3 Tips for Vrkasana / Tree Pose

1. What you do with your feet matters. Spread the toes of your standing foot, feel the arches lift. Press down into the mound of your big toe and into your heel. Press your raised foot against your leg and your leg against your foot.
2. You know that dimple some VERY fit people have in the side of their butt? Imagine you have that dimple and draw in from there to stabilise your pelvis. (And if you have that dimple, wowzers, you are a lot more toned than I'll ever be!!)
3. Find one point to gaze at and softly rest your eyes here.

3 Tips for Starting Meditation

1. If you're feeling sleepy keep your eyes open but rest them on one point on the ground in front of you. If you're feeling anxious, jumpy or just easily distracted close your eyes and gently turn your gaze down inside your eyelids.
2. Recognise that getting distracted is part of the process. Notice that your mind has wandered and draw it back to your breath or another focus. You aren't failing because your mind is wandering, you're learning.
3. If you really can't settle your mind and focus, don't get up and go on. Sit still and just work on being physically quiet. The mind might follow, it might not but you'll benefit from the quiet time and the disciple of sitting for a few minutes.