Your Meditation Masterclass
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Your Meditation Masterclass 〰️
💎 One-Pager
Pretty much everything you learn in Brightmind fits into one of the following categories:
What mindfulness is
Why to practice mindfulness
How to practice mindfulness
**This one-pager simply lays out the big picture. For more details, click on the relevant meditation in the app and then click SEE MORE. Don’t have the app? Download now!
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Why
Question: Why practice mindfulness?
Answer: The 5 facets of happiness
The 5 Facets of Happiness
Stress relief
Be more fulfilled
Understand yourself
Sharpen your skills
Improve the world
What
Question: What is mindfulness?
Answer: Mindfulness is 3 mental muscles, working together.
The 3 Mental Muscles
Concentration: The ability to focus on what you choose.
Clarity: The ability to track and explore your sensory experience in real time.
Balance: The ability to allow your sensory experience to come and go without push or pull.
How
Question: How do you practice mindfulness?
Answer: Do all four elements of a mindfulness practice.
The 4 Elements of Mindfulness Practice
Official practice
Definition: At least ten minutes, in stillness, all your attention on the technique.
Frequency: Most days
How Brightmind supports you: Brightmind sends you daily reminders to meditate and once you’re in the app, you can play the next Journey meditation, relisten to one of your favorite guidances, or use the un-guided timer.
Integration practice
Definition: Break one of the three defining characteristics of official practice. Less than ten minutes is a snack. Practicing while moving is movement practice. Splitting your attention between a technique and another task is Jedi practice.
Frequency: Most days
How Brightmind supports you: After you complete the Integration Practice pack, you’ll have the option to set up integration practice reminders, which ping you everyday and remind you to do integration practice. Depending on which type of integration practice you’re doing, you’ll use the app differently. If you’re doing a snack, use the un-guided timer to practice one of the techniques that we’ve learned so far. If you’re doing movement practice or Jedi practice, you can use the un-guided timer or re-listen to any of your favorite Journey meditations. Do not listen to a new Journey meditation during integration practice.
Coaching
Definition: Personalized advice. A competent coach offers information, emotional support, and inspiration.
Frequency: At least twice a year
How Brightmind supports you: After you complete Level 1, you’ll have access to Brightmind’s 1-on-1 coaching. Sign up for a free intro call to learn more using the button in the Level 1 graduation pack.
Retreats
Definition: At least three hours of practice (with breaks of course).
Frequency: At least twice a year
How Brightmind supports you: After you complete Level 2, you’ll gain access to Brightmind’s live monthly 4-hour retreats. If you can’t make the retreats live, you can do solo retreats by just setting the meditation durations to 30 min and listening through a pack.
In terms of how to practice specific techniques, there are three basic categories of meditation techniques: noting and labeling, nurture positive, and auto focus.
Noting has two parts: (1) acknowledge a sensory experience and (2) focus on the sensory experience. A label is a word that you say either out loud or to yourself in your mind. That word names the kind of sensory experience that you’re noting. The basic idea with noting and labeling techniques is to pick a focus space and then note and label whatever comes up. Here’s a list of the standard focus spaces:
Thoughts & Emotions
See In
Hear In
Feel In
SHF In
Physical Senses
See Out
Hear Out
Feel Out
SHF Out
Restful States
See Rest
Hear Rest
Feel Rest
SHF Rest
See Hear Feel
Just See
Just Hear
Just Feel
See Hear Feel
The basic idea with nurture positive is to intentionally create and focus on positive mental image, mental talk, and/or emotional body sensation.
The basic idea with auto focus is: If you happen to notice an intention to direct your attention, drop that intention.
Question: That's a lot of technique options, which technique should I practice?
Answer: Each day, just listen to your next Journey meditation and follow the instructions. After you complete Level 2, you’ll have a pretty good sense of the variety of meditation techniques. At that point, each day, you can either continue to move forward with the Journey meditations or practice a technique that you’ve already learned (either by listening to the guidance again or by using the unguided timer).
If you decide to practice a technique that you’ve already learned, do your favorite techniques about 80% of the time. Spend the remaining 20% doing techniques that round out your practice. Favorite techniques are any techniques that you find interesting, come naturally to you, or that you enjoy. A balanced meditation practice includes at least some noting and labeling, some nurture positive, and some Auto Focus. So rounding out your practice looks different, depending on what your favorite techniques are.
