Meditation Monday – 7 Steps to Naked Sound Meditation

I kicked off my eight week meditation program last week with “Watching Your Breath.”  It went pretty well.  I sat and meditated eight minutes a day for five out of seven days.  The goal was to sit quietly, following my breath in and out for eight minutes.  When thoughts entered my mind, I let them pass without attachment (well, most of the time.)  If I did connect, I reminded myself to “catch and release” the thought and return to the breath. The eight minutes went by quickly, but I found myself feeling refreshed and ready to face my day.

This was actually an interesting week to start a meditation practice.  For four days, we had visitors from California – my husband’s brother, his wife and their two children.  The four of us are exceptionally close to the four of them and we don’t get to see each other nearly as much as we would like.  Having them here was glorious fun and happy chaos and I miss them terribly.  But for the four days they were here, I focused on the moment and not on the thought that I probably wouldn’t see them again for a year or two.  It was meditation, which quiets the mind by placing you in the present moment, which helped me enjoy my time with them that much more.

Returning to the book, 8 Minute Meditation – Quiet Your Mind. Change Your Life, by Victor Davich, (Amazon Associates link) I am now in week two, which is dedicated to “Naked Sound Meditation.”  We are surrounded by noise makers – traffic, planes, children, dogs, electronics – the list goes on and on.  Usually, when we hear sounds, we identify the source and ascribe judgment (“I am so tired of hearing that dog barking.  What is wrong with my neighbor for letting it bark like that?  When will it ever end?”)  Naked sound meditation is the process of hearing sound and not identifying or judging, but simply letting it be.  It is amazingly calming.

Again, if you use the book as a guide, you’ll get a better idea of the technique.  This is a quick outline of the “naked sound meditation” process:

1. Find a comfortable position, upright, but not tense.
2. Set your timer to eight minutes.
3. Close your eyes.
4. Let your attention focus on all sounds around you.
5. Allow the sounds to be, rising as they get louder, and falling as they fade away.
6. Be with each sound as it rises and then falls, trying not to identify or judge its source.
7. If a sound gives rise to a thought, just notice this and then return to the sound.

I’m starting naked sound meditation today.  Give it a try and please let me know what you think of it.  It’s one of my favorite techniques, so I hope you try it and let me know how it’s working for you.

Survival > Existence,

Debbie