[Laura KMember]

Thanks so much everyone for your tips and advice! I should have said, I think the TMI method is fantastic – it did improve my practice when I started out with it e.g. in the first few weeks (that’s why I’ve stuck with it), just not so much improvement since then

Thanks Kim, the distractions that hook my mind are a range of things, from seemingly ‘important’ things like job/family stuff, to really mundane stuff like food. I’m not getting any big emotional things arising – a lot of that came up on earlier retreats and its rare for that to happen during a sit these past few years. Although – I wouldnt mind! For sure more stuff is lurking around. Yup, I do the full 6 step prep and focus on the joy & peaceful side

hi Michael, yes, I have tried stage 4 and 5 – sometimes it seems like it fits well and works for a bit, sometimes I don’t have the concentration for it and wonder if the only reason why it appears to work better for a while is the novelty. I agree that boredom / lack of challenge causes the mind to go in search of more interesting pursuits, but I guess in order to fully get into higher stages we need to conquer the lower ones? (In line with what Tom is saying)

Jason: thanks, good idea. During meditation Ive found body awareness – i.e. the capacity to feel sensations all over my body is actually quite strong, probably because I did a fair bit of vipassana previously – but again, gross distraction leading to mind wandering seems to be just as much of an issue when I widen focus out to my body as it is when I am focusing on the breath. I do check in with my body whenever I’m doing the tasks you mention – but I should make more effort there.

Thanks Ricardo – true, I should pay more attention to those appendices and properly do a mindful review, and mix it up with some walking meditation & loving-kindness (I’ll often do loving kindness for a few minutes at the end of a sit).

I suspect the issue might be something to do with effort. If I get really determined then there is higher chance of agitation and not celebrating the waking up but becoming a bit impatient. If I relax more into it and realize that all I can do is set the intention and be happy when I realize I’ve wandered I feel like maybe that leads to a lower energy state where I can get hooked by enticing thoughts more easily. Not sure, but it seems like maybe I’m oscillating between these two without hitting the happy medium.

I will try out these various tactics and if I find a solution will post it here in case it helps anyone else in the future!

Thanks again to all you lovely people!

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