Noting Meditation: Enhancing Awareness and Insight

Noting or labeling meditation technique enhances present moment awareness, meta cognition, and insight, despite initial resistance and effort.

### Introduction to Noting Meditation Technique
* 🧘 Noting, also known as labeling, is a versatile meditation technique that involves assigning **brief labels to mental phenomena** as they arise.
* 🔍 The practice involves maintaining **open awareness** and noting sensations, sounds, thoughts, and emotions without getting caught up in their **content**.
* 💡 Noting helps increase meta-cognition by stating **what state you are in as it happens**, which can be particularly beneficial during **challenging stages of meditation**.
* 🔄 Initially, practitioners may only make **one or two notes every 10 seconds**, but with practice, they can increase their **"noticings per second"** to the point where **labels are no longer necessary**.
* 🧠 Noting is also beneficial for **objectifying phenomena**, making it easier to **observe them without getting personally involved**.
* 🚫 Some people may find noting effortful or agitating at first, but it's important to strike a balance between **feeling calm and mentally alert** during meditation.
* 🎯 The technique can be particularly useful for those interested in **phenomenology** and exploring the **nature of consciousness**.
* 🌱 It's recommended to stick with the practice and gradually **increase the speed of noting** to fully experience its benefits, which can include **gaining insights into the nature of the mind** and **bolstering meditation progress**.

I see far too many people getting stuck on one style of meditation, and subsequently, they stop progressing. So I want to do a series of short videos detailing how to meditate in many ways. There are so many types of meditation, and there isn't just one best technique you can do that will guarantee Enlightenment so long as you do it long enough. I know in my experience there are some techniques that are better suited for different types of people and at different moments in their meditation Journey. So this first technique I would like to introduce is noting or labeling as it could be called, and it's a fantastic technique that not enough people know about. So here's a quick primer on what it is, how to do it, and why it can be a major benefit to your path of insight, understanding nature mind, and developing inner peace. This technique is not the simplest, but once you get it, you realize it has so much versatility and advantages over, say, basic mindfulness. Okay, so we're in our meditation posture, however you like to be, and we're ready to do noting.

meditation. So, what do we do? The first thing to understand about this technique is that it's not a technique in which we're deliberately controlling our attention or directing it. Say, unlike with a single-pointed concentration technique, so we allow our mind to wander. We allow attention to naturally move around, about trying to deliberately control it. So, we have a kind of open awareness, and at any one given time, there will be something that is the highlight of our experience that is in our focused attentional range. And whatever that phenomenon is, we note it by ascribing a label to it, usually with just one word. So, for example, I'm sitting in meditation, I hear a sound, and I note sound. And you know, I can say it out loud to myself, or usually we just think it. I just think sound. And then maybe my attention goes to a sensation, and I note sensation. Now, the level of description we want to give to our experience when we're noting is ideally as rudimentary as can

be and a good level of analysis in which to note phenomena is in terms of the senses right so that's sight sound sensation smell and taste and thoughts and I would add a label for emotions as well. Emotions now there are many other types of categories of noting we can do but as an introduction to begin with I think it's good to stick with the senses and it's important to say we're not noting the content of the senses or the context of why we think we're experiencing that thing. So if there's a sound I just note sound I don't say car for example. Let me just demonstrate the meditation for a moment so it'd be something like this right so normally I do this silently in my head speak it out loud to be something like sound sight sensation sensation smell sight sound sight sensation smell sensation thought sight. So something like that as you see I'm not controlling my attention my attention is free wanding noticing different phenomena and I'm noting.

them as they come up. So, what are some of the pros benefits of this type of meditation? Well, mental labeling is just a great addition to your meditation because it's reinforcing that sense of I really clocked the present moment. What happened, noting really noticing the phenomena appear, arise, and disappear is noting also uh engages more of your mind so it prevents dullness in meditation and it gives that voice in your head something to do in conjunction with the meditation you know rather than be a distraction or a nuisance. Now it's part of the meditation it's included. Noting is one of the best techniques for increasing your meta cognition because you are literally stating what state you are in while it's happening or at least very close to once it's happened. Uh, noing also helps with objectifying phenomena and so you take them less personally and this is particularly helpful during certain difficult stages. Uh, during the dark night, noing also has the potential to radically increase your noticings per second so.

how quickly can you notice phenomena appear and disappear in the mind. When we first start noting, you may just do, you know, one or two notes every 10 seconds. But as you become more proficient in this technique, you begin to note faster and faster and faster, to the point where you're making multiple notes per second. And then eventually, even you may be noting so fast there isn't time to use a label. In which case, you have to drop the label and switch to a technique called noticing, in which you're still keeping up that metacognition and that recognition and the noticing of the phenomena appear and disappear, but you're so fast, you're so switched on, that there's no time for the label. Now, yeah, however, in the beginning, I recommend stick with the labeling. Don't drop that too soon. Don't try to run before you can walk, and don't try to, you know, push yourself faster than you can, because that will do you a disservice in the long run. Slowly build up to that.

you really want to keep uh a kind of acknowledgment in the mind of what's happening in any one given moment, and only you know whether you've really got that going or not, or whether you know you're dropping it. You're kind of rushing the labeling without having the the sort of the higher order awareness that comes along with this practice, and something special about noting, unlike many other techniques, is it links your verbal languaging faculties with meditative insights, thus making you better at describing your experience and becoming a better phenomenologist. So, if you're someone who wants to participate in conversations of Consciousness and describing its properties and or how phenomena function and all these things, then this technique is for you. Okay, I want to mention some uh resistance that might come up to doing this technique. A lot of people encounter. Many people describe not being a fan of this technique in the beginning because it feels quite effortful, quite forced, and it's very thinky, and they say it can agitate their

mind and really you know the reason here is they could be noting too fast, and so it doesn't, doesn't calm them out, and there's this thought that meditation should be, you know, effortless and calming, and you do want to strike a good balance between feeling calm but also feeling mentally awake, and noting can, uh, stir up the mind in the beginning because you're using your brain in a way that you're not used to using it, so it's worth noting there, there's a learning curve to this, and I, I recommend to slowly ease into it, don't know too fast in the beginning, but also know not all meditation should be effortless, you know, there is really a time to, to Bear down and put in a lot of mental effort, meditation, and then you can, you can learn a lot that way, some of the particular limitations of this technique is, yeah, it is a very doing technique, and it does reinforce that sense of a meditator, so you know, I'm here meditating, I'm doing a technique.

and a lot of people have that identification with their voice in their head their thoughts and so this can prop up that sense of self in that way not not always a bad thing but at some point you want to drop this technique you know it's not a non-u technique it's in fact quite the opposite because it's literally categorizing and partitioning your your world by adding these labels now eventually if you're deep enough in the NoNo everything's non-dual and this can be included as well but there may be a time in your practice actually where you've built up the meta cognition you've got fast enough notings per second and now you can drop the noting and go to a more non-dual type of practice but you you've built up uh the strength in those other cognitive faculties and going to carry you along so that's noting in a nutshell and I highly highly recommend this technique you know may not be your cup of tea in the beginning but I suggest really stick with it give it a

good run for its money. It gets easier, your metacognition will increase, your noticings per second will get faster and faster, and you'll be able to have so many more insights, notice so much more about the mind, and you'll be surprised how it can bolster your progress. If you have any questions about this technique, you can reach me on my website where I'm available for one-on-one coaching, and I'll help you answer any questions you might have about meditation, try to pick out your blind spots, see where you're leading, working edges, and help you move forward, you know, and suggest many other techniques. Also, if you're interested in learning a variety of meditation techniques, I have a plethora of guided meditations on my Patreon page, and every week I'm releasing new meditation, and those meditations are long, they're detailed, they're creative, and I'm really trying to help people develop their mind in a well-rounded way, so not just sticking with one style but spicing things up. So thank you very much.

How to Meditate: Noting

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Noting meditation is a technique that allows the mind to wander and naturally move around, without deliberately controlling attention.

It involves ascribing a label, usually with just one word, to whatever is in the focused attentional range at a given time.

This technique offers versatility and advantages over basic mindfulness, providing a major benefit to the path of insight, understanding the nature of the mind, and developing inner peace.

The Benefits of Mental Noting in Meditation

Mental noting in meditation focuses on the senses and is a powerful tool for increasing present moment awareness.

It helps prevent dullness, improves metacognition, and aids in objectifying phenomena, particularly during difficult stages of meditation.

The Progression of Noting as a Mindfulness Technique

When starting to note, the speed of recognizing phenomena is slow, at one or two notes every 10 seconds.

With proficiency, the noting speed increases to multiple notes per second, eventually leading to the technique of noticing without using a label.

It is important not to rush the process and to gradually build up the noting speed.

Noting is unique as it combines verbal language with meditative insights, improving the ability to describe experiences and become a better phenomenologist.

Noting in meditation helps strike a balance between feeling calm and mentally awake, despite initially stirring up the mind.

There is a learning curve to this technique, so it's best to ease into it slowly.

Noting is a doing technique that can reinforce a sense of self, but as the practice deepens, it can lead to a more non-dual type of meditation.

Increasing metacognition and insight frequency can enhance meditation progress.

One-on-one coaching is available for technique guidance and identifying blind spots.

Access a variety of detailed and creative guided meditations on the Patreon page for a well-rounded practice.