concentration and awareness

[mobius]

As I meditate regularly Im slowly changing:  becoming more aware all the time or by default. Im not used to it yet but gradually  (I hope) i will come to appreciate this a way of life. One thing im currently struggling with is being more aware and its effect on my concentration. For example when reading a book you want to be fully engrossed in the story,  Lately while reading i become more aware of myself  doing tbe act of reading then this newfound awareness distracts me from the book and i have to take some effort to get back into the story. I think this is the same problem  thats causing my sleep difficulties. Im starting to fall asleep but then im aware of my changimg mental state and this wakes me up. So..... will this be resolved as i become used to this way of life, or am i doing something wrong or is there a better way of handling this? Thanks

[stillpointdancer]

As I meditate regularly Im slowly changing:  becoming more aware all the time or by default. Im not used to it yet but gradually  (I hope) i will come to appreciate this a way of life. One thing im currently struggling with is being more aware and its effect on my concentration. For example when reading a book you want to be fully engrossed in the story,  Lately while reading i become more aware of myself  doing tbe act of reading then this newfound awareness distracts me from the book and i have to take some effort to get back into the story. I think this is the same problem  thats causing my sleep difficulties. Im starting to fall asleep but then im aware of my changimg mental state and this wakes me up. So..... will this be resolved as i become used to this way of life, or am i doing something wrong or is there a better way of handling this? Thanks

Everything changes, and meditation brings about changes too. I consider myself lucky in that I got into meditation as a student, not through Buddhism or even meditation practice, but through relaxation tapes (I'm that old) which helped you improve in some way (they left a gap to include what you wanted improving in your life). I started to use them to sleep when in the middle of exams. When I started to experiment with insight meditation it meant that I already had lots of relaxation practices and even 'fun' meditations to call on when things started to happen.

The same goes for when I eventually started Buddhist practice. When the going got rough I could always use past practices, either during meditation practice at the Buddhist centre or at home when going through tough times. Even now I can play one of those relaxation tapes in my head, "You are feeling sleepy..." and be asleep in a couple of minutes. As Buddhists we need the practices which are designed to keep us safe mentally as we work through those designed to move us on.

[Goofaholix]

It sounds like you are trying to control awareness, probably moving it from object to object and concentrating on one object at a time.  Some meditation techniques promote this but it's only really suitable for retreat practice.

Awareness works automatically, it allows anything in, all you have to do is notice awareness is working and that will strengthen it.

Awareness is like a floodlight, it saturates everything in it's field, it sounds to me like you are trying to operate it like a spotlight moving from object to object concentrating on one at a time.

[VipassanaXYZ]

As I meditate regularly Im slowly changing:  becoming more aware all the time or by default. ...

Mobius: observe the changes, are they for better?

Do you wake up with more clarity than before, slowly this will translate to waking up with better freshness and energy, takes time.

I can sometimes be aware of that I am seeing a dream, now going to wake up, waking up etc.
There are two ways to go about this: either you roll in the thought/emotion, or stay relaxed detached. In case of latter, you are going right and will make automatic progress.