Moving From Thinking To Feeling

One of the most important shifts we can make, not just as practitioners of meditation but as humans, is to begin to prioritize feeling over thinking. We all know how to think, we are experts at it, but feeling, outside of intense pleasure or pain, can be something very unfamiliar in our experience. But for people interested in becoming more present and awake to their lives, the feeling is of the utmost importance, because real reality is felt, not thought. So, let’s feel into our experience.

Transcript

So, Before getting still, You may find it helpful to move a little bit, To shake and stretch, Take some deep breaths. Either sitting or lying down or standing, You can begin to settle a little bit more with each passing exhale until you feel relaxed and awake and never rigid. Closing the eyes works well, But if that's uncomfortable, Don't worry about it. Keep the eyes slightly cracked or all the way open. And just draw attention to the breath and just feel the simplicity of breathing just for a few moments. Allow the awareness to drop through the body in a very general way. And now just direct your attention to your right hand. You don't have to think about your right hand or visualize it unless that's helpful. What we're really after is just feeling the right hand from the inside out. Try to put all of your attention here, Feeling deeply into the bones, The spaces between the bones. Feel the individual fingers. Just explore. Perhaps you've never brought your attention to a specific part of the body like this. And so notice the newness of this experience. Perhaps there's a bit of a buzz. Perhaps you notice things in a different way. That's good. Moving into feeling. You might begin to notice where the hand becomes the wrist. And then just noticing the tissues around the bones, The muscles, The ligaments and the blood moving, The nerve impulses. Remember we're feeling, Not thinking. Moving to the skin, Feeling the skin, The palm, The webbing between the fingers, The back of the hand, The fingernails. Notice how deeply and specifically you can feel and direct the attention. Now feeling the hand as a whole from the inside out. What is this like? What is this experience like? Now let's begin to switch our attention from the right hand to the left hand. Notice how the attention wraps around your intention. So when we're focused on the right hand, We're not even noticing the left hand. But now we're switching the attention to the left hand. Same thing here. Feel deeply into the bones. The spaces between the bones. The nerve pulsation. The fluid flowing. The simple yet direct experience. You might notice some hidden tensions. Some little muscle contraction that you didn't know was there. Feel the skin. The nails. The tips of the fingers. Or in a very specific way, From the inside out. And now just feel the whole hand, The left hand in a general way. The experience of the left hand. And now feel both hands. Notice how malleable our attention is. Now we can direct it wherever we want into the experience of feeling. Now allow this attention to begin to include more. Again, Feeling deeply. Your arms. Shoulders. Ribcage. Spine. Pelvis. Legs. Feet. Toes. Skull. Feel deeply into the bones. Perhaps feeling deeply into the entirety of the skeleton. Feel into the organs. Attending to the heart. Prepare to feel the organ itself. The lungs. The brain. The stomach. The intestines. The reproductive organs. The kidneys. Just feel around. Feel deeply into this physical body. If this is difficult for you, Don't be discouraged. Many of us are very disconnected from this experience. So it's almost like learning a new language. Feeling deeply in without the need to describe or visualize or think. Just direct experience itself. There's a whole world here to discover. The world of the feeling experience. Now just feeling the whole body at once. The experience of this living body. What is it like to be in this body right here and right now? Feeling from the inside out from the outside in. Feel the breath as it moves in and out, Slow pulsation. Deepening the experience of this body. Feel the body and context of the environment. The air against the skin. The sounds penetrating the ear. The subtle and the not so subtle. The smells, The sensations without the need to define or name. Pure experience. Feel into this. Be with this for another few moments. This is your life. This right now is where it is happening. Nowhere else. Just this. Bring a smile to your face, Let it radiate in and out. Bringing gratitude to this experience of the body. This experience that allows this beautiful life. Feel free to continue with this as long as you like and come back to it often. As we feel into this precious, Precious life. Thank you for your practice.

Reviews

Fabulous way to ground back into everyday life after a 5-night meditation retreat. Inspired to start daily morning sit with these guided instructions. Thanks, Adam. 💜

This was a supportive practice for me. I’m working on moving from thinking to feeling overall. I liked the pace and instruction. Thank you. ❤️❤️❤️