I Am Not My Tinnitus

This is the inspired by the wonderful book "Outsmart Your Pain: Mindfulness and Self-Compassion to Help You Leave Chronic Pain Behind by Christiane Wolf. Chronic tinnitus is a chronic output happening with a very similar mechanism to chronic pain. Starting with an anchoring practice, a gentle invitation to work with the tinnitus sound, and exploring some phrases that help us disidentify with the tinnitus. Please check out my track Somatic Tracking for Tinnitus also.

Transcript

Hi there, Dr. Adele Stewart here. Tinnitus might be a part of your experience, But it does not need to define you or reduce you. Mindfulness can help you learn to take a step back and observe the tinnitus instead of identifying with it. See it for what it really is. A sensation that may be part of your moment-to-moment experience, But is not you. This different relationship towards the tinnitus can be surprisingly helpful. Our world can expand. We feel less alone. We don't feel that we're defective or broken in some way. We may even like ourselves better. Finding yourself a comfortable position. This can be sitting maybe on a dining room chair. Or you can lie down on a mat on the floor on your back if you like. Making any small adjustments to allow the body to be as relaxed as it can be. Especially if you're in the seated position. Starting off by feeling your feet on the floor. Feeling the sensation of the floor with the soles of your feet. Just noticing sensations in the soles of your feet. This can be a great anchor when we're working with tinnitus because it's a long way away from it. So check that out. That may be your chosen anchor. But just exploring another few possible anchors. One is the sensation of gravity. So if you're lying down you might feel all the points of contact with the mat, The floor. If you're sitting, Points of contact with the chair and the floor. That sense of the imprint of your body and the weight of your body. Perhaps even a comforting sense of this force of gravity grounding us. So now moving to another possible anchor. It's just feeling into your hands. Noticing any sensations in your hands. Noticing the sense of touch where your hands are resting. Perhaps they're touching each other or your legs or the floor. And letting that go and exploring one more anchor which is a very common mindfulness anchor. Noticing the breath in the body. So you might just notice where the breath is most easy to feel. Perhaps in the nostrils or the rise and fall of the chest or abdomen. Sometimes the rhythm of the whole body breathing. No need to think about the breath. We're not analyzing it, We're not visualizing it, We're not even imagining it. We're actually feeling the breath in the body. The constant flow, The in-breath, The out-breath. And no matter what anchor you choose for this meditation, You'll notice that your attention will move elsewhere often. To other body sensations, To sounds, To thoughts. And that's no problem whatsoever. Just noticing where your attention has shifted. And gently bringing it back to your anchor. Perhaps the soles of the feet. Or the sensations of gravity. The sensations in the hands. Or the flow of the breath. Just spending a little time now with your chosen anchor. And if there's a certain pleasantness or calming nature of being with this anchor, You might choose just to stop the recording and spend a little bit more time with your chosen anchor. Beautiful, Valuable mindfulness practice. And if you're up to it, Just check out with your system. Does it feel okay to pay a little bit of kind attention to your tinnitus at the moment? If that just feels like it's too intense or too distressing, Again, Just choosing to stay with the felt sense of your anchor. If you choose to work with the tinnitus today, Can you bring a gentle, Curious attention towards this sound? Throughout the meditation, You can move in and out from the tinnitus as much as you need. Perhaps notice at the mention of the tinnitus, There might have even been a tension in the body or a holding of the breath. As if to brace yourself. Because it's human nature for this tinnitus to often feel like a threat to our system. So you might like to explore gently if you can perhaps breathe in and out of areas of muscle tension. Seeing if they will relax a little bit. That's okay if they don't. Again, You can go back to your anchor over and over again. You need to use your own inner wisdom to know how much is the appropriate amount of attention to keep on the tinnitus. Keep breathing. Keep subtly softening the body. Perhaps the muscles around the scalp and face and ears. Perhaps noticing if there's been a bit of an inner commentary. Perhaps thoughts like, My tinnitus is playing up so badly. Or I hate my tinnitus so much. If there is, Can you let go of those thoughts for a moment and see what happens if you name what you're actually experiencing. Try it in a really friendly, Kind tone. Maybe something like, Oh, This is a moment of tinnitus. This is what tinnitus feels like. It's not my tinnitus. It's just the sensation of tinnitus. Human beings experience things like tinnitus. In fact, Many, Many people are experiencing tinnitus exactly in this moment. So allowing yourself the time you need to feel into this exploration of the actual experience of tinnitus. Keep on breathing. Know that you can always return to your anchor. Go back and forth between your anchor and the exploration of the experience of tinnitus. You may choose to stop the audio at this point and keep on going with this exploration. Or if you like, You might move to another reflection. So asking yourself a question now. This is not to be answered in the head. This is a question to drop into your whole system. Just noticing if anything emerges. Maybe a clear message. Maybe just a kind of shift in internal texture. Maybe nothing at all. The question which I invite you to drop in is does that which is aware of the tinnitus also have tinnitus? Perhaps even dropping the question into your mind as if you were dropping a pebble into a well. Is the awareness of the tinnitus also suffering from tinnitus? Just noticing any effect of shifting the attention from having tinnitus to the awareness of the tinnitus. When you're ready, Letting go of the questions. Come back to feeling your anchor. Expand to notice the whole body. The body. Sounds. The breath. And the awareness. So the meditation is coming to an end. Taking a moment just to notice your experience. No need for any judgment. Perhaps trusting that your experience was just as it needed to be today. And taking your time to move your body gently a little bit. If you're lying down, You might want to lie on your side before you gently fully externalize your awareness and go about your day. Thank you.