Hello friend and thank you for joining me.
Rumination is a very powerful form of quite unuseful thinking.
With rumination you think about the past obsessively despite the fact that you cannot change what happened.
You may stew in some form of resentment,
Replay conversations,
Beat yourself up and relive an event over and over.
And it happens to all of us and it can be really quite painful.
With mindfulness practice you learn to see those patterns clearly and respond to them with some patience and understanding and kindness and you can begin to detach yourself from their power.
This rumination often shows up like a background noise,
This constant stream of obsessive negative thinking shadowing you throughout the day.
It's really quite draining.
This short mindfulness practice will help you to call that inner voice into the light,
To dissect it and hopefully diffuse some of its hold over you.
So get yourself comfortable now and close your eyes and just begin to relax your body.
Use your breath to help encourage a sense of ease in your body.
And with each exhale just soften the muscles of your body a little bit more.
You may bring some special attention to your abdomen,
Your shoulders,
Your jaw.
And now look at the thoughts that are going through your mind.
If you have been ruminating about something specific acknowledge that event or the situation about which you're thinking.
Acknowledge it,
Turn it over in your mind,
Examine it from a place of kindness and curiosity and interest.
And in that spirit of curiosity just bringing in a little bit of detachment in the midst of what may be quite charged emotions about the event.
So become the observer.
And ask yourself if you're able to change this situation in the past.
You might like to offer these phrases of kindness and compassion.
Saying them silently in your mind.
I cannot change the past.
May I be at ease with my mind.
May I care about this difficulty.
I'll just allow you to sit with that for a few moments.
Examining with kindness and curiosity.
I cannot change the past.
May I be at ease with the mind.
May I care about this difficulty.
And now let's turn our attention towards the present.
Although you cannot control the past you do have power over your actions right now.
So replacing that rumination with the recognition that you can choose to act in ways that encourage happiness.
You may like to offer these phrases silently in your head.
May I act with wisdom.
May I respond with compassion.
May I move forward.
So whenever that rumination starts to creep back in return to the phrases of your intention to move forward.
I cannot change the past.
May I act with wisdom.
May I respond with compassion.
May I move forward.
So finishing this period of practice.
Read these phrases with you and whenever the mind falls into the pattern of thinking about the past offer a phrase of compassion or wise action for yourself.
Namaste.
