Darkest.
So tonight,
I invite you to take an upright posture.
And maybe put a little extra energy at least in the beginning of the set.
To sitting upright.
But without tense.
.
.
Are stiff.
Energy.
And as I said.
.
.
During this practice,
We will explore the feelings and thoughts as well as the sensations.
Of both energy and effort,
As well as sloth and torpor.
And as we're practicing,
At any time,
If the practice becomes uncomfortable or more unpleasant than you feel acceptable,
Then just put down the instructions and you can turn towards your breath or mindfulness of the body,
Whatever is useful at that moment.
And so since we're exploring effort and energy as well as sloth and torpor.
I'm going to start by kind of raising the energy.
And one way to do that is to do a few quick short breaths.
Instead of long,
Slow inhales to kind of relax the body,
These short breaths energize.
And you can also put your hands above your head while you do that if you really want to increase the energy.
It really just kind of awakens us.
And once you've done that,
You can just relax into the.
.
.
Natural.
Breathing and put your hands where they feel comfortable.
Just allowing the breath to settle into its natural rhythm.
And then we'll continue mindfulness of the breath for a few minutes,
Just to help with the settling in.
And just being mindful of whatever the natural state of the breath is.
Ideally,
We're doing this without trying to control the breath or name it or count it.
You can do that.
If you can just sit with it.
That's more helpful.
Just being alongside the breath.
As opposed to.
Trolling.
Are noted.
And then we'll do the same thing for the body,
Mindfulness of the body.
You can begin at the scalp and work our way towards the toes.
And just as you bring that mindful attention.
Moving down the body,
Just noticing what areas are most requiring your awareness.
We can't look at every spot.
Notice every little joint and portion of our cells,
But some areas are calling to us,
Speaking to us.
So notice them as you work down the body over these next two or three minutes.
As we're practicing,
Always remembering that if the mind wanders,
We get pulled into the past or the future.
Once we notice to just meet that busy mind,
That exploring mind,
With compassion,
With kindness,
And most importantly,
Without judgment.
And then put down those thoughts that have arisen.
And just return to whatever the practice is at the moment.
Now you can put down the mindfulness of the body.
Wished.
Sit with whatever's present for a minute.
Just noticing what the mind is doing.
What emotional sensations are present.
And now we're going to consider and try to bring to mind the physical and emotional sensations.
That we call sloth and torpor.
Bliss.
Idea of heaviness of body.
A laziness and dullness of the mind.
And the idea is to.
.
.
Either through recollection or imagination.
And to bring something to mind,
A time,
Or an experience,
And you felt that way.
Sometimes one way to bring it to mind is thinking about how you feel after having a cold or a flu or the body where you're just worn out,
The body is tired.
So this is just an experiment.
As we bring these afflictive emotional states to mind.
It might be unpleasant.
It might not.
And it might be easy to recall or imagine,
Or it might be difficult.
There are a lot of maybes in this practice.
Most importantly,
As we.
Investigate.
And we're curious about that.
Sloth and torpor,
So we don't judge ourselves.
For what shows up.
Or how we feel we're doing and trying to recall or imagine.
As we investigate.
And get curious about what has shown up.
We're looking at three points.
Looking at the physical.
Or looking at the series of thoughts that might be connected.
And then the emotional aspect,
The heart aspect.
You might notice some of all those three points,
Or maybe you only have one show up.
There isn't a right or a wrong.
Just.
.
.
Try to investigate.
Are you curious?
And be open.
Based on whatever has shown up.
See if a word or a phrase they come to mind.
To describe.
The recollection.
Or what you've imagined and how it feels.
And now we're going to shift gears.
You can put down the contemplation of sloth and torpor.
And we'll just.
.
.
Have a short little mindfulness of breath just to kind of clear the mental palate.
Just again,
Turning towards the natural breath.
So now we'll do the same type of contemplation.
But this time with effort and energy.
So again,
Just as we did.
Either recalling a period of time,
A moment where you were energized and really alert and awake.
Or a time where you were.
You have a lot of energy and you put effort into something.
That was really.
.
.
You were really present with that.
Or again,
Imagining that same scenario.
Either one's fine.
We're simply trying to notice how it feels.
Again in those same three areas,
The body,
The mind,
And the heart.
So investigate,
Get curious.
Be open.
As you spend some time with effort.
And energy.
If you get pulled away by the past or the future.
Just be kind,
Nonjudgmental.
And just return to that.
Contemplation,
Investigation.
The last thing I would ask you to pay attention to is when we switched from sloth and torpor to effort and energy.
If any of the.
.
.
Sensations or levels of energy or lack of it in the sloth and torpor portion.
If any of that stayed with you,
Did bringing effort and energy to mind counteract any of that or change it?
