Hi,
Welcome to experiments in mindfulness.
I imagine you are curious to find out a new perspective on how to bring more life to your mindfulness practice and curiosity is a great start to have here.
I hope you maintain it all the way through in your formal and informal practice.
You will notice that an attitude of adventure and acceptance for whatever arises enhances mindful presence.
And then if you add compassion,
Non-attachment to outcomes and non-judgment of what is happening in the present moment,
All of this is going to help you to come closer to equanimity and joy.
Now all these words,
They are just amazing,
They sound great,
Don't they?
In a way it's almost like a promise of mindfulness,
That we are going to achieve all of these things like focus and better relationships and productivity and so on.
Now I invite you to not rush into creating these states with your own mind because we can be so much attached to objectives that then we actually lose what the practice is really about.
So I invite you to open up to the practice with the beginner's mind.
Beginner's mind is not knowing mind.
Try and have courage to say,
I don't know.
I don't know what is my name.
I don't know what I'm experiencing right now.
I don't know where I come from.
I don't know what this practice is about.
And then just feel how it feels inside of you that you don't know.
Have courage to start from the beginning and be a child again.
Imagine you sit and you have the very first breath.
How would that feel like?
How would that feel like for an alien?
So forget about everything else you know.
Each time you sit to meditate,
Sit as if it is the first time you are sitting,
First time you are breathing,
Listening,
And experiencing life force within you.
Take each meditation and each moment as a compassionate experiment.
Driving any specific outcome would mean you are coming from the space of ego,
Attachment to the outcome.
Just gently let go.
It's normal to have that.
When you become aware of it,
Just bring this part where it's going to say like,
Huh,
Interesting.
Here is attachment to outcome.
And then gently let go.
So notice how it is to approach the practice with this attitude and adding kindness and gratitude to whatever arises can support you in feeling the practice a little bit warmer.
Opening up to sensations is really an inspiring part of the practice.
I highly recommend it.
Let your wisdom of the body guide you through the practice.
Notice where our sensations arising.
Let your mind connect with your body,
Especially practices like body scan or compassionate movement,
Mindful walking or mindful eating.
It can be very helpful for that.
If you would like to understand what is the landscape of the meditation adventure,
Then you may also want to check out concepts like about open heart,
Back draft,
Stages of acceptance and stages of practice.
It's kind of like good to orient yourself and know what could be arising.
During the practice,
With that as well,
Just let go of these concepts and see if you can really be present.
If your practice is suggesting that you sit for 10 minutes,
Then sit for 10 minutes.
If this is too easy,
Maybe you can have a little bit more of a stretch.
How would it be if you were practicing for 15?
Now if 10 minutes is too much and you would really like to start,
Then try for less time.
Sitting for 3 minutes and with a challenge equals sitting for 10 minutes with a challenge.
So it's not really about clocking how long you're sitting and able to sit.
It's more about within these 3 minutes are you able to remain connected with yourself,
With open heart,
With acceptance,
With radical acceptance of who you are and also befriending your emotions.
I will talk about these aspects in other parts of the introduction.
So if you're dealing with a specific topic in your life and you would want to gain a deeper insight on what are your needs,
Behind feelings and how to communicate them,
Then you may want to explore self-coaching process.
There's journaling,
You can scroll through the cards library and look through the feelings,
Words and needs as well.
Sometimes naming them is already enough for self-awareness.
And also it's important that you don't stay just on awareness part.
Ask yourself how can I bring this into my life?
How can this practice and self-reflection actually guide me into having life that I always wanted?
So in terms of living your life,
Having objective is actually a good thing to do.
But in terms of your own practice,
It's perhaps better to just open up to whatever arises and take a ride.
And after your 5 or 10 minutes or 20 minutes,
You can take pen and paper and record what were your experiences,
Even during the practice,
Which I will talk in the part related to the back draft.
So without talking too much,
Empty your mind,
Get back into that child state,
Take a few deep breaths,
Release everything that you think you know and just ask yourself,
Hey,
If I was really,
Really curious,
How would I relate to this breath?
And the next one.
So let me know how it goes.
My name is Dalida and I am really,
Really excited to go through this process together with you.
We are in this together.
Enjoy.
