As you might know,
Mindfulness meditation involves training moment-to-moment awareness without indulging reactivity or judgment.
You may also have noticed that mindfulness meditation instructions often ask you to pay attention to your body.
There is often a focus on the breath.
There might be a focus on particular sensations,
Practices that scan through the body,
Noticing the sensations present.
Instructions often direct you to the body to notice where and how emotions live in the body.
The way that the stomach might tighten or the breath might become shallow in moments of anxiety.
The question I want to address is why do we focus on the body?
I'm going to offer you a few reasons for this,
But I also want you to see if you can make this into a practice.
There's no reason we need to separate talks or dharma from the practice itself.
As you're listening,
You might see if you can feel the breath moving in and out of the body,
Chest or belly expanding on the in breath,
Contracting on the out breath.
You might notice the contact between your feet and the floor or your body and the chair or cushion.
See if you can maintain that felt sense of the body as you listen to this talk.
So the first reason we focus on the body is that unlike the mind which can project forward and backward in time,
The body can only live in the present.
The five senses are immediate,
Happening now.
This sensory information is often like background music that we tune out in favor of our perhaps more interesting mental stories.
This is natural,
But it's also natural to tune back in to those senses.
By noticing the sounds,
Smells,
Sights that are right here,
We can shift out of that future projection,
Those thoughts of a future self or those recollections of past experiences.
We can shift from those back into the immediate present by way of the body,
By way of the senses.
You might be thinking,
So what?
The mind moves forward and backward.
I like to think of happy things coming in the future,
Things I'm excited about.
The reason we ground in the present through the body is that suffering often results from the mind's projection and rumination,
So we anchor the attention in the present through the body.
This was a truth that the Buddha arrived at through his practice,
Through his direct observation,
But it's also something we now know through modern scientific study.
A 2010 Harvard study found that regardless of content,
Regardless of the activity,
When our mind is where our body is,
So when we're fully present in our experience,
Happiness increases.
The more that we are not present and engaged in our present moment experience,
So when the mind is projecting forward or ruminating,
We are less happy.
This really runs counter to our impulse to fantasize when we're bored or uncomfortable,
But even if the experience is unpleasant,
Having the mind present in real time where the body is engaged,
The direct experience of life correlates with more happiness.
So by staying with the real time sensations,
We are training the mind to be here.
We are building a habit of presence.
And even when the mind may insist upon projecting and wandering,
It can always come back.
A second reason that mindfulness meditation focuses on the body is that emotions live in the body through the central nervous system,
The peripheral nervous system,
The muscles,
The organs.
Think of all the ways that you experience stress in the body.
Tightening of the jaw.
Loss of appetite.
Difficulty sitting still.
So it's often unnoticed,
But we carry our emotional states and our emotional history in the body.
We might develop ways of holding tension in the back,
A certain protective arched posture perhaps as a way of protecting and defending.
But by getting in touch with the body,
We can understand ourselves in a deeper way and see the effects of our stories,
Those unexamined stories that shape how we view ourselves,
That contribute to our decision-making,
That keep us from being free.
So often once we are aware of those held tensions in the body,
Those places where emotions are stored,
We can let go of that previously unnoticed tension.
And quite often the mind follows the body.
We release that holding and there's a noticeable movement toward ease in the mind.
Now it's important to note that for many people,
The body is a place of pain and trauma.
So it's important to customize the practices,
The body-based practices of mindfulness.
It's important to meet yourself where you are with compassion.
Adapting the practices to your circumstances,
Your history is a form of self-compassion.
It's a form and a result of wisdom.
So just know that you have permission to adapt body-based practices as needed.
Doing so is not weak but wise.
So it may be that at certain times you avoid particular places in the body,
Perhaps places associated with trauma or pain.
And so you might notice those feelings but choose to focus on a place that is safe.
You might find a sensory refuge in the body that is not in pain,
That does not have a history of trauma.
And whenever you engage in body-based practices,
Whether it's a body scan or attending to the breath,
You can return to that safe place in the body whenever you need to.
This is much like the mixed level yoga course in which when a posture becomes painful or the body is not ready to continue,
You might return to something safe,
Comfortable,
Such as the child's pose.
In the same way with these body-based meditations,
You can shift back to that sensory refuge in the body.
And the third strategy is that we might shift to a compassion or loving kindness practice,
Sending positive feelings,
Boundless friendliness toward ourselves,
Perhaps toward a situation.
And so now you might return to a direct felt sense of your own body.
You might sense your feet against the floor or cushion,
The points of contact between your body and the chair or floor.
You might sense the movement of a natural,
Easy breath entering and exiting the body,
Sensing how it is to be in the body,
To be here.
