Welcome to this short practice in Viveka,
Known also as Discernment.
We will begin with a grounding breath and a gentle body scan to help settle the nervous system.
Then,
I will guide you into a brief somatic inquiry,
Exploring the difference between the noise of your daily life and the quieter signal that lives underneath it.
We will close with a two-part art prompt to help you make that difference visible.
This practice is for anyone who has felt like life has gotten loud.
It is for anyone who suspects that underneath all of the busyness,
All of the output,
All of the holding it together,
Something quieter is trying to be heard.
You do not need to know what that something is yet.
That is what we are here to find out.
Let us begin.
Find a comfortable seat with your feet flat on the floor or legs crossed.
Whatever feels most supported for your body right now.
Let your hands rest softly in your lap.
You may close your eyes if that feels comfortable,
Or let your gaze soften toward the floor in front of you.
Begin simply by noticing your breath.
Not changing it yet,
Just noticing the natural rhythm of the inhale and the exhale.
Now begin to gently deepen the breath,
Breathing in for the count of three.
And breathing out for a count of four.
Continue.
On your next inhale,
Extend a little further,
Breathing in for a count of four.
And breathing out for a count of five or six.
Let the exhale be slow and complete.
Continue.
The exhale is where the nervous system finds its ease.
There's nothing to do here but breathe.
Continue for a few more rounds at whatever length feels most comfortable.
Now,
Allow your breath to return to its natural rhythm.
Bring your awareness to your body,
Beginning with the soles of your feet.
Notice where your feet make contact with the floor beneath you.
Move your awareness slowly upward,
Noticing the ankles,
The calves,
The knees.
Notice the tops of your legs.
Notice if there's any tension or gripping here and soften.
Bring your awareness now to the hips and belly.
Notice where your body makes contact with the chair or cushion beneath you.
Notice if there is any tightness in the belly and soften.
Move your awareness up through the spine and into the heart space.
Notice the rise and fall of your breath here.
Continue up to the neck and shoulders.
Notice if you are carrying any tension,
A familiar holding or a weight,
And see if you can soften the shoulders just slightly.
Now move the awareness down through the arms and into the hands.
Notice any sensation or warmth there.
Now bring the awareness back up through the arms,
Up through the neck,
To the back of the head.
Notice the ears,
The jaw.
The tip of your nose,
The bridge of your nose.
Notice the muscles around the eyes,
The space between the eyebrows.
Notice the forehead.
See if you can soften anywhere that you experience tension.
Finally,
Bring your awareness to the crown of your head.
Take a full breath in now noticing the whole body from the soles of the feet to the crown of the head.
And as you exhale,
Imagine releasing tension downward through the feet and into the earth.
Continue for a few more rounds of breath.
Now allow your breath to return to natural.
From this grounded place,
I invite you to turn your attention to the experience of life's noise.
Not the content or specifics of the noise,
But the felt experience of it,
The quality of your life right now,
When it is at its most crowded,
Most pressured,
Most demanding.
Notice what happens in the body when you bring this to mind.
Is there tightening?
Heavy nose.
A sense of something buzzing or pressing.
Perhaps a feeling of being stretched too thin.
Just notice it.
Breathe into it.
You are safe in this space.
You do not need to solve anything here.
Now,
Gently,
I invite you to go underneath that noise.
Try to put that noise and the felt experience to the side.
And notice what is underneath the to-do list.
Underneath the pressure and the output and the holding it together.
Because underneath all of that,
Something quieter lives.
A signal,
A symbol.
A quiet way of knowing.
A part of you that has been waiting for enough stillness to be heard.
You may not be able to name it yet,
That is fine,
But just simply notice if there's a quality of presence there,
Even faintly.
A felt sense or flicker of something that is more still or more authentic than the noise.
We're calling this the signal.
Simply pause to observe the signal.
Or even the absence of the signal.
In yoga philosophy,
The capacity to notice this difference,
To distinguish signal from noise,
Is called viveka.
It is discriminative wisdom,
Discernment.
It is not a dramatic skill.
It develops slowly,
Through practice,
Through quiet,
Through the willingness to keep turning inward,
Even when life's noise is very loud.
You are practicing it right now.
Take one more breath in.
Exhale.
And when you're ready,
Let your eyes open gently.
Let us move into the art prompt.
You will need your journal or a piece of paper and whatever drawing or art materials feel right.
This is a two-part practice.
Give yourself about five minutes with each part.
First,
We'll explore the noise.
On your first page or on one half of the paper,
Make a mark,
A shape,
A color,
Anything that represents the noise in your life right now.
Not the story of it,
But the felt experience.
What does it look like?
What is its texture,
Its temperature,
Its volume?
Is it sharp or heavy?
Does it have a color,
A sound,
Or a weight?
Let the marks carry the sensation rather than explaining it.
Try not to edit.
This does not need to be pretty.
Let it be exactly what it is.
Then set that page aside and take a breath.
And on a new page,
Or on the opposite side,
Ask yourself,
Underneath all of the noise,
What is actually here?
What wisdom or awareness is wanting to be observed?
What,
Not what should be there,
Not what you wish were true,
But what is the quiet thing that keeps surfacing when you get still enough?
Let this have a visual form also.
It may be very different from the noise.
It will likely be smaller or simpler,
Perhaps more beautiful.
But let it surprise you.
When both images feel complete,
Just notice both of them.
Perhaps they're placed side by side.
You may wish to layer or connect them in some way.
Just follow what feels true and spend a few minutes in quiet dialogue with each image.
Of the noise,
You might ask,
What are you protecting me from?
What are you trying to tell me?
What have I not been hearing?
Of the signal,
You might ask,
What do you need me to know?
Listen to what surfaces,
And then write using stream of consciousness without editing,
With your non-dominant hand if that feels available.
Let yourself be surprised by what your art already knows.
As we close today's practice,
Thank you for taking the time to turn inward.
The noise in your life is not the enemy.
Often it is simply the signal turned up louder than it needed to go,
Asking to be heard so that you can get still enough to listen.
Viveka,
Or discernment,
Is the practice of learning to know the difference.
Not all at once,
Not perfectly,
But in one quiet moment at a time.
You have just practiced that,
And that matters.
The goodness in me honors the goodness in you.
