From Chaos To Calm

A guided meditation exploring how to work with our habitual thought patterns in the mind. By bringing awareness and recognition into our present state of mind we can create a little bit of space between us and our thoughts. Calm recognition allows for calmness and clarity.

Transcript

Today we're going to do a practice around the third foundation of mindfulness and that's around our thoughts.

And sometimes the metaphor of a jar of water and mud is sometimes used when we work with our thoughts.

And when you shake the jar of water and mud obviously it becomes very dirty,

You know.

But then when the jar starts to just sit,

Things start to settle,

The mud starts to settle to the bottom and the water becomes clear.

It's a little bit like that,

You know,

In the practice.

We're just trying to settle the thinking.

If we try to settle our thinking with more thinking it actually becomes more chaotic actually.

The awareness is the component to settle the thinking part of the mind.

So you could say that recognition is the first step in working with our thoughts and especially those negative thoughts,

Those negative habitual patterns within us that we're working on in our life.

So we allow the thinking,

We're not trying to get rid of our thinking,

But we try to bring the aspect of recognition into the practice.

And when there's recognition it brings space,

A bit more calm.

There's a little bit more room between your thoughts and yourself and this can really settle the mind.

So allow yourself to just get settled.

If you're sitting in a cushion or sitting in your bed or lying in your bed or lying on the floor,

Whatever is comfortable for you,

Maybe you're in your chair.

And just take a couple of deep conscious breaths in and out.

And today our body is like that jar,

You know,

It's that metaphor.

It's like a container and it holds a stillness and a clearness,

But also we can get a little bit chaotic inside there.

So we're going to work with the body.

So let yourself get comfortable and you can have your eyes closed or if you're used to having your eyes open at a certain point in front of you,

You can work with that.

And just noticing any holding patterns,

So places within you physically where you're contracting or there's a sense of gripping,

Holding.

You know,

Sometimes that pattern also,

That contracting is in your breathing so sometimes we're holding our breath.

And just see if you can bring a little bit of awareness back into these places.

Softening in the belly.

So down into the abdomen and noticing maybe at the foreground there's the breathing,

But just softening,

Bringing that physical sort of aspect of softening into the belly,

The abdomen,

Into your torso.

That would be around your front of your ribs,

Maybe the sides of your rib cage and the back of your rib cage.

Bring your attention up into your shoulders and your shoulder joints and we soften here to,

You know,

Sometimes when we exhale we can even visualize muscularly everything softening.

And softening in the brain of course and that's not something we kind of often think about but just a softening towards the thoughts that are arising too.

Softening behind the eyes,

Into your fingertips,

Your fingernails,

Maybe a softening inside the whole head.

So that would be the skull,

The top of the head,

You know,

The crown of the head,

The scalp,

Maybe the back of the neck,

Inside the jaw,

Jawline.

You know,

The places where the energy of thinking resides too so often if we are really caught up in a lot of thinking and thoughts,

You know,

Sometimes that can actually really feel like a strain in the head or sometimes we can feel it down in the fingers or down in your belly.

So just notice that the place where the energy of thinking is residing within you.

And just today,

Notice what's happening today in your thoughts.

Are they words?

Are they images?

Just experiment with this,

Just experiment with the recognition of your thoughts.

So maybe you could label them planning,

You know,

Maybe planning for the future,

Coming up with great ideas.

Or maybe it's worry.

Maybe it's ruminating.

Maybe it's fantasy.

So maybe you're just caught up in a world that hasn't even happened yet.

Maybe you're remembering or ruminating.

And then bring the quality of allowing into that thinking too.

So just clearly recognizing each thought that pops up.

There's a softening towards it,

And just allowing.

Maybe on top of that,

Notice the attitude.

What's your attitude towards these thoughts?

Is it tough?

Very self-critical?

Is there a strong sort of attitude or reaction towards these thoughts?

Or is there a gentle allowing?

Sometimes these thoughts will bring a strong emotional response in your body too.

You see,

Emotions and thoughts work very much together.

So if that happens and you're feeling a little overwhelmed or thoughts are even becoming more chaotic,

I want you to come back into your physical sort of,

Remember,

It's like the jar,

You know,

Come back to this container,

Our body.

I want you to come back to your breath.

And just recognize now you're breathing here too.

And notice the sensation.

So where do you feel physically you're breathing?

Where do you feel physically that emotional response from those thoughts?

Just recognizing with a calm recognition.

Thoughts come and go like little bubbles popping when we bring that recognition and awareness towards them.

They just pop and they move on.

And your breath is a little bit like an anchor.

We come back to the breath because it steadies us,

It settles us.

And we bring our attention down into the pelvis,

The abdomen.

We feel the wave of our breath.

Coming and going,

Just like these thoughts.

There's almost like a constant flow of thoughts in some sense,

And yet there might be just this tiny gap of stillness between them.

So we're just recognizing when these stories and thoughts pop up.

It's like a little channel for love and compassion to flow in.

Again,

As we recognize when these thoughts are popping up.

Can you bring the quality of calmness and also cultivate patience towards yourself?

It's perfectly normal for every mind to be like this.

And notice that part of you that recognize the thoughts coming up.

That's that awareness.

Remember,

It's the component that settles your mind.

You can always go back to that labeling of thinking,

Planning,

Maybe even judging,

Worrying.

Just allowing the thinking just to arise and sometimes the quality of allowing will allow those thoughts not to have such a power over you.

Create a little bit of space between us and our thoughts,

And we're more than these thoughts.

Sitting here in this container,

Container of clarity and calmness.

And it's a little bit like if you were walking in the woods with a small child.

If the child wanders off,

You don't shout at the child to come back.

Just really softly go to the child and take its hand and you just bring that child back and you come back to your breath like this.

This recognition might have to come again and again.

But remember,

We're creating merit from our practice so that we can,

So that it can benefit ourselves and it can benefit others.

And also,

So that our inner world will be more settled and calm and peaceful.

Thank you.

May your inner world be settled,

Calm and peaceful.

May the world of others also be settled,

Calm and peaceful.

.