Anchoring Our Attention: Relief From Intrusive Thoughts

In this rest meditation, we continue to learn that it’s safe to come closer to ourselves. As we identify simple somatic experiences that we're currently having, we start to experience increased regulation and more calm in our minds and bodies. Discovering anchoring experiences gives a stable place for our attention to land, so our intrusive thoughts can rest. Learning how we can “microdose” simple and easy experiences, so our nervous systems can rest within that resonance, and our minds can take a break from managing, fixing and analytical spinning out thoughts, has the potential to change our lives. As we become intimate with loving experiences we’re having, we might discover a simple love for ourselves. As we come to the close of this guided meditation, the question of "What tangibly helps me have loving kindness towards myself?" becomes the opportunity to write a love letter to ourselves…

Transcript

So I love, I love with this invitation to be in a comfy spot. I see people making adjustments, Right? It's like, Oh yeah, I want to, I want to tend to this creature. I want to get a blanket. I want to get a pillow. I want to re-situate. Like that's, Uh, That to me is a display of self-love. Like we, We can tend to, We can, Um, Give ourselves what our creature wants, Whether it's warmth or softness or a different aligning of body bones. So yeah, Just wanted to lift that up. That's, That was sweet to see on the screen. Like, Um, And maybe in this moment, Maybe you're not sure what your creature wants or needs and that's okay too. And maybe we'll just start with that, Like start with slowing down to see, Like, How would we answer that question? Right. We can't answer that, That, That question from our minds so much, Although we might be able to a little bit, Like we might know our predictables or some things that in general we like to have, But we, We're really going to have to check in with below our chin, So to speak. And so we can do that in this moment. Just, Um, Yeah, Letting a, Letting attention, If I want to close to make it easier to reduce the visual data, Um, Then we can drop our attention down to see like, What does my creature need in this moment? Apparently my creature needs my hand on my chest because that's where my hand is, Right? So there's just like this discovery, Like, Oh, That's what this creature needs or wants. So letting your attention meander, Just maybe checking in with your sit bones or your back, The places where you make contact with the ground or the bed or the chair or whatnot can be clues into helping us connect into what we're needing or wanting in this moment. Maybe you're already in your favorite chair and you're like, Yes, This is, This is delivering. This is delivering what my creature likes. Maybe there's going to be continued adjustments. Maybe in five minutes from now, You're like, Oh, Now I need that blanket. Like, Yeah, You can, In any moment, We get to check in really in the most simple way possible. What does my creature need in this moment? So yeah, Just noticing our relationship with gravity helps us tune into that question. When our attention drops into our being or into our bodies, We notice what we like. We notice if we need more warmth or less warmth or a certain kind of touch, A certain kind of sound. Maybe the sound is too much. We need to turn it down. Maybe we discover we need to take a certain kind of breath. So letting yourself name to you in this moment what your creature, What your body, What experiential is likable, Is nice, Is simple, Is okay. So many different words we could use. Maybe let your attention find one or two experiences in this moment that feel really anchoring in a simple way. And it could be a visual, Could be a sound or smell or a sense of touch. What is that simple anchoring experience? Experience doesn't need to be different. It requires no mentaling, No figuring out or analyzing, Figuring out. If your anchoring experience is outside of your body, That's fine. But I'm going to invite you to find one that's also a little closer. So it could be like air on the skin or the weight of the body in the chair, The arm being heavy. You don't need to bring attention into the viscera area, Into where breath lives. That might be simple for you. That might not be simple for you. So just letting the question really be most basic. What is most basic in this moment? And whatever you find, Maybe there's even another one that's more basic or simple underneath that one. It's going to be quiet for a few cycles of breath to let your attention meander through your experiencing body, To make acquaintances or friends with a really maybe unsuspecting but simple experience. And letting your attention just rest there, Hang out there. For a few more breath cycles, Let it be your refuge. Nothing else to do, Nothing to figure out. Just to be with this simple, Simple, Simple experience. Just a little bit longer. Attention drifts to thinking, Totally normal. Just gently bring it back to that experiential. You want to come back to this prompt that we kind of started with of what experientially in this moment for you is akin to a sense of loving engagement. What experiential is allowed to be just as it is. And in that allowance, Therein lives a little maybe micro dose of simple, Not flashy, Dramatic love. Simple, Simple of allowance. Be curious. Let it not make sense. Maybe even letting it be silly, Like a feeling of fabric against fingers. That doesn't feel silly to me, But someone might interpret something so simple as silly. Really letting ourselves have just this curiosity. What is, What feels experientially? This micro dose of love. The sound part of our nervous system. Maybe it's just 1% of your experience. So using the effort to keep attention oriented to that 1% experiential that feels akin to love or kindness or simplicity. And in this moment, We're just reminding ourselves we're not tapping into imagination. We might do that later, But for now, We're really tapping into what is actually here. Can't think our way to what's here. Nothing wrong with imagination, But we really want to just practice connecting to the middle pathways of here and now. And then for fun, We might ask this question, What is a loving experiential that our bodies innately have? Again, We want to go so, So, So simple. It might be like nose hairs. Nose hairs are so loving. They clean out the blah, Blah. When I breathe in, They filter out the air when I breathe in. Well, Those nose hairs are so loving, A loving part of my creation. You might have something like that or something really different. So just play with the question and maybe it even answers the simple question. Same as what you've been connecting already with, But let yourself have fun with this question. What aspect of your human body experience is a display of innate lovingness? Just by its design. A different way of asking that might be, What do I have access to in this moment that has nothing to do with achievement, Or earning, Or worth, Or just I was born with X? This body was born with X, Or this body was born X-ing. How cool is that? This body takes care of me in that way, In X way. Hmm. Now we're going to move a little bit towards maybe the mental with this next question of what am I learning that helps me love me? Now, Loving oneself, I think we all know is not an easy endeavor. Maybe it is the hardest. In existence on this planet, In this material plane here. So it's not a trite question. It's just a question. What helps me love me? Maybe it's one of the particular practices that we do that brings you closer to allowing you to love you. What disrupts unloving pattern or habituation for you and brings you closer toward being loving, Compassionate, Kind with yourself? It could be something that's really hard to do. It could be something you don't like to do. Like, Say you don't like going to the dentist. Like, Oh, Wow, Going to the dentist, That is like one of the most loving, Self-loving actions. Such a display of self-love when I go to the dentist. Oh, It's so hard. But, Oh, Yeah, That's a display of self-love. It could be, You know, When we come to the desire inventory or the fear inventory and we have these fears and we hand them over to something greater than ourselves. Boy, That can be really hard. But handing over that mental and that spinning out. And, Of course, There's different expressions of self-love, Right? Some are some maybe we don't like. Maybe they're not, Quote-unquote, Ideal. But they are. They are in this moment of our journey a display of self-love. Just being so curious here. Not quite yet, But in a couple of moments, We're going to move into a little fast straight where I'm going to invite you to write a love letter to yourself. Now, Just notice the response that showed up in your body. Like, Okay, Wow, It's this invitation. We're going to really invite ourselves to tap into curiosity, To tap into anchoring, With this invitation to write a love letter to ourself. We're going to attempt to let go of perfectionism, Or shoulds and supposed tos. And keep in mind that a fast straight is just when you let the fingers move, The fingers type. See what comes. This is just an experiment. So, Keeping attention or reconnecting to that anchoring experience. It's so simple that we started with in the beginning because we want to stay connected to simple and stay connected to that experiential. As we slowly start to open the eyes and with the eyes open, If they've been closed, The eyes open, We're still connecting to that experiential anchoring experience. We're sharing attention now with whatever is in our eyesight and with an experiential. It's simple. And then we're going to move into a fast straight. And this is a love letter to yourself. It doesn't have to be extensive. You can use fragmented sentences. Just play with it. Maybe it's not even true. I don't know. Maybe it's just true for five minutes, But play with a love letter to yourself. What love letter would you write to you in this moment? And I'm going to invite you to keep it as simple as simple is. So, Yeah, Move into that space of some writing. And if you're listening to this rest later, I'm going to end the recording here. And then we'll come back together after we're done writing. For those of you on the call.