What seems to be the exterior,
The exterior of the world that appears to be outside of me,
Like the school bus creating sound,
Vibration,
Noise that appears to be outside of me.
However,
My only perception of that noise,
Sound or vibration really occurs only within myself.
The sound vibration vibrates the tympanic membrane in the ear and that vibration triggers electrical impulses going through the auditory nerve into the brain where there's a perception of what we call hearing or sound that we learn to interpret to have different meanings.
And the interpretation of the different meanings then leads to our liking or not liking that particular noise or sound that can then develop into a pattern of repetition and association so that anytime we hear a particular sound that we like or that we don't like,
It automatically triggers a habitual response and that leads to a feedback loop of more or less wanting or pushing away of that sound or trying to acquire more of it or stay away from it.
Like wearing noise reduction headset in an airplane or a similar headset playing your favorite music.
So that we try and control what comes to us from the external,
What comes to us from what appears to be outside of ourselves to a focus of attention on the inside.
Imagine you're in a hot air balloon,
150 feet above the surface of the earth.
And along the railing of the hot air balloon are a whole series of a hundred or more small balloons each filled with water.
And each balloon weighing about five pounds.
So if you had a hundred five pound balloons filled with water,
You could drop them as needed in order to create more buoyancy for the hot air balloon if you needed it.
Now imagine the hot air balloon being your mind and the water filled balloons being the thoughts in your mind that have weight that are heavy.
And when you need more buoyancy,
When you need to lighten your mood or you just want to get higher,
All you need to do is pop some of those balloons filled with heavy thoughts and then the hot air balloon of your mind can rise up.
And focus attention on five areas where you might have some of these heavy balloons hanging on,
Weighing you down.
And we're just going to take the small balloons,
The five pounders,
Not the hundred pound heavy balloons.
See if we can let go of some of these balloons.
So the easy ones to first think of,
Try and come up with in your own mind as you're breathing two,
Three,
Four,
Five instances of something that you want to be happening either right now or soon.
Not major,
Big,
Gigantic things,
But just small things like less school buses going by,
Making less noise.
Like if you want to go for a walk later,
You don't want it to be raining,
So you want the sun to be shining.
You just want things to be the way you want it,
But little things.
The light will change green when you get there.
A parking space will open up at the front of the shopping plaza.
Just small things that you want and just let them go.
Imagine that they happen or they don't happen,
But for right now just allow these wants to dissolve.
Or if you like,
You can imagine taking out a piece of note paper,
Writing down what it is that you want to happen,
Taking that note paper when you've written it down and placing it on a silver tray in front of you.
Actually if you're doing that,
Make a carbon copy,
A duplicate,
One on the silver tray and one just a pile next to it.
I'll tell you what to do with the pile later.
So you have these wants and you let go of these minor five pound weights and you feel a little lighter letting go of the wants.
You've created them in your mind,
You've acknowledged that they're there and you've let them dissolve like clouds moving through the sky.
And they're no longer pulling you down,
You've named them,
You've acknowledged them,
You just let them be for the time being.
They're on the silver tray,
You can pick them up again later.
The next group are things that you don't want to be happening.
Similar to maybe just the opposite of what you want,
But if you think about it,
There are things that you just don't want to happen.
You don't want that small cut on your leg to become irritated and infected.
You don't want your neighbor's noisy dog barking and keeping you up at night.
You don't want to get caught in the rain without an umbrella.
So come up with your own two,
Three or four,
Write down a note for each one in duplicate.
You can use a copying machine if that's easier.
Put one on the silver tray and one on the pile next to it.
The next group is called restlessness.
Now restlessness is minor irritation,
Antsiness,
Just that feeling that you want to get up and go.
You're impatient,
You just want to be moving along,
You're restless.
So bring to mind several instances where you recall being impatient or restless or maybe a circumstance where you expect to be impatient or restless because you know your history,
Like the last 15 minutes of an airplane flight.
Write those down,
Place one on the silver tray,
One on the pile.
The next group is boredom,
The opposite of restless and there goes that school bus again along with the cars backed up behind it.
I wish it wasn't making that sound but I'd like there to be quiet.
I'll add those to my list,
Let them go like raindrops falling through the sky.
So boredom,
Focus some attention,
Contemplate,
Recollect,
Write down,
Place one of the notes on the tray and one next to it and see if you feel lighter having let go of the weight of wanting,
Not expecting,
Restlessness,
Boredom.
Two more,
Ill will,
Just having some lingering bad feelings about something or somebody,
Some circumstance,
Just hanging on,
Clinging to it.
Some ill will of an old memory that every now and then surfaces comes back into your awareness.
So write down two or three of those,
Two copies,
You know what to do with them.
Imagine that light of feeling,
Now you've dropped the ill will along with the boredom,
The restlessness,
The wanting and the not wanting.
The only thing left is doubt,
Just the unknown,
The wondering,
Is there any value to spending time doing this?
Just doubt for the whole process,
Doubt in general about any and everything.
So bring to mind some of the things you've had doubt about or something that you have doubt about right now.
Write that down,
Two copies.
Feel the buoyancy,
The lightness of dropping all of these five pound balloons,
The small ones.
You can tackle the major ones anytime.
Right now you're just working with the small ones and feeling that buoyancy,
This hot air balloon of your mind is now risen up higher and it feels light,
Energetic and airy,
Freedom,
Free flying,
Like a bird with hollow bones just floating through the air,
Lightly with the breeze.
