Let's get comfortable.
Whatever comfortable is for you.
We can actually be comfortable in a huge variety of postures.
And what this practice is about is the mind.
The mind and the body are of course interconnected.
But we don't have to have the body in any special configuration in order to practice mindfulness.
If that were true,
Then we would only be able to practice mindfulness when we were sat in that specific configuration.
And that would be a damn shame.
Pay attention to the body.
How does it feel right now?
Are there any tensions that you could let go of?
If so,
Let them go.
If not,
Then make friends with them.
They'll be around.
What's going on now outside the body?
What's the temperature of the room?
What sounds can you hear?
What sounds can you hear?
When we hear sounds,
They can be very seductive.
We like to think about what they are.
So that if we hear the sound of a car outside,
We might find that we're then visually imagining the car.
This is not bad.
Only we're doing something.
And this is worth noticing.
We're adding something extra to our experience.
This requires effort.
And being that many of us will be here in order to relax,
It's useful to understand and observe when we're making extra effort that isn't necessary.
Pay attention now to the breath.
You can enjoy some deep breaths if you like.
Deep breaths oxygenate the brain.
And when we breathe deliberately,
We light up the prefrontal cortex,
Which could be called the human part of the brain.
The deliberate reasoning part of the brain.
The part that can observe the present moment and see that it's perfectly satisfactory.
That nothing is lacking.
If we decide that something is lacking,
Then we experience that something is lacking.
But if we're simply right here,
Experiencing things as they are,
Then nothing is lacking.
Nothing is missing.
Continue to pay attention to the pleasant sensations of the breath.
The breath is often called a meditation support.
And what that means is,
It's kind of like our home base.
We choose to pay attention to the pleasant sensations of the breath.
We choose to enjoy the breath.
And inevitably the mind will create something else.
Often something very seductive,
Something that we want to pay attention to,
Something that we might feel is more interesting than the breath.
Something to do with the past or the future.
Something to do with work or family,
Relationships.
Successful mindfulness practice is to spot the mind doing these things.
To catch the mind.
And say never mind,
Start again.
Celebrate successful practice.
Congratulate yourself.
Give yourself a gold star.
Because what we're doing here is learning how to choose what we think.
And the better we get at choosing what we think,
The more we're able to choose what we feel.
And if you,
Like me,
Have ever experienced worry,
Fear,
Anxiety,
Guilt,
Doubt,
Then you'd rather not think or feel these things.
I assure you,
Based on the evidence from my own practice,
That these things can be overcome again and again.
Until they begin to lose their power.
Through this practice we observe thoughts and feelings.
We see them as object.
When these thoughts and feelings are object,
I am subject.
I am the viewer,
The observer of these thoughts and feelings.
Therefore,
They are not me.
When I break this identification with these thoughts and feelings,
They lose their power.
This doesn't mean that you might immediately stop feeling tense.
This doesn't mean that you might not recreate those thoughts and feelings in the very next moment.
But what it means is now you have a means of dealing with them.
You have a means of divesting them of their power over and over and over again,
Anytime they arise and anytime you remember.
This can be thought of like weeding a garden.
We pull up the weeds and throw them away.
There's likely to still be something of the roots in the ground.
And so the weeds may sprout again,
But they will be fewer in number.
So we pull them out again.
We throw them away again.
Next time they sprout,
There will be less and then less and then less.
I am not interested in having a clear garden,
A garden free of weeds.
I'm only ever interested in having less.
Sometimes spores might blow in on the wind.
Sometimes an animal might trample through your garden and bring with it something that will sprout later.
But I know what to do with those weeds.
I become very skilled at pulling them out of the ground and gleefully throwing them over my shoulder.
This is how we clean out the mind,
So to speak.
And yes,
This does require some kind of effort,
Though it's almost certainly less effort than we're used to putting into things.
And this effort over time actually becomes energy.
Just like when lifting weights in the beginning,
Even the light weights require some effort.
But if we keep lifting,
Then eventually we'll just move those light weights out of the way as if they're nothing.
This is what happens as we develop the skills of mindfulness.
The skills of developing the mind,
Not towards anything in particular.
We are training the mind for dealing with the mind and eventually the feelings.
Enjoy this practice.
Celebrate any single moment of success.
Each time you remember to come back to the present moment or to catch the mind doing what it does on autopilot.
This is success.
This is worthy of celebration.
When we enjoy the practice,
We want to practice a lot.
When we practice a lot,
We develop skills.
When we develop skills,
We're able to choose what we think and what we feel any time we remember.
