Part 4: Urban Meditation

Meditation, Mindfulness and Stillness are workable anywhere by anyone at anytime - all it takes is willingness and practice.

Transcript

Part 4 of Kinetic Mindfulness Urban Meditation Namaste,

Greetings Many of us live in high energy environments.

When I say high energy environments,

I mean there are always ambulances and fire trucks and neighbors and dogs barking and people talking and cars going by and homes honking.

Unless you live in the country,

Many people live in an urban environment.

And so as you begin this section,

I want you to just get really really comfortable.

I want you to really find your breath in a way that stimulates appreciation in you.

I mean as you breathe,

Just recognize that the only place that you can breathe is in this moment.

So you become very mindful of what's in this moment.

So many times we are physically in the moment and we experience something but we bring the past experiences and judgments and labels and feelings and emotions forward into the present experience.

And we don't get to feel it,

Experience it as it purely has been laid out for us.

And then there are times when we have a beautiful opportunity show up and we bring in the future.

What if and you walk through all of the fears and the doubts of why things can go wrong and it just becomes a menagerie of mistakes.

And so it's a lot of noise,

It's a lot of chatter.

And yet chatter is simply energy.

Find your breath.

So right now you're finding your breath as I set the stage,

Set the tone for urban meditation.

So your body is relaxed.

And the more you let the past and the future fall away and using the tool or using the focus of the breath in the present moment,

You'll notice the ebb and the flow of the diaphragm.

You'll notice the temperature of the inhale and the temperature of the exhale.

You'll notice that appreciation for wow,

I have breath,

I am alive.

Now what can I do from here that would be different because I'm aware and I'm awake and I'm so appreciative that I have breath.

And so this chatter that's either in our own minds or it's the chatter of life,

It's the chatter of everything I describe living in an urban environment.

The key thing here is to look at it a different way if you choose.

Sound or a barking dog or an errant cell phone ringing,

Those sounds are simply vibrations of energy.

Ask any scientist,

Ask any musician.

That's all it is.

But what happens is we hear the sound when we're in the doing mode and we're working on expectations or we're dealing with frustrations and then the sound happens and we label it.

We label it bad,

We label it with curse words,

We just label it as a distraction,

Whatever.

Once we label a barking dog or a cell phone as something negative,

Then we feel,

That's what comes next,

We feel something out of balance because of what we have labeled that sound as.

And so as we move forward,

It's really an opportune time in this part of kinetic mindfulness to bring the intellect into the spiritual component and to bring this whole thing together in the sense of being aware that we can re-label noise as simply sound.

So when you hear a barking dog or when you hear a cell phone in church where you would normally say,

Oh that noise,

Why is that little kid so noisy,

These kids are noisy,

What happens is the kid is enjoying himself,

The phone is just ringing,

The dog is just living.

But what we've done is we've put a negative spin on our experience by labeling it a certain way.

What if,

And I invite you to entertain this as you find your breath,

What if we could re-label noise as simply the vibration of energy at a different level?

You hear this ambient music behind me,

You hear your favorite musician practiced and accomplished,

And you don't call that noise.

Now some people might call somebody else's music noise,

But the person who likes it doesn't call it that.

It's a matter of interpretation.

It's a matter of perception.

And so we can train ourselves to perceive what previously was noise as simply vibration of energy at a different level.

Why is this important?

Keep finding your breath.

In fact,

Let's take a deep breath right here.

Deep deep deep deep.

Exhale,

Three,

Two,

One.

Find your new breath.

The reason this is important is because in urban meditation,

We can teach ourselves to be still,

Which is the goal stillness,

Anywhere we are,

Even in the environment of high vibration of sound energy.

And so you can even sit at a table with people who are just over-talking each other and you just don't want to get involved and you can absolutely still be present,

But not involved and not be rude.

You can talk on the phone and have someone incessantly ask you questions while you're on the phone,

And you can breathe deeply and still focus on what you want to focus on and now allow the rest of it to be simply a vibration of sound that you don't want to entertain at the moment.

So you don't judge it,

You don't put energy on it,

You don't retaliate,

And the stress level drops considerably.

That's why it's important.

Inhale deeply.

Exhale,

Three,

Two,

One.

Find your new breath.

Exhale very deeply.

Exhale three,

Two,

One.

Inhale one,

Two,

Three,

Four,

Five.

Open your mouth and let it out.

Find your new breath.

So I want you to really allow the answer to this question to come through you.

I think everybody may have one of these,

But when you hear something and there's something that you hear that really upsets you or it really disturbs you or it really,

I mean,

Other than violence and that kind of thing,

I'm just talking about normal,

Everyday sounds that might bother you and so much so that you know that when you're going to a place,

If that certain sound is going to be there,

You're not going to have a good time.

So take a moment in the silence and answer this question,

What sound really disturbs me do I not like?

Exhale deeply and exhale three,

Two,

One.

Inhale exhale,

Drop your chin to your chest.

Inhale deeply here.

Move your head to the right and move your head back down to center and to the left.

So your chin is going towards your left shoulder.

Your chin is going back down to center and then your chin is moving up to your right shoulder.

So do this a couple of times until you hear a bell.

Inhaling and exhaling.

Sing about that sound.

Inhale and exhale.

Find your new breath.

For some of you,

Maybe that sound that you just heard kind of moved you off balance.

Good.

Use that as we move forward.

So when you have a sound that disturbs you,

Fill in the following blank.

I release my judgment from the sound of.

I release my judgment from the sound of.

Even if you don't believe it yet,

Just make the statement and breathe through the statement and then repeat the statement on an inhale and then repeat the statement on an exhale seven times and then go through your feelings about it while you do that but don't stop,

Don't give up.

Be brave,

Be courageous and move through it.

Starting exhaling seven times.

Good.

So that sound that you heard right in the middle of your mindfulness practice was the sound of a dog barking right in the middle.

And you have an opportune time to decide how you want to experience that sound,

How you want to relabel it right in the middle of saying,

I don't want to have any judgment.

Maybe your sound wasn't even a barking dog,

But if it disturbed you,

If it threw you off and you couldn't recover,

Then it's a matter of getting back to that statement and include the sound of that dog.

So you're inhaling,

I release any judgment about the sound of a barking dog and move forward.

Inhaling deeply,

Exhale,

Three,

Two,

One.

Inhale one,

Two,

Three,

Four,

Five.

Hold it two,

Three,

Four,

Five.

Let it out two,

Three,

Four,

Five.

And be still two,

Three,

Four,

Five.

Find your new breath,

Find your new breath,

Find your new breath.

And now we're going to make a sound and the beauty of this sound is the primordial sound of life,

Some say.

I just think it's a really cool sound.

It's om.

I learned from my sister who trained in India doing yoga that it's really om.

It's like a A-U-U-U-M and it's been morphed into om,

But it's all good.

So either you want an om or aom.

The key is you want to allow this vibration to come from your belly and move through your body so that it's deep and so that it is a sound that you find that's essential to your part of you because it's coming through you.

And the vibration of that sound can absolutely bring you into a space of mindfulness,

Can bring you into a space of stillness.

Especially when it's done from a mindful place,

You can go very,

Very deep,

Very,

Very smoothly with a lot of joy.

So put your hand on your stomach,

Both hands on your stomach please,

And inhale into your belly and exhale and squeeze all the air out.

Again,

Inhale,

Expanding the belly and then contracting the belly on the exhale and squeezing all the air out.

Again,

Inhaling into the belly and exhaling into the belly.

Now this time,

Inhale very deeply into the belly.

Inhale,

Inhale,

Open your mouth and om.

And then breathe into that vibration.

Breathe into that vibration.

This vibration can be a tool for you if you're around sounds that are getting on your last nerve,

You can balance it out even inside of you without.

.

.

Let's do a quiet and silent om within,

See what I mean?

Inhale deeply and just om with your breath.

You're opening your throat.

Did you see that?

Did you feel that?

If not,

Try it again.

Just simply inhale into the belly and as you exhale,

You just let the air flow through your throat.

You just don't open your mouth and you don't use your vocal cords and you get that absolute vibration of energy that can give you relaxation as you decipher the sounds around you.

Urban meditation,

Urban mean living in a place where there's a lot of high energy.

The key to success in urban environments is to find stillness.

That's where the safety is in stillness.

Inhale deeply,

Exhale three,

Two,

One.

Inhale real deep,

Open your mouth and om.

Open your mouth and om,

Bring it out,

Bring it out,

Bring it out,

Bring it out,

Stretch it,

Stretch it,

Stretch it,

Stretch it.

And breathe.

Find your new breath.

Yes,

That is a cell phone you just heard ringing.

So how do you choose to respond?

Remember,

There's a difference between reacting and responding.

Reacting is just a visceral movement on the same level of vibration.

So you judge it,

You attack it,

If you will,

With your thoughts.

So someone is in meditation class and someone's phone goes off.

If you automatically go to judgment,

Then you're going to judge the person,

You're going to think something sideways about that person,

And you can't think something sideways about them if you don't have it already in you.

So it's kind of like a learning process,

Yes?

Find your breath.

Find your breath.

Find your breath.

And breathe.

So I hear a cell phone ring and I judge it,

And I judge the person,

And then I catch myself.

And I take a deep breath,

And I let that energy of judgment go.

I forgive myself,

Whatever the process is,

I let that energy go.

And then I simply understand that it's just a vibration of sound.

Now,

The more I do that,

Then I can be in another environment and I hear a sound that disturbs me and I can just take a deep breath,

Breathe through it,

And just know that it's a vibration of sound.

The same vibration that's in the sound of a beautiful laugh or a beautiful music,

The beautiful ocean,

A waterfall,

Whatever,

Is still a vibration of sound,

Unjudged.

Breathing.

Breathing.

So I invite you,

Wherever you are going to go in the marketplace of living after this session,

Be aware of the sounds around you.

Be mindful of your responses.

Be mindful of not beating yourself up if you do judge.

Be mindful that you can learn how to turn that around more quickly and more quickly so that your life is a vibration of peace,

That your life becomes a place that is attractive to others because of the peace that you have created by mastering urban meditation.

The rest is up to you.

Reviews

I really struggle with loud noises so this meditation gave great inspiration to stop and see the sounds in a different way thank you😁

Wonderful. I just can’t figure out how you knew which sound I was thinking about 😊

So relevant in today's culture. I'm hoping David has another series but I will repeat these 7 or so parts of Urban Meditation until he does or I find his content elsewhere. Namaste

Meditating in Chicago can be a challenge. This was perfect instruction.

This is a great series!!

I learn so much from this Series!! Really enjoy his voice and phrasing!!

Great listening!!

I enjoyed this 're-framing' of sound. It helped me to perceive my environment differently. This new understanding of vibrational frequency has helped me rise to a new level of calmness and serenity. A new tool in my toolbox!

I thought this work was very relavent for those of us in urban living. Bookmarked this one.

Very helpful as I live in a large urban centre. Thank you

Wonderful. Bookmarked. A refreshing, modern take on the concept of labeling and judgement of sound. Makes this much more relatable to the average practitioner (with the use of a lot of examples and practice --yay!). 🙏