Hello friends,
This is Nathan,
And I'd like to share with you a moment of mindfulness on the topic of stopping.
The late Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh relates a story about a man on a horse.
The horse is speeding along with the man riding it,
And he appears to be in a hurry to go somewhere important.
A person watching alongside the road shouts,
Where are you going?
And the man on the horse replies,
I don't know,
Ask the horse.
And that's the end of the story.
The invitation from this story is to stop and ask ourselves,
When am I like this person on the horse?
And what are my habit behaviors that are carrying me away like the horse?
And on this topic of stopping,
I'd like to share a quote from Thich Nhat Hanh from his book,
The Heart of the Buddha's Teachings.
He says,
We have to learn the art of stopping,
Stopping our thinking,
Our habit energies,
Our forgetfulness,
The strong emotions that rule us.
When an emotion rushes through us like a storm,
We have no peace.
We turn on the TV,
And then we turn it off.
We pick up a book,
And then we put it down.
How can we stop this state of agitation?
How can we stop our fear,
Despair,
Anger,
And craving?
We can stop by practicing mindful breathing,
Mindful walking,
Mindful smiling,
And deep looking in order to understand.
When we are mindful,
Touching deeply in the present moment,
The fruits are always understanding,
Acceptance,
Love,
And the desire to relieve suffering and bring joy.
So to practice stopping,
We have a powerfully simple tool that is referred to as mindful breathing,
And it's an internal resource that we all have access to.
Mindful breathing is a foundational practice for meditation and also for practicing mindfulness in daily life.
To practice,
You just bring your attention to your breathing and gently return your attention to your breathing when your mind gets distracted.
So let's practice for a few minutes.
To begin,
Set an intention to pay attention to the sensation of your breath.
Also as part of this intention,
It's to bring an attitude of curiosity,
Of non-judgment,
And of kindness.
We want to have that curiosity and that non-judgment towards whatever shows up in your experience,
Including challenges.
And for posture,
There's four traditional postures,
Whether sitting,
Standing,
Walking,
Or lying down.
If sitting,
Find a comfortable position,
Which may be in a chair or on a cushion.
Allow your back to be straight but not stiff,
Your shoulders relaxed,
Your hands maybe resting on your knees or in your lap,
And your eyes might gaze downward to reduce distraction.
And begin with a few deep breaths,
Exhaling a bit more slowly than your inhale.
And just notice the natural,
Comfortable pace of your breath.
Feel the expansion and the contraction with each inhale and exhale.
Follow the breath in through your nostrils,
All the way down into the lower belly and back out.
Not missing any movement with each inhale and exhale.
Now I invite you to select an anchor point where you can feel the breath moving in and out.
It might be at the tip of the nostrils or in the lower belly or somewhere in between.
Just pick one point and rest your attention on the breath at that anchor point.
Not missing any subtle vibration of the air moving in and out.
And notice the mind starting to wander.
Gently take note and return your attention back to your anchor point in the breath.
This is recognizing when we come back to our awareness of the mind wandering and returning the repetition of returning to the breath.
Curiosity,
You might also try counting your breaths and seeing if you're able to,
With each exhale,
Count another breath up to ten.
And if you notice yourself distracted,
Just returning back to one and starting again.
So,
Yep.
This is where screen1200 has gone.
.
Breathing in,
Noticing the mind is present with the breath,
Or wandering to other places,
And generally returning,
Returning and noticing any subtle sensations at the anchor point in your body,
In contact with your breath.
.
Deep breaths,
We will close our session,
Bringing our attention back into the space around us.
.
