Oh yeah,
Good morning,
Welcome to this week's.
.
.
Mindful Monday meditation practice guidance.
Yeah,
Picking up on this.
Point previously we've looked at and discussed.
Regarding ways in which we can Um.
.
.
Be aware or notice.
The way that I might operate and Yeah,
We talked a little bit about the system that we have.
Yeah,
That is a millennia.
Old ancient systems and the way that we've been created.
And the prime objective of our nervous system and awareness of the world around us is to try and keep us safe,
Not to make us happy or keep us content.
Comfortable but really to keep us alive and we have this kind of natural Inclination to have a wandering mind to worry at a greater or lesser extent.
Depending on the circumstances.
And,
Um.
.
.
And this natural system that watches out for us in a way that it sought to watch out for us.
Many thousands of years ago.
When lives were and could be at risk of and under threat and indeed of course it's certainly in some parts of the world there is still the case that individuals are tragically.
Can be impacted day to day by life threatening.
Life-threatening situations so you know this these sorts of things do still exist but And there are also circumstances where our systems will forever be hunting for things that could be challenging us,
Could be damaging us.
And actually,
A lot of the things that it is picking up on are really not of any great import.
The system is so finely tuned that it will seek out anything that it concerns,
Things that may be disabling us.
Destabilizing us or concerning us and you know that could be an email we don't like,
It could be a phone call.
Bye.
With a relative that doesn't go very well,
It could be a letter we receive,
It could be somebody bumping us on the bus,
Public transport.
Slight discomforts can be can be picked up and then can extrapolate into a whole range of other kind of errant and circulating thoughts.
And what can happen,
You know,
When we have this situation where our minds wander,
And we have a sense of anxiety about sometimes often trivial things.
The very nature of that is uncomfortable.
Because we're meant to feel uncomfortable because that's the system working and alerting us to what it thinks are things that we should be concerned about.
Whether he should or not is quite a different matter.
And because they're so uncomfortable,
We don't like those feelings,
Those feelings that come up that are alerting us to things that we don't like.
We don't like those feelings.
And so there's this kind of circular sense of stress and discomfort and anxiety around this whole process.
Of feelings that are uncomfortable and then not liking the feelings that are uncomfortable and feeling uncomfortable.
About that.
So is there a way then that we could.
We could approach this in a slightly different way.
And so we know that there is an inevitability in this process and the inevitability of it is that our minds will wander and we will be on the lookout for stuff.
But is there a possibility that we could accept that more?
And yeah it's a role in a sense of kindness and compassion.
An awareness that this is a sign that the system is working.
Our system is working.
We are alive.
We are operating.
We have an operating system.
That,
Um.
.
.
Is functioning.
And even though there are aspects to it that didn't make us feel uncomfortable.
Without it,
If we didn't have it.
.
.
That would obviously be a big problem because there are potentially things,
Crossing roads for example,
Avoiding situations that may feel threatening.
We need this system.
Aum.
And so,
Uh.
.
.
Is support.
But sometimes,
As I mentioned,
It just gets carried away with the minutiae of life that really are not problematic.
But it kind of It just has this kind of.
.
.
Over-analyzing aspect.
It can get over agitated and of course you know when we are in situations in our lives when we feel stressed then it gets worse because it will pick out and try and spot dangers in almost anything.
And so yeah,
How could we be.
.
.
How can we be more accepting?
Have great acceptance of this process.
And the benefits of that,
Of course,
Is that we take energy out of this kind of system,
This negative spiral of discomfort around discomfort.
And so we have some discomfort.
But okay how could we then just is it possible then to reduce the level of discomfort we have about that original noticing the original awareness of problems and challenges and say,
OK,
Yeah,
I see.
I see that.
Thank you,
Actually.
My mind.
For keeping me safe,
For trying to keep me safe,
For looking out for me,
For doing your best.
In a complicated world.
And Try to be okay with that.
And seeing if that actually what should happen is that actually we've just reduced this kind of energy.
This kind of reduce the power in this kind of this negative spiral if you like.
So I'd like to guide a short practice to see how this could work.
And of course meditation practice as we know is sitting in.
Lie standing.
Um.
.
.
It's a great opportunity to practice stuff that we can learn.
Ideally bring it to action in real life,
In real life,
In everyday life,
You know,
We're out and about.
But this is a great opportunity to.
.
.
Pardon me,
To have this.
Opportunity to test ourselves to practice and to see how things are in a more kind of steady focus kind of environment.
Yeah so um Yes,
So just sort of taking a moment to settle really.
It may help to close your eyes.
Bye.
If not soften the gaze,
Learn the gaze.
Let's disconnect a little bit from the world around Taking a few deeper breaths.
Let's sing.
May your support be helpful to its stack points.
How you're being held up,
Your feet in the floor,
Bum on the seat,
Your hands resting.
Mind.
As he did this,
As we do this,
It's highly likely you'll notice your mind won't join up.
Hit me about stuff.
Maybe stuff that's happening around you now or it could be stuff you're doing later today stuff that happened yesterday the day before It could be good stuff,
It could be bad stuff.
And pleasant.
Maybe to be unpleasant stuff.
Maybe it's neutral,
Maybe it's neither,
Maybe it's sort of just awareness of things they're not particularly strong.
Emotional kind of connection.
I've got no needs.
Just bring it up or raise it unnecessarily but perhaps there is stuff Be aware of that.
You can notice your mind kind of alerting you to.
You need to do later.
Very small,
They might be slightly bigger.
Things to watch out for.
Things that you may have done yesterday or the day before,
Things that maybe you did something that could have gone slightly better.
Maybe there is something happening around you now that you're noticing your mind is keeping an eye out for.
And they've seen that.
They're going,
Yeah,
Maybe.
Pass.
Getting irritated by those thoughts,
The sense of feelings,
Emotions around those thoughts.
Possible actually to be the opposite,
To be a really positive woman,
As positive as you can be.
Thank you for noticing this stuff.
Keep your eye out.
Keeping me safe as much as possible.
But also knowing that here,
In this moment,
And in other matters.
Many moments perhaps,
There's no real need to do anything,
No action is really needed.
In this moment,
No action needed right now.
We're just a team here,
Being here.
When your mind wanders see if it's possible to bring it back to guide it gently back,
Kindly back,
Thanking.
Retention,
Your awareness for the job that it does.
Important job that it does.
It's not always needed.
Quite often it's not needed.
When we're crossing the road.
.
.
You know,
Maybe when we're out and about.
Town at night but.
.
.
And it wouldn't wear.
Having a small-scale interaction,
Maybe an unpleasant email or a difficult conversation,
These things Yeah,
They're not life threatening.
You know,
And they come and they will go.
Very soon we will have forgotten about them and we have the opportunity to notice.
And notice online noticing.
These things and in these moments coming back.
To the present moment.
Kindly as we can,
Compassionate as we can.
To choose a anchor point.
Feet on the floor or your bum on the seat,
Your hands resting.
And just take this for a few moments in silence.
In whatever way feels comfortable.
Bring this short message to a close in your own time.
Maybe flipping your fingers and toes,
Any kind of movements that may fill.
Good,
Stretching perhaps.
So I hope that you find that helpful,
Supportive,
And yeah,
The advice.
Yeah,
Really helpful,
Important indeed process and not always easy.
But how can we be?
Understand the inevitability of the way that we are built and what we do but also appreciating we don't have to be.
There is a choice not to be.
And concerned or upset by that process and that if we don't we can remove quite a lot of negative energy from the way that we approach that and our lives in more general.
Our purpose.
So yeah.
Thank you very much indeed for seeing me,
For joining and as I say I hope that's helpful and I look forward to catching up soon.
Bye for now.
