Before we begin our practice,
I wanted to spend some time talking about the importance of learning to interrupt obsessive thinking in our life.
Obsessive thinking is such a common thing for the mind to do when we are in a difficult circumstance or when we are making a change in our life.
And there are three typical kinds of repetitive thinking,
Which are planning,
Fantasizing or imagining various outcomes,
And worry.
Indulging in any kind of obsessive thinking is energetically draining,
And it truly limits our imagination.
There isn't enough space in the mind for anything else to arise.
We're kind of stuck.
So beginning to know that we are capable of letting go of any kind of obsessive thinking and committing to a practice of letting go on a daily basis as best as we're able to is so vitally important and useful.
Interrupting breaks the chain of obsessive thinking.
We're interrupting the habituated pattern.
We're actually interrupting the nervous system.
It relaxes the nervous system and it creates an opportunity to remember what's most important to us in any given moment.
And it allows more skillful thoughts to arise.
An interrupt can be a varying lengths and the shortest amount of time is actually just three seconds where you just get a moment's relief.
And we can all do three seconds many times a day throughout our day as we go about all of our activities.
In fact,
I deeply encourage you all to practice in this manner,
Taking your practice off of the cushion and into your daily life.
Learning to stop,
See the thinking mind and in that way interrupting the thinking,
Grounding in the body just for a few seconds,
Many times a day is so useful and all of neuroscience demonstrates that these practices,
These sort of informal practices also help to change our brain for the better.
As you practice in this way,
You'll begin to develop the motivation to practice more lengthy periods and even just cultivating 30 seconds,
Which is the amount of time for you to just reflect and recognize and see how ineffective obsessive thinking is and even perhaps notice how much harm it causes to you.
As your mindfulness practice develops and gets enhanced,
You can practice for longer and longer periods and a three minute interrupt is a wonderful time to just settle the nervous system.
Three minutes gives us a chance for a restart in whatever we're doing.
You see,
Consciousness is knowing objects and mindfulness is beginning to see how we're relating to objects,
Both outer and inner objects of experience.
So we don't treat things that come through our other sense doorways so with so much credibility and so much meaning as we do our thoughts.
We see a sight,
We hear a sound,
We smell a smell and we can recognize that they're fleeting sights and sounds and smells.
But somehow when we think a thought,
We grasp onto it and we believe it to be who we are.
My favorite bumper sticker says,
Don't believe everything you think.
And this is such a valuable lesson,
A piece of wisdom.
The awareness factor of the mind is the freeing factor and the part of the mind that can be aware of the thoughts is not caught in the thoughts.
So the part of the mind that can be aware of worry is not worrying.
This is the factor that we want to grow and this is what mindfulness practice helps to grow.
So let's begin our practice together.
Just learning to let go of the thinking mind.
Bringing your meditation posture.
And bringing your awareness to your body.
Just knowing from the inside that you have a body.
Embodied presence.
Embodiment.
Just feeling into your body.
You can sense touch points.
You can sense vibration.
Warmth or coolness.
Just feeling into the body.
And connecting with the breath.
The experience of breathing.
Noticing where you experience this energy of the breath in the body.
The movement of the breath.
The breath is fluid.
Notice the belly.
Notice the rib cage.
And the chest.
Allowing ourselves to be with the experience of breathing.
Not the concept but the experience through this movement in the body.
If there are small fleeting thoughts that come through,
Just ask them to stay in the background.
As you continue to bring your awareness to this felt experience of the breath.
Wise effort.
If there are thoughts in the mind that have a lot of energy,
Something that the mind has latched on to,
Notice.
What is it?
Is it planning?
Is it fantasizing?
Rehashing the past?
Self judgment?
Just pause for a moment and feel the strength of what has pulled your mind away from the breath.
Notice if it's pleasant or unpleasant.
Ask yourself,
What is the reward that I get for thinking about this?
And now ask yourself if you have a choice to let go.
And if you do,
Gently but firmly return to the breath.
If a thought or a feeling is really compelling and it's hard to leave it,
Or you keep coming back to it,
Then invite the mind to let go.
Just simply say to yourself,
Let go.
Let go.
This is the practice,
This learning,
This learning to let go of the thinking mind over and over and over again.
You're not doing it wrong.
This is a practice.
Even if the mind comes back to the thought,
You learn to break the momentum of it.
Letting go is interrupting obsessive thinking.
If we don't interrupt the thoughts,
They will reinforce themselves.
This learning,
This letting go.
Patience with yourself and persistence in your practice.
This is wise effort.
Let go.
Let go.
Let go.
Let go.
