Hello friends,
This is David.
We can begin today's meditation by taking three slow,
Deep breaths.
Feeling the crown of our head lift towards the ceiling on the inhale.
Let our whole body release and relax on the exhale.
Using these breaths to soften any muscles that might be tense,
Loosening around the eyes,
The jaw,
Softening the shoulders,
The abdomen.
Bringing our whole body into a state of groundedness,
Relaxing into gravity,
Present.
And in today's meditation,
We're going to be practicing mindfulness of impulses or urges.
As a support for this practice,
And a way to make it a little more clear,
I'm going to challenge you to not move your body at all during the meditation.
Not even the slight move of the hand or the neck.
Maybe making any final adjustments into a place of comfort.
You can feel your body,
Feel it in space,
Have a sense of your posture,
The weight of your hands on your lap,
Sit bones on the seat.
And if you notice any impulses or urges arise,
Just label them.
Impulse to move my tongue.
Impulse to adjust my back.
And of course,
If any impulse or urge is very strong,
You're welcome to just move it.
But one thing I would suggest is waiting for it to arise three times.
The first impulse,
Just label and let pass.
The second,
Label and let pass.
And then the third one,
Go ahead and make the adjustment.
Mindfulness of impulses.
Sometimes what we find is that even though we're practicing mindfulness of the body,
Of impulses,
We unconsciously make a movement without even realizing it.
And no problem,
It happens.
And then we just label movement.
Oh,
I just itched my face without realizing it.
Movement.
And then we come back to center.
Mindfulness of impulses and movements.
In engaging with this practice,
We often notice there are a lot of subtle involuntary senses of movement in the body.
Something like the breath moving the abdomen in and out.
And little feelings of vibration or pulsation inside the body.
And these we just allow to sharpen our awareness.
No need to label them or do anything about them.
We just continue feeling the body.
Mindfulness of impulses and movements.
The point of this practice is not to be perfectly still.
The point is to develop more awareness over our impulses and urges.
And in our lives,
This takes the form of the impulse to worry,
To distract ourselves,
To say something mean,
To procrastinate.
And when we can catch ourselves at the stage of the impulse,
There's a little opportunity for agency,
For choice.
Or even if we catch ourselves in the midst of it,
Oh,
I've just been procrastinating for the last 10 minutes.
That's okay,
Because now we see it.
And whenever we notice it,
We just relax our muscles,
Maybe take a breath,
And pivot back into our chosen activity,
Which right now is mindfulness of the body.
And at this point in the meditation,
We're about to invite in a little movement.
But we're going to try to do it mindfully and consciously.
So we can start with one big deep breath,
Filling with air on the inhale,
Releasing on the exhale.
And then mindfully make any adjustments to your posture that would feel good,
Whether that's itching your face,
Adjusting your back,
Rolling your shoulders.
And as you go into the day,
Perhaps just having a little more mindfulness around your impulses and urges.
And through that,
Having a touch more agency and choice in your life.
