Hi,
Thank you so much for joining me.
I want to talk about sort of the benefits of meditation and mindfulness.
And um.
.
.
I'm wondering if you've ever noticed how quickly.
.
.
A difficult feeling or thought can become a judgment.
About yourself.
We get stuck in these.
Loops sometimes,
Don't we?
We feel sort of anxious and we think,
Why am I like this,
Or we?
Maybe have a particular thought.
And get into different situations and we just think,
I should be handling this.
And then all of a sudden you're living with.
Anxiety in here.
You're criticizing yourself for having it.
It's that old thing.
Buddhist double arrow that they talk about,
You know,
You receive.
The one arrow,
Which is the thought,
And then you keep thinking about it.
You just pile on,
Sort of,
And keep shooting arrows.
And as I said,
This is where mindfulness and meditation and awareness can really make a difference.
They help us relate.
To ourselves differently,
Don't they?
Especially when we.
.
.
Um add a touch of Kindness or gentleness or have this sort of posture of that have this posture of of gentleness a posture of of kindness.
And when we sit in meditation,
We get to see what the mind is doing,
Which is also,
It is this wording,
It's almost like a,
A blessing and a curse,
You know,
We.
We get to see how.
The mind.
Plans,
It remembers,
It It worries,
It rehearses conversations.
That's a big one for me.
I'll go away from that.
Evening or spending some time with people and just think,
Oh,
I should have said this differently,
I should have said that differently.
And done.
Sometimes when we're practicing.
Awareness,
We become even more aware.
Of those things and how,
Not only the thoughts that we have,
But how we're treating ourselves.
And one way,
And really the basic meditation is just to say,
There's a thought.
To recognize that,
There's a thought.
There's a feeling.
That's a perception.
That I have.
That's a particularly.
.
.
That's a belief.
But really just even the word thinking and we'll practice this in a minute can be really helpful.
And a small moment of recognition and awareness like that helps to create some space and we can begin to The power of the practice is that we can.
.
.
Begin to have a thought or a feeling.
Without believing that we have to follow it and act on it.
Take it wherever it might take us.
Again,
It creates some space.
You know,
We might say,
Oh,
There's some sadness here,
Or.
I'm feeling unsettled.
We just recognize those things.
And again,
Just,
We can meet it.
What would happen if we met those things with.
.
.
A little bit of kindness instead of judgment.
Or asking ourselves,
How do I get rid of this?
And maybe.
.
.
We could ask.
Can I be?
With myself.
Wow,
This is here.
Can I be with myself while I'm anxious?
Can I be with myself while I'm having pain?
These thoughts or these feelings.
You know.
So much energy goes into trying to improve ourselves,
Doesn't it?
And even meditation can become another project.
Where we feel like we're supposed to feel better.
Instead of just Feeling whatever thoughts and feelings arise.
But it's incredible over time what can happen,
Even in a short period of time.
If we just practice simply.
Observing and become.
Curious about our experience without turning everything into a problem to solve.
And of course,
There might be something that we need to.
.
.
Address,
But awareness can help us see that.
Even more clearly.
And during meditation at least for a few moments.
We can just,
Without.
.
.
Trying to fix or plan or.
.
.
Even think about what the next step is.
Meditation helps us to just be.
With ourselves where we're at.
And What I wrote down in my notes before doing this talk,
And we'll get to a little bit of meditation in just a minute.
Um.
.
.
Is that how these things that I'm talking about just really change our relationship with ourselves.
We begin to feel less like a project or something that needs fixing.
And more like someone who is deserving.
Of care.
So let's take a minute to practice this.
I would hate to go away and not practice it a little bit.
Sit comfortably.
Relax your shoulders.
Relax your chest.
Breathe naturally.
Be mindful.
Be aware.
What thoughts?
Feelings.
Resistance.
Emptiness.
And settledness.
Peace.
Is present right now.
Let's focus particularly on thinking right now.
As thoughts arise.
I invite you to just say the word,
Thinking.
When a thought arises.
Just say the word thinking and let the thoughts flow.
Let it pass.
Let it carry on in its journey.
Natural sort of.
Waves.
Say,
Thinking as it.
Arrives or you become aware of it.
And then just allow it to pass.
Downstream,
If you will.
The beauty of.
Mindfulness meditation is that.
At least for now,
There's nothing we need to fix.
There's nothing to work out or change.
You can just be here with your thoughts right now.
All in a posture of gentleness.
And kindness.
Let that be your approach to yourself right now.
Just come back into the room.
You can open your eyes if your eyes were.
.
.
Shut and um.
.
.
I hope that you'll bring this simple practice into your day.
Maybe as you notice some anxious or disturbing thoughts,
You can pause real quickly and just Say to yourself,
Thinking.
Don't close your eyes if you're driving.
But you can practice this throughout your day for sure.
And of course,
If you want to be.
Intentional about it.
All the better,
And amen.
I think you'll find that over time.
That this will change your relationship with yourself,
Which is so important.
And then that will gradually change the way that you relate to the world and relate to to others.
I think you'll find yourself becoming more kind.
And more gentle with others as well.
The more you practice being kind and gentle.
With yourself.
Namaste.
Bye-bye.
