Hi everyone,
And welcome to week five's meditation on mindfulness of thought.
In today's practice,
We'll be looking at the role our thinking mind plays in our life and in our practice.
And instead of our usual way of pushing away our thoughts,
Or having a sort of antagonistic relationship with them,
We'll instead invite them into our awareness like any other friend,
And really look at them,
Notice what they feel like,
What their nature is,
And how we don't have to be lost in them when we let them be like passing clouds across a great wide sky.
We may notice them,
But we don't have to get lost in them.
So I will invite you all to find a comfortable position that feels supportive to you.
Just giving some attention to different aspects of your posture,
Noticing your spine,
Seeing if you can sit in an upright and bright way,
Bringing some openness to the chest,
And really letting your body relax and soften into this moment,
Whatever that means to you,
Loosening the skin on the face,
Letting go of any tension in the belly,
Letting the body soften,
Feeling your intimacy and your contact with the earth,
This feeling of being supported by and stabilized by the ground beneath you,
And then letting an easy and natural breath be included in your awareness,
One that feels gentle and soothing,
Feeling the belly rise and fall like an ocean wave,
And letting any sounds in your environment,
Letting those also be a part of your awareness,
Noticing they're coming and they're going,
And feeling how effortlessness and natural it is for you to be aware of sounds,
No effort required,
Just as the breath is known and felt,
And the body is known and felt,
So too are the sounds,
And seeing if there's anything alive for you in your emotional life,
Any feeling,
Any movement in the body and in the heart that wants to be known,
Wants to be named,
Whether that be a soft elation or peace,
Sense of ease,
Or if more worry is present,
Sense of sadness,
Disappointment,
Agitation,
Just including that,
Feeling how this emotion manifests in the body,
And letting go of our stories and our narratives about the emotion for now,
And if the thought has pulled you away,
And you've traveled away from this moment,
Letting this be a reminder to come back,
To reawaken,
To realize you've been lost in thought,
To settle back into this present moment,
In the breath and in the body,
And just now including thoughts as our next object of meditation,
While resting in the breath and the body,
Paying some mind to how thoughts appear and disappear in our awareness,
How some thoughts come and we get caught in them,
And are off lost in thinking,
Planning,
Or reminiscing,
So just seeing what it's like to become aware of thought,
Instead of being lost in it,
And if it's helpful,
You may add a soft note or label to the thought,
If you notice that there is a thought about the past,
You can label it past,
Or reminiscing,
Or if there is thought about what's currently going on,
You can note it as present,
Or commentary,
Or if there are more thoughts about the future,
You may label them as planning,
Or rehearsing,
So letting the label,
The note,
Be just a soft whisper in the back of your mind,
And labeling,
And then returning to our home base of breath and body,
Every time we catch ourselves in the trance of thinking,
Caught in another storyline,
We may practice the three R's of recognizing,
Releasing,
And returning,
So first we recognize what is it like to be lost in thought,
What does it feel like in our minds,
And then we may release,
And gently let go of a thought,
Not trying to beat them down,
Or push them away,
Just gently opening your hand,
And letting the thought fly away,
Just as a butterfly,
Setting it free,
And then we return,
And reawaken to the moment,
Engaging our senses,
Noticing sounds in the room,
The feel of our body sitting here,
Its gravity,
Density,
And the calming and expansive feeling of the breath,
How do we return to the moment,
Without jerking ourselves back,
Without being rushed,
Or judgmental,
And also notice what happens to a thought when we reawaken,
And realize we've been thinking,
Do you notice a dissolving-ness to the thought,
How it leaves,
Vanishes,
And is quite insubstantial under the light of our awareness,
So just noticing how thoughts come and go,
And how they naturally come and go,
If we choose not to hold on,
And in the last few moments of our sit together,
Really sitting in this breath and body,
Once again making thoughts object of our awareness,
Noticing that we can be aware of thoughts,
Instead of being lost in them,
That no matter how many times we may be absorbed in a thought,
And forget,
It only takes a moment to reawaken,
And come back to the present moment,
And this is the beautiful practice of mindfulness,
So I'll invite you all to slowly bat the eyes open,
And take in sound,
And sight,
Touch,
I thank you all for sitting with me,
And really invite you all to explore relationship to thoughts,
And how we can more skillfully work with them.
