Hi,
My name is Sean,
And this is a quick meditation on unwinding your brain's habit loop.
Now before we get started with the meditation,
I'm just going to go over some quick background on what a habit loop is.
Habit loops are how our habits are formed.
There are three main components of a habit loop.
Those components are the trigger,
The behavior,
And the reward.
An example of a habit loop could be smoking a cigarette.
The trigger would be getting stressed,
Maybe you had a really rough day,
Or your boss got upset with you.
So the behavior then is the smoking,
And the reward is the brief relief that comes from the smoke break.
The first thing to notice here is that smoking doesn't actually fix the core problem.
Whatever the core trigger may be,
Such as your boss getting mad at you,
It isn't fixed by the action of smoking.
What happens is,
After we build the smoking habit,
We start seeing the world through a lens of smoking brings relief,
Even though it actually doesn't.
One of the insights meditation can bring us is seeing how our mind works and uncovering these habit loops.
When we come to an initial awareness of our habit,
We can start to recognize trigger,
The behavior,
And or the result,
And thus start seeing the habit loop.
The following practice is intended to bring notice to your brain's habit loops.
So you can start off by finding a quiet place,
And bring yourself into a comfortable position that might be standing,
Or sitting,
Or even lying down.
And slowly begin to bring awareness to the physical sensations of your body and your breath.
So maybe you bring awareness to the most predominant physical sensation of breathing that might be at the belly,
Or the chest,
Or the nose.
Maybe you bring awareness to the sensation of buzzing in your hands,
Or the sensation of pressure where your body touches the surface below you.
Whatever sensation you connect with the most,
Allow yourself to focus on that area and become curious of the sensations that are present.
If it's your breath,
Place your attention on the breath and notice what sensations arise.
If it's an area of your body,
Place your attention there and notice the change of sensation.
Remembering that there's no right or wrong way of doing this,
You're simply just opening up to the rising and falling of sensations.
And once anchored in the physical body,
Open your awareness to include thinking.
Let yourself become aware of the thoughts arising,
And set an aspiration to be on the lookout for any habit loops.
So you might notice yourself engaging in the trigger and hopping on a train of thought.
If you do,
That's okay.
Let yourself notice the trigger and the pattern of thought that follows.
So maybe you notice a trigger that sends you into thinking about the past,
Or maybe thinking about the future.
Maybe a trigger sends you into thoughts of regret,
Or anger,
Or even fear.
Or maybe the trigger sends you into thoughts of fantasy,
Maybe starting to plan your next vacation,
Or thinking about what might happen next week.
Whatever thoughts have been triggered,
When you come to notice the thought,
Just allow yourself to label the thought as thinking,
And then soften it up.
And then softly let go of it,
And open yourself back up to the sensations of body,
And then again to the noticing of thought.
And again,
When you notice that you have become caught in the thought,
Softly and non-judgmentally label it thinking,
And return to the sensations of body,
And then back to the noticing of thoughts.
And as you bring this awareness to your thoughts,
Allow yourself to notice the attitude and quality of the mind that you're meeting the thoughts with.
So maybe you ask yourself,
Am I trying to get rid of these thoughts?
Am I resisting them?
Am I wishing for a certain thought,
Or maybe trying to hold on to one that's here?
And if any of this is the case,
Then simply notice that there might be resistance,
Or a sense of holding on,
Or a sense of craving.
And see if you can meet this with a kind curiosity.
So you can just notice them without being caught up in them.
So reminding yourself that there's no need to get upset,
Or beat yourself up over any of this.
We're just trying to simply notice what's here.
And if you notice that at any time,
This becomes too much,
You can bring yourself back to the physical sensations of breath,
Or the feeling of the mind,
Or the feeling of the mind,
Or the feeling of the body,
You can just ground down in these sensations.
Again,
If you notice that you've become caught up in a thought,
Just allow yourself to simply notice that without becoming tied up in any judgment of the experience.
Label the thought thinking and then bring your awareness back to the sensations of your body.
Then open up again back to the rising and falling of thoughts.
And as we slowly bring this small practice to a close,
You can bring your awareness back to your body and then to the space around your body.
And then if your eyes are closed,
Slowly allow them to blink open.
Just remember that your mind forms habits through triggers,
Behaviors,
And rewards.
And if you can bring attention to these triggers,
Behaviors,
And rewards that arise throughout your week,
You can start to map out your habit loops.
And from that,
Begin to unwind yourself from being stuck in the loop.
