Welcome to the Know Your Mind series.
In today's session we will replenish our mental energy.
This is our capacity to focus and effectively process information.
You see we have limited brain resources that we use for all our mental activities like thinking,
Planning,
Strategizing,
Making decisions and self-regulation.
If we keep using our minds without replenishing these resources our minds get sluggish and don't make good decisions.
One way to refresh the mind is by returning to our senses.
Literally.
What I mean by that is when we use our senses to taste,
Touch,
See,
Smell or listen our thinking mind gets to rest.
Take a moment to see for yourself.
Can you count backwards from hundred and listen to the sounds in and around you?
Very likely you will notice that you can't do both things at the same time.
So in today's practice we'll rest our thinking mind by attending to our senses and you can do this practice sitting or walking and if possible to be outside in a quiet space.
I encourage you to do that.
So let's start with the sensations of touch.
If you're doing this sitting down you can lower or close your eyes to give your full attention to your sense of touch.
What are the different places in your body that are making contact with maybe the floor,
Under your feet,
A chair that you're sitting on and really giving your attention to the sensations of touch.
Maybe starting out with the feet.
Can you feel the contact your feet is making with the floor?
What are the patterns of pressure?
Is it more on the balls of the feet or your heels?
So you're not thinking about your feet but really moving into your direct experience of sensations of touch.
Maybe it's even the touch of the air on your skin.
So where in your body do you feel the touch of the air on your skin most clearly?
Maybe it's your hands.
Feeling the warmth,
The coolness and without getting lost in analysis or thinking or concepts just staying with the direct sensation of coolness or warmth of the air.
Touching your hands,
Your face.
What are the other sensations of touch in your body?
Can you feel the touch of your clothes?
Really allowing yourself with the spaciousness in your mind,
In your body.
Allowing your thinking mind to rest.
Whatever sensations of touch you're experiencing in this moment.
Then shifting your attention to the sounds.
Simply listening to the sounds within you and around you.
Listening with your whole body.
Sounds arising and dissolving in your experience.
Pleasant,
Unpleasant or neutral sounds.
Seeing if you can receive all sounds without grasping what feels good or resisting what feels unpleasant.
Just making space to really listen in and even listening to the silence in between the sounds.
Pure listening.
No need to analyze the sound or describe it,
Get lost in concepts,
Labels.
Just pure listening.
Moving your attention from sounds to smells in the room or if you're outside you may discover different smells than what you find inside your office or your house.
Taking this time to really allow the different smells in your environment to reach you.
Taking in these different smells.
Might be the smell of coffee brewing or tea.
If you're outside,
It could be the smell of plants,
Trees,
Flowers or grass.
If it's a busy street,
It may be the sound of cars,
The smell of cars,
The road.
Maybe even noticing the absence of any smell.
Just staying with your experience and with patience over time.
You may even start noticing new smells that you hadn't noticed earlier.
Doing this without any kind of striving.
And now shifting your attention to sight,
Pure seeing.
If your eyes were closed,
Opening your eyes and just looking at the object right in front of you without going out looking for anything special,
Just noting what's right before you.
Allowing your eyes to rest.
Taking in all the details,
The textures,
Colors,
Lightness or darkness.
As you rest your attention on the object,
You may uncover more details.
Again,
Doing this without any effort,
The soft gaze,
Without getting lost in concepts or labels.
Just pure seeing.
Before we end the practice today,
Checking in to see the quality of your mind.
If there's any shift,
Giving it this little brief rest from thinking.
And maybe choosing one activity you will do today,
Giving your full attention to your senses like eating,
Drinking your coffee or tea,
Walking to your car,
Listening to music or taking a shower.
You can even try taking breaks in between work to rest your thinking mind on one sense of your choice.
Ending with the words by Yeats,
We can make our minds so like still water,
That beings gather about us,
That they may see it may be their own images.
And so live for a moment with a clearer,
Perhaps even with a fiercer life because of our quiet.
