The holiday of Purim is in the month of Adar,
And there's an expression.
When we enter into the month of Adar,
We increase joy.
Mishe nichnas Adar merbin v'simcha.
But how do we enter into joy,
And how do we cultivate happiness?
Research on the brain tells us that our brains are wired to notice and remember negative or unpleasant events more than positive ones.
It's called the negativity bias.
We remember traumatic experiences better than positive ones.
We recall insults more than praise,
And we react more strongly to negative stimuli.
It can protect us from danger,
Like in the olden days when we had to worry about being chased and eaten by a wild animal.
These days,
The negativity bias doesn't necessarily protect us.
So what can we do?
In mindfulness practice,
We train ourselves to observe our feelings and thoughts more objectively,
And this can impact how and what we remember and see our experiences as they really are.
The act of remembering recurs throughout the Jewish calendar.
We're told to remember both from our past and our present.
Remember the Shabbat.
Remember the orphan,
The widow,
The stranger.
Remember the exodus from Egypt,
And Shabbat Zecho,
Which is coming up,
And more.
Remember is mentioned at least 200 times in the Torah,
And it's central to the survival of the Jewish people.
One of the things that challenges us to remember are distractions and multitasking.
So when we intentionally remember,
We can improve our focus and our memory.
There's a clear link between meditation practice and enhanced memory.
Mindfulness meditation,
Even when practiced just a few minutes every day,
Changes our brain structure and enhances memory,
According to Dr.
John Teasdale,
One of the pioneers of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy.
When we take a moment,
Or a few moments,
To take a breath and notice our body sensations and feelings,
It can help us to bring awareness to all of our experiences,
Both the positive ones and the negative ones,
And this can have a calming effect.
And that's one way to allow us to enter into happiness in the month of Adar,
In Purim.
There's a connection in Megilat Esther.
The book of Esther captures a mindful lesson of pausing and noticing when sorrow and fear were transformed to joy.
And it says,
The Jews should celebrate as on the days which they rested from their enemies and on the same month which had been transformed for them from sorrow to joy and from mourning to festivity.
So like the Jews in the Megillah,
In our practice,
We're seeking a certain type of rest from our enemies,
Not external enemies in this case,
But internal ones.
Our deeply ingrained habits can cause us difficulties and pain.
If we bring our attention to the present moment,
We find it can actually free us from our habits,
From our natural tendencies and how we interpret what's going on around us.
Each of us,
No matter what our story is,
We all have our natural tendencies.
And that's not the problem,
That we have habits,
Natural tendencies,
But that we lose ourselves within them.
We mistake our habituated responses and thoughts for the truth.
And when we lose ourselves in our habits,
In the ways that we see the world,
We end up acting in unhealthy ways towards ourselves and others.
We might misinterpret what someone says or does and get hurt or triggered and say something to hurt someone else.
The purpose of our practice is to free us from those unhealthy habits.
It comes to transform those habits and,
Like the verse,
Our sorrow can be transformed into joy.
This could be the meaning of nafohu,
Or turning around,
That we celebrate on Purim.
It is to reverse our habitual response,
And this is the reversal that we're practicing.
So when I encounter something challenging or difficult,
What's my natural response?
Probably to avoid it.
And it makes sense,
Because who wants to struggle and who wants to hurt?
But rather than running away,
What if we would meet the pain and kind of soften towards the pain a little and stay with it?
Or as Rumi said,
Welcome them in,
Even if they're a crowd of sorrows,
They may be clearing you out for some new delight.
So how do we do that?
Stopping,
Even for a minute,
To take a breath and notice our body sensations and feelings and thoughts,
Can help us to bring awareness to all of our experiences,
Both the positive and the negative ones.
And it could take us off autopilot in our automatic behavior.
It could also help us to be more present in what we're doing as we're doing it.
So let's try this STOP practice together.
STOP is an acronym.
The S stands for stop.
Then T,
Take a breath.
Then O,
Observe.
And finally the P is for proceed.
So let's try it together.
So now we're going to stop,
Which basically means pause or take a break from whatever you're doing.
And take a breath.
So we're going to take a few moments right now to take a few deep breaths.
Or you could just take a few regular breaths,
Your natural rhythm,
Noticing your breath coming in and out through your nose.
So let's just take two or three breaths at your own pace.
The breath is an anchor to the present moment.
And breathing mindfully is a good way to center yourself.
And now we're on to the O,
Observe.
Which means observe your experience just as it is.
So this means your thoughts,
Your feelings,
Your emotions.
So the first thing,
Let's just take a moment and notice what thoughts are coming up.
And when you do that,
You can also notice or reflect that thoughts aren't facts.
And they're also not permanent.
They come and they go.
The idea is trying not to get caught up in them.
And now emotions.
Emotions can be anything like worry,
Boredom,
Anger,
Joy,
Sadness.
So just not trying too hard,
But just seeing if there's any emotions right now that you're noticing and maybe also how those emotions might be expressing themselves or showing up in your body.
Sometimes just naming your emotions can have a calming effect.
And now noticing the body's physical sensations.
Physical sensations can mean tension,
Discomfort,
Warmth,
Coolness.
Maybe something else.
And just check in with yourself and say,
How am I doing right now?
Or say it in a way that you feel more comfortable with.
And now P,
Proceed.
Proceed and continue to go about your day.
Kind of notice how things are for you right now.
Where's your attention?
And rather than reacting habitually,
Can you be a little curious,
A little open?
Maybe you can even ask yourself what you need right now.
You can use this stop regularly to help you ground yourself throughout the day or just kind of notice what you're doing as you're doing it.
What would it be like in the days and weeks and months ahead if you started stopping more often?
Our habits have a big influence on us.
But when we practice mindfulness,
They can have less control over us.
We can create space to have more control over how we react throughout the day.
So,
For example,
You might notice how your impatience makes it really hard for you to effectively solve problems.
So you do a stop for a few minutes as you feel yourself getting impatient.
And then before you act or respond,
You just take a moment or two.
And it's also important to practice being understanding and patient with yourself.
Maybe noticing how do you talk to yourself?
Can you soften any critical voice that you hear or harshness?
Through mindfulness practice,
We can lay our inner enemies to rest.
We can turn our suffering into joy and our mourning into an opportunity for rejoicing.
It's hard work.
It takes a lot of practice.
But it's possible.
And just as the promise of liberation the Purim holds out to us,
Take this time as an opportunity to connect to your true self or the person that you'd like to be and see if you can examine and transform your habitual patterns so that your suffering can really be transformed into joy.
Thank you for listening.
Thank you for practicing with me.
And Purim Samadhi.
