Surf The Urge

In this short and easy-to-follow meditation, I'm going to help you get control of your urges. We all have waves of desires. Compulsions to do certain behaviors, even when we know they aren't good for us. In this session, you'll learn how to master yourself and free up your energy to pursue the important things in life.

Transcript

Hello and welcome, I'm The Delman Doug and today I'm going to take you surfing. Now I'm going to explain all of that but first let's not waste any time. Get yourself to a lovely seated position. Sit up nice and tall. Imagine that crown of the head being pulled up towards the sky as if someone has grabbed hold of your head and is just trying to elongate your neck a little bit more. At the same time, I want you to imagine all your weight pressing down through your bum, Letting all your weight just settle into that seat. Get any movements out the way now, Any wriggles, Put your hands wherever they're comfortable and then bring the eyes to close. Now as always we breathe in and out through the nostrils and just while you're doing that I'll explain to you today's session. So let me explain to you this concept of surfing the urge. Now the cravings that come up in life are for all sorts of desires but when we meditate in particular they are to move, To fidget, To scratch, To think about something else, To go to the present or the past and this is good practice to get used to surfing these urges so we can apply them to other things in life. So often in meditation it's all about trying to ignore the distractions, It's all about trying to ignore the will to do other things, The overcoming of the boredom, Overcoming of the itch on the nose which I get all the time but today we're going to do something different. We're not going to try to ignore these things and I'd argue that that's not really what we're trying to do anyway but instead we're going to go surfing. See I love surfing, Now I'm not that good at it but I do enjoy it and one of the things I love about it is being in contact with the force of nature, Working with it, Using its momentum to push me along. Now the experience is very different if you're in the water without a board. You see then the wave just hits you and pushes you wherever it wants to go. You don't have much say in the matter but when you have a board well then you do start to have a say in the matter, You become the captain of your own destiny, You work in unison with that wave. We're going to try to do the same with any urges today. Those urges are like these forces of nature, They come in and if we don't have a board then those urges just push us where they want us to go. We have that piece of cake, We sleep in, We do the activity we know we probably shouldn't do but if we have a board in this case, This ability, This skill of surfing, Instead of giving in to that desire we can feel it out. So let's do that together. So while you're sitting there just breathing, Notice your environment, Notice what's happening around you, Also notice what's happening within you. As soon as you feel like your mind wants to think about something else, I'm not going to stop you. You're welcome to do that if you want. All I'm going to ask is that you practice a bit of surfing and what that means is you pay attention to what this craving is, What this desire is. You focus in on where you feel it, In the body, Its locality, Then notice its intensity. Begin to notice how it hijacks your system, The thoughts it puts into your head, Maybe the rationale it uses. All while you're doing this you're not actually giving in to the sensation, You're not giving in to the craving, You're just surfing that urge. And if you surf that urge for a while and you decide actually that's not where you want to go, Then as a skilled surfer just pull off that wave of desire. If there's no wave of desire that comes to you straight away, That's okay. You just sit and you breathe, It's the good stuff, Right? Meditation. But when a desire does come along, Well then it's time to hop on that board and get cowabunga. So feel that urge build, Just like a wave would behind you. Notice where it's trying to take you and then interact with it. Don't try to swim away from it, Get on top of it. Get interested in it like it was a friend. Notice how it feels, Notice how strong it is. How big is this wave of desire? We so often can come up with reasons why we should do something and it's like that craving has taken control of our mind and it's now trying to pull the strings, Using all these sneaky tactics to get us to do what it wants. But I've got news for you, You're the master of yourself, If you so choose. So don't just give in to these cravings, Surf them. And just like when we're in the ocean, Sometimes it goes flat for a while, There's no waves. That's cool. We're just enjoying ourself, Being out here in this tranquil, Beautiful place, Surrounded by nature. As we meditate, We're surrounded by our own human nature. We should embrace that and as soon as we see those waves coming, Well, We get ourselves ready. Now of course you can do this practice whenever you want, But the point here is to take this practice into the real world and see if you can use it again sometime today, Where a craving comes up that you don't necessarily want to take part in. When that comes up, Grab that board and surf that urge. Thanks so much for joining me, Namaste.