Hello,
And welcome to the session.
Today we're going to be mindfully exploring the concept of pain through the lens or analogy of an irritation or an itch.
So what we're going to do is take a long,
Slow breath in through the nose and out through the mouth and just settle into our meditation posture.
And what I want you to do is just scan your body for any itches or mild irritations,
Things that you would just normally,
Without thinking,
Just scratch.
But I don't want you to.
Might be in your leg,
Or behind your neck,
Or on your head,
Or under your armpits.
Somewhere on your body,
You'll probably notice somewhere that is wanting to be scratched,
But don't.
Instead,
I want you to just sit with it,
Observe it,
Notice it,
Notice what it feels like,
And notice your desire to move.
And notice that coming back again,
And again,
And again.
You might notice it coming in waves.
It might be getting stronger than dissipating.
And if you can,
You'll notice that you have this sort of impulse,
That it's almost without thinking you want to just move or shift or scratch.
Notice that as well.
Now of course,
If this sensation gets too strong,
You can move,
But if you do decide to move,
I want you to notice your desire to move.
I want you to notice you slowly moving.
And I want you to notice the feelings that now arise,
And the disappearing of the ones that you are moving to get rid of.
And then return your scanning to the body,
And see if there's anything else that feels irritation or needs to be scratched.
Great work.
So we can use itches and irritations and scratches,
Mild inconveniences,
As a subject of our mindful focus.
With basically the idea being that we're analogizing greater pain.
We can practice on these small things to be able to better manage the big things when they come.
If we just notice what it feels like to have a little bit of pain,
Just what does it actually feel like?
You'll notice that the pain itself isn't that bad,
But it's like the impulses and our desire to move and change that cause a lot of mental anguish and agitation.
And notice your desire to move.
This almost unconscious desire.
You just find yourself lost in thought,
And then bang,
Almost you want to move.
It's something to consider,
Because we're constantly just mindlessly just moving our bodies to adjust ourselves.
If we can start taking control of that,
Start observing it,
Start being more mindful,
We'll find some deeper insights into our life,
Into our bodies,
Into the nature of realities.
So the next time you're doing a longer sit,
And something pops up,
Like a scratch behind the ear,
Or a slight bit of pain,
Rather than just instantly moving,
Instead just mindfully observe it.
And then if you do decide to move,
Mindfully observe that decision,
The movement,
And the results.
Have a great day.
