***
you're reading...

Awareness

Go Find Your Sacred Stall

Go find your Sacred Stall. If this is your home, then it will be easy to chose where to sit. You can take a moment and catch up with yourself. Breathe. Stop. Stop pushing to do  anything other than what you’re doing right now. Feel your feet – do they hurt? Feel your legs – are they tight? Take a breath in and let it out. Feel your shoulders – are they near your ears. Feel your body sitting down – you have no place else to go. Now, where is your mind? Just notice. We’re not in evaluation mode here. We are just noticing. What color are the walls in the stall? What size are the floor tiles? If this is your own bathroom, we are not evaluating the level of cleanliness during this time.

 

If you have no idea what you are thinking and your thoughts are still fast and furious, just notice that. Keep checking in with how you’re breathing. Don’t try and change it- just notice it.  Sit for a few minutes and notice what’s going on inside of your head. Notice how your body feels during the thoughts. Notice you do not have the exact same word in your head for more than a brief moment. You might have different words about the same subject, but no one word stays in your mind. Thoughts pass, that’s what thoughts do. Our minds think, that’s what they’re designed for.  If you have emotions come up while you watch the thoughts, notice them. If you feel something someplace in your body, notice that too.

 

This sitting is not about NOT having thoughts, this sitting is becoming aware of what is already there. The myth that mediation is all about getting rid of thoughts is just that – a myth. Our minds are designed to have thoughts. The problem is, we have becomes so identified with the mind – “I think, therefore, I am”- that we have forgotten that this is one big, gray squishy tool. Our minds have come to rule us. Instead of us using it as a skillful surgeon uses a blade – to cut thru and see what’s beneath. We find ourselves feeling anxious, or angry, or scared and believe that’s who we are. We believe it and there is nothing outside of us forcing us to! Why? What if there was a different way? What if you could see that these thoughts come and go and change and morph but… they do not define who we truly are? Could you imagine who you’d be without your thoughts? Do you have a sense of who or what that is? The “You” behind your thoughts?

 

That is the point of meditation. To watch what’s happening; to become aware that thoughts occur, but they are not the captains of this boat. That yes, Virginia, there really is something else behind the thoughts. That thoughts are here to help us, not rule us. We can use our thoughts to cut away at the illusion that we ARE the thought – to see that there is space between the thought and what is behind it.

 

For right now, just watch your thoughts. Watch them prance in your own head. Remember that even if your thoughts take you to 1879 or 2112 or last week, they are just thoughts, they will pass. Can you come back to the present and start watching your thoughts all over again?

 

When you try it, feel free to post your experience in the comments section below.

Discussion

No comments yet.

Post a Comment

Sign up to receive updates!

Tweet me

Categories