presence

Sensational Awareness – Guided Meditation

MME Album Art(meditation: 8:51 min)

Ever thought, “Uh! I wish I hadn’t said that!!”

Americans like to call this putting your foot in your mouth. Sometimes I put my whole leg in! Open mouth, insert leg. Yikes!

One of the beauties of meditation is that I don’t do this so often anymore. Meditation helps me be more aware of what I’m thinking and feeling… so that I have a moment to decide whether to say something before it pops out of my mouth.

Instead of being lost in my thoughts or overwhelmed by my feelings, I cultivate a perspective (called presence) that lets me see the difference between me and them. I stay aware that I am bigger than my thoughts. I am like a container for them. They are still very much here in me, they are just a PART of me versus taking over me.

This subtle and powerful change in perspective makes all the difference.

I do not get so overwhelmed because they do not fill my entire world. I do not get so lost in them because I see the whole map now.

Make sense? Probably not. If you are like most people this is at best a crazy sounding conceptual theory that doesn’t realate to your experience of reality. I clearly remember thinking this myself. “What the heck does that mean, ‘I am not my thoughts’?

So, how to go from wacky sounding theory to part of your reality?

Experience it yourself!

Below is a practice to help you experience this with sensation, the easiest of the three (thoughts, emotions, sensations). You will happily discover that you do this already (you are present quite often), quite naturally… And now you know how to cultivate it.

Note that if this is the first time you’ve experienced meditation, this isn’t the easiest place to start! I recommend starting with something simple to get the mechanics down first like 3 Breaths.

Happy sensing!

Mindfulness Practice: Sensational Awareness

  1. Start by becoming present to the location you are in: look around at what you can see right now.
  2. Close your eyes and gently shift your attention to your breathing. Notice your breath moving in and out of your body right now. Be curious about your breath. “How am I breathing right now?”
  3. Find a place in your body that has a strong sensation to focus on. Often it is easiest to feel a place that is painful or stiff, or chose a place that feels very fluid and nice. Anywhere is fine, as long as there is sensation that is easy to feel there.
    1. Shift your attention away from your breath and to the area you have chosen with the strong sensation.
    2. Remembering that you are the one feeling the sensation (“I am feeling/sensing.”), be curious about the qualities of the sensation. Notice as much as you can about how it feels. (You can notice qualities like: big/small, intense/soft, rough/smooth, sharp/dull, pulsing/constant, dense/open, etc.)
    3. As much as you can feel it and don’t go into the story about why you are sensing it. Cultivate being curious about feeling the sensations versus thinking about why you feel this way and what you can do to avoid (or repeat) it in the future.
  4. When you feel complete, shift your attention back to your breath. Notice your breath moving in and out of your body.
  5. When you’re ready, open your eyes to end the practice, noticing the space that you’re in right now.

When your mind wanders, as it inevitably will, gently bring it back first to presence by noticing your breath and the quiet between thoughts, and then re-focus on the heart of the practice.

 

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Secret to Savoring Precious Moments

(3:33) Ever feel like time is flying by? Here’s a simple secret to savoring your precious moments… Drink in all your senses!

How?
When you’re standing on the beach, holding your loved one’s hand this summer, inhale slowly and take a moment to drink in all that you can see, hear, feel, taste & smell. Drink in the rich blue of the water and the fluffy white foam dancing over the top, the crash as the wave hits the wet sand, the call of the gulls and children laughing, the warmth of the sun kissing your skin, your loved ones hand softly caressing your’s, the salty tang in the air, the soft smell of sea.

It’s a great way to drink in the moment!

Weaving Presence Into Your Practice

Sometimes we lose sight of the role of presence in our practice. Maybe we were never really clear about how our meditation practice helps us be more present. Here’s one way to consciously weave presence into our practice.

In those moments when we realize that we’ve been thinking and have stopped noticing our breath (either we were lost in thought or naming our thoughts), before coming back to the breath, take a moment to feel deeply into the present… And then return to the breath.

How to feel deeply into the present? Many ways. You can look around at what you can see in this moment, really noticing the colors and shapes around you in this moment. You could do the same with sounds or with your physical sensations. You can pick any one or two of these or all 3 as you feel it. Whatever helps you really notice what’s in and/or around you in the moment.

Enjoy!,
Elena

Do You Have to Meditate to Be Present?

TheThreeMonksMy dear friend Christie and I met a monk in Thailand who said to us, “You can meditate anywhere. You don’t need to be in the meditation hall.” It was quite profound at the time because we were looking for a place to meditate. It hadn’t occurred to us to meditate on the sidewalk. I figured that if he said that it was ok, it would work.

I haven’t looked back since.

Recently, I’ve been thinking about meditation versus presence… If the point of meditation is to practice being present, to practice noticing what is happening right now, do I have to meditate to be present?

In other words, if meditation helps us focus on the present moment, if it helps us focus on something that is happening right now, do I have to meditate in order to do it?

Or really simply: Can I be present with out meditating?

YES, YES and YES!

In any given moment of my life I can take a moment to notice where I am and what I am doing. In fact I do this throughout my day. So do you. You do this when you pause for a brief moment and check to see if you have your keys when you leave. You do this when you pause to check if there is enough petrol in your car or money on your metro card. You do this when you look around at who is at work today. You do this when you glance at yourself in the mirror to check your hair or make sure that you’ve gotten your hands clean.

You do this multiple times a day.

You just don’t think about it this way.

And you can if you like.

As you go through your day, you can start to notice those moments when you’re naturally present.

You can also choose to be present for moments at random if you like. You can pause on the street corner and take a look at where you are. Even if you’ve been there a thousand times, it will be unique in this moment. It will never be the same way again. Something will have changed by the time you get there next. Can you see the differences? Are the sounds different? Do you feel different standing there? Things will change.

Of course, now I’ve created a practice out of it.

You don’t need to be this formal about it. You don’t have to turn it into a game or a practice. You can just pause and notice the street corner… And then go on your way.

Another friend of mine, Esther, introduced me to Kitchen Yoga. She said you could practice yoga in your kitchen while bending over to get a pan from under the counter, stretching up to get a plate, or twisting around to open the fridge.

I’m suggesting a similar kind of “non-practice” practice.

I’m going to start calling it Sidewalk Presence.

Yep, I can be present anywhere and anytime. I just notice where I am in this moment and voila, I’m present. And so can you. No practice needed.

Enjoy.

Creative Commons Photo License

Broken to Joy: Mind Games

(video) Sometimes we’ve just got to go for it and let our heart speak.
Here is my heart speaking to yours about a topic we all love: how we’re becoming better people through spirituality, through working with our lovely minds… And how that gets in our way sometimes.
This is the second video where I challenged myself to let my heart speak with out mental preparation and to drop back into heart whenever I noticed my mind talking… the mind to heart pauses can be annoying if you want a fast pace!
You are welcome, for your own sanity, to use the pauses to sink deeper into your own heart.
I’d love to know how this experiment goes for you!
Enjoy!,
Elena
theJoyLab.net

Broken to Joy: Moving from Head to Heart?

(video) This video was a personal challenge… to be in my heart!

First, to speak from the heart with no preparation other than to have the intention to talk about something useful that we can all relate to. Second, whenever I start talking from my mind to pause… and drop back into heart space.

So, the pauses in this video are just that: me moving from head to heart. This is the first time I’ve done this on video so it is a slow process…
This could be annoying to watch!

Maybe if you take the challenge yourself, and every time I get quiet you drop as deeply into yourself as you can, then it might be as fun to watch as it was to make! Who knows?!

It would be really cool to hear how this experiment went for you!

Enjoy!,
Elena
theJoyLab.net

Broken to Joy: How to Recognize Resistance & Make Friends With It

(video) Resistance can be tricky to recognize… if it is working properly it is designed to distract you from the pain underneath it. How can you recognize resistance and how can you deal with it once you do? This video shows you one way that I’ve found works well.

What’s your experience with resistance and making friends with it?

Enjoy,
Elena
theJoyLab.net

Broken to Joy: How to Let Go, Part 2

(video) Once we’re ready to quit the cycle of denial and reliving our pain, we can acknowledge it and let it go… Oh happy day!
Here’s one technique that I use with clients for acknowledging pain – without denying or reliving.

What’s your experience?

Enjoy,
Elena
theJoyLab.net

Broken to Joy: How to Let Go, Part 1

(video) We tend to do a mixture of two things when we’re faced with something that we don’t like: we deny it and we relive it in our heads over and over. Neither of these are terribly helpful for letting go of the pain.

What’s your experience with these things?

Enjoy,
Elena
theJoyLab.net