Day 8: Relaxing Into the Body

 Welcome to 40 Days of Mindfulness and Compassion Day 8!

 

Lecture

During these 40 days, you will be exposed to a variety of practices. Most can be lumped into three categories: 1) Basic Mindfulness practices, 2) Heart practices and 3) Self-reflective practices. All three are important and they augment one another. They add flavor to practice, cultivate different states and reinforce one another.

I remember when I had been practicing some sort of mindfulness based practice daily for some time, and I got to a point where I felt that it was not getting anywhere. At about this same time, I began to delve more heavily into compassion-focused practices in preparation for teaching Compassion Cultivation Training, and did less “straight” mindfulness practices (e.g. mindfulness of breathing). When I came back to the mindfulness practices after some time, it was interesting to me that they were not much easier and more relaxed to me. This was quite confusing to me. I felt, “how is this so? I have been practicing them very much.” I mentioned this to a friend of mine who serves as a mentor. She explained to me how the compassion and mindfulness practices strengthen and reinforce one another.

This points to the importance of being self-reflective and self-observant. Each of us must be the witness to our own experiences. Margaret Cullen and Gonzalo Brito use a wonderful phrase in their Mindfulness-Based Emotional Balance Workbook: “Be A Scientist in the Laboratory of Your Own Life.” I love this saying, and use it frequently while teaching, and also use it as a reflective practice. It helps me to be more curious and open to my own experiences. At its best, science aims at curious, objective and open hypothesizing and experimentation.  I love this exhortation to try and employ this attitude in reference to our own lives.

I encourage you to do theses practices, or reflect on the material in any way that you see fit, and take an attitude of self-reflection and curiosity toward your own life. What is working for you and what is not? Do you notice anything new emerging in your daily activities?  In general, how are you with yourself (i.e. gentle, aggressive, critical)?

Today, we will explore a different angle on mindfulness of breathing practice. This is one of my favorite practices.

 

Meditation Tips

Meditation Tip #10: Curiosity. Be curious about your own experiences. This is much easier to say than to do. I remember back to childhood and a strong and open curiosity that I might have toward a project or something of interest. This is difficult, for me, to rekindle in adulthood, and when I am able to it is typically in reference to something that is external.

 

Meditation

Meditation of Breathing: Relaxing into the Whole Body

  

 

Self-Reflective Activity

A couple of options:

Try and stop 3-5 times during your daily activities for a short (1-2 minute pause). You might even set up reminders for you to do this.  Simply feel the sensations of the breathing as you breathe in and out, and then bring awareness to your body. Observe: what is going on in my body right now? What physical sensations are present? Do not evaluate, just observe. And regarding any muscular tension, observe gently and then release. Recognize the tension, hold it gently in awareness, then release and relax (particularly on the outbreath).

As you are engaging in some sort of activity (i.e. walking across a parking lot), pay attention to your breath and then gradually extend your awareness to encompass your entire bodily field and its sensations. Stay with this as long as you can, gently returning whenever you get distracted or “in your head.”

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