Having A Daily Intention

Do you awake each day and remind yourself how you want to live that day? With all the unrest of this time, getting clear in myself and not lost in all the blame and distrust feels more necessary. I would like to stop and take that time. It's not a lot of time. It's a pause to remember. To get clarity. Meditation is also a pause, a way of stopping the habitual, resetting, slowing down, and getting connected. But lately, I have been wanting to have something I say that captures what I really want to bring into each day. My gift to you this week is just that -- in a recording, as well as an invitation. 

Today, I have uploaded a daily intention meditation that, should the words speak to you, you can play for yourself at the start of the day. I suggest closing your eyes and feeling yourself breathe as you listen. And because these are my words and my intentions, you may find that you have different wordings and intentions, and so, I welcome you to write your own and to go so far as to record them so you can play it back to yourself each day. It doesn't have to be fancy. You could simply use the voice recorder on your phone. Talk slowly and genuinely and feel what it is you are saying so that when you play it back, it feels true and meaningful. Welcome your own insight and care, or feel free to simply use what I have made. I've been listening to it and following it with a period of meditation.

Our intentions set everything in motion. They can set peace, love, and inspiration in motion or their opposites. It is easy to feel launched into our day without taking a moment to recognize that we can be purposeful in how we meet it right from the start. How does it sound to you to connect to what you value before you are faced with the "full catastrophe" each day? Let me know what you think, and/or please share what yours are. I am happy to receive them. Click the button below to listen to the meditation. It should be available on the Insight Timer app in a few days. Or go directly to Soundcloud.

For those of you observing Yom Kippur, I wish you a meaningful holiday and an easy fast.

Jean

What's Changing?

 

There are changes that happen that are life shifting. Those events where everything feels different afterward, at least for a while (until that, too, changes). The loss of someone, the birth of someone, a move, a job change, a health scare, a new hip, a new relationship are some of the big ones. But in reality, everyday, in every moment, everything is changing. You might ask, "why does it matter to recognize this?" 

When we see with the eyes of impermanence, we gain a new perspective which I find helps us do two significant things. 1) We become more grateful for what we get to experience and we savor moments because they are fleeting. We savor the small things -- the things that if we were never able to do them again (like go the bathroom on our own, run up a hill, see someone's smile) we would wish we could do it again. 2) We strengthen our ability to let go because we know we are going to have to let go of everything at some point. Rather than live life in fear of that moment, we can look now at how things are always changing in a single day and become more comfortable with change. What this helps us do is to live not so contracted, but free, open, generous, and kind because what better thing is there to be if we don't get to take anything with us? How we act now is what continues on. 

Change and impermanence are the theme of my groups and retreat this fall. My invitation this week is, throughout your day, pause and recognize that whatever is right before you is, in fact, changing. Whether it is a person, an animal, a leaf, your skin, your food. They are all on their way to becoming something else. What is it like to savor these people, objects, animals, moments in these forms, even as they are changing -- to practice not attaching, but being present with their becoming. Change can be full of possibility and wonder, even the hardest changes.

To this end, I recorded a meditation on Allowing Change which you can use whenever you feel something shifting and want to open, rather than tense up to it. You can listen to it on my website, on the Insight Timer app, or on Soundcloud. There is another very similar meditation called Grounded Through Change which I previously recorded and you can also find on the sites above.

Wishing you a beautiful week of welcoming change. Catch it in the leaves as they are visibly in the midst of becoming!

Jean

P.S. Meditation helps us not react to our thoughts, feelings and sensations which are always changing. It takes practice though. Join us every week for drop-in meditations to stick with your intention to practice. And, if these subjects interest you, you might be a good fit for A Mindful Life. Fall segments are underway, but be sure to inquire about the late fall/early winter segments which start after Thanksgiving. 

I Don't Have To Go There

 

Dear Friends,

Why meditate? What are we actually doing when we meditate? Even if we have been meditating for some time, I think it is worthwhile to ask this question repeatedly so the intention stays fresh. Meditation is not passive and, like anything we do regularly, it helps to not let it become stale and then done halfheartedly.  When we meditate, it looks like we are doing nothing, but in fact, if we are doing nothing, then what we are really doing is a tremendous amount of thinking. Being clear in our intention when we start helps us to remember. In groups, I will occasionally remind us all that "this is not a time to think." Time to think is of value, too, if it is intentional, but when we come to meditate, it is a different task we are asking of ourselves.

Left to itself, our thoughts will just keep going and looping, like a runaway train. Doing nothing at all is often a very busy place for our minds. But paying attention to our mind, observing our mind, we can intervene so that we are not being taken for a ride. I can't say enough about how powerful that is. When I catch myself and say, "Jean, your mind is caught in worrying" or "your mind is caught in planning," I step out of the worrying or planning and then I am free. 

To be aware of what our mind is doing -- what stories, cravings, fears, beliefs, criticisms, attachments, fantasies are manifesting and re-manifesting is an active, on-going process. It takes concentration and staying power. And then it's not just being aware, but being able to intercept. You could say the awareness of a thought alone is an interception. It is. Additionally though, we can make a new choice, switch directions. This is how we change our inner wiring. This is how we get out of habitual worrying, negativity, controlling, doubt, wanting, etc. It takes time. It takes practice. It takes commitment and patience. And we do it because we can live with more presence, joy, and gratitude when we get out of our habitual neuroses. We all have them. Admitting that is also a good place to start! There is nothing wrong with us. It just comes with being human and having to face constant change, impermanence, uncertainty, and ultimately our mortality.

I awoke in the middle of the night one night and couldn't go back to sleep. I didn't have a particular blatant stress weighing on me, but because I couldn't fall back asleep, my mind needed something to do. I watched it call up a painful subject. It was as if it went fishing for something juicy to hook. And it found it. It went to a long standing painful relationship. Even though there is nothing going on with that relationship, nothing that has come up recently, it was an easy catch. What delighted me was that even in that groggy, semi sleep state, I saw what was happening and I didn't let the hook latch on. I intercepted it and simply said, "you don't have to go there, Jean." I dropped it and eventually fell back asleep. Clearly, it came up because there is something unresolved in me about the relationship, but processing it in bed at 2:00 am is not the time to do that. It wasn't going to be a beneficial exploration. It was just going to churn the soil of pain. This is why we meditate. 

Our minds will swish around all kind of things throughout the day, so much of it is unconscious. We don't choose it, but, we can intervene if we are aware, if we are awake, which is what meditation trains us to be. And when we do intervene, we make another choice, which might just be to come back to the present moment. It might be to bring in care and kindness. We stop habitually reacting out of fear and it opens us up to another path that has more love. We gain more clarity and possibility. I have been using that phrase a lot these days. I'll stop my mind and say, "Jean, you don't have to go there." I welcome you to try it, too. 

If you have gotten away from your practice, or if you practice halfheartedly ("maybe later"), or if you don't have a practice yet at all, the great news is that it is never too late to start and begin again without any judgement. September can be a great time as schedules fill in and the spirit of summer changes, we can stop ourselves from getting on the hamster wheel of busyness where our mind goes in many directions and we blindly follow and wonder why we feel anxious, overwhelmed, get sick or depressed. We can have more of a say in where we go, but it doesn't come instantly. It's not like the way we can make instant oatmeal. It takes time. But the time it gives back is tenfold. We find space, we slow down, we experience more of the wonderful gifts we might ordinarily miss.

Wishing you an easeful transition out of summer. 
 
Jean