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Listening to and with your body

4/15/2016

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Last week, I shared with you a simple technique of observing the breath and this week we’ll explore how your body can bring you back into the present moment. As you are reading this, you are most probably not moving around too much: you’re sitting at your office desk, maybe resting at home, or maybe you’re in public transport. Either way, your body is fairly still.

Remain as you are and begin by first observing your breath for a couple of seconds. Stay still and allow your breath to become subtler and subtler.
 
Now shift your attention from your breath to your body. Start by scanning your body from the top of your head down to the tips of your toes. Become aware of the position of each body part separately. Is your head slightly tilting to one side? Is your body weight evenly distributed between left and right? Is your spine straight? As you are observing your position, don’t change it. Don’t judge it. Just become aware of it.
 
Start noticing any sensations on your body. Be aware if any part of your body is touching the ground, or the furniture? What is the sensation there? Is any part of your body stiff and tense? If so, try to observe that stiffness first – how big is the area that is stiff? Do you feel that the tension starts from a particular point and then spreads around? Observe the tension for a few moments and then with the help of a conscious deep breath let it dissolve and try to relax that part of your body. 

Once more scan your body from head to toe, paying attention to any sensations – warmth, cold, numbness, tingling, touch of your clothes, or the touch of air. Try to observe the sensations objectively. Even if the sensation on your body is unpleasant, don’t rush to change your position. Examine them as if you were looking though a microscope. 


Gently shift your attention back to your breath.

Next time you are stuck in traffic, or waiting in a supermarket queue, in stead of getting all restless and nervous, try observing your breath and your body and see that if you practice staying in the present moment, there is no such a category as 'time wasted'.

 
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What reason could we even wish for?

4/11/2016

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We mostly don't associate Mondays with joy.
Usually, it's the opposite - Monday is like the ultimate nagging reminder or impermanence: no matter how amazing your weekend was, here I am and there's nothing you can do to stop me.
That's why we decided to offer you some inspiration every Monday in this new section in our blog, called quite appropriately - Monday Inspiration
Every Monday we'll share with you some of our favorite poems, inspirational quotes, or some other piece of inspirational writing.

And for the grand opening of this blog section, who could be a better guest that one of the greatest Persian mystic poets - Hafez? Hafez lived in 14th century Persia, but is still widely read in present day Iran.


This poem of his is one of my personal favorites. It is so easy forget that we don't need reasons to feel joy. Actually, there can be no reason behind joy - joy is the cause and the effect. 

Enjoy the poem and feel free to share your reflections in the comments below.

And For No Reason

And
For no reason
I start skipping like a child.

And
For no reason
I turn into a leaf
That is carried so high
I kiss the Sun's mouth
And dissolve.

And
For no reason
A thousand birds
Choose my head for a conference table,
Start passing their
Cups of wine
And their wild songbooks all around.

And
For every reason in existence
I begin to eternally,
To eternally laugh and love!

When I turn into a leaf
And start dancing,
I run to kiss our beautiful Friend
And I dissolve in the Truth
That I Am.

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Mindful living: return to the breath - return to the present moment

4/8/2016

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We take around 20,000 breaths each day. How many of these breaths are we actually aware of? Chances are not so many. In the daily rush it is easy to get carried away by what is happening around us, so we rarely take the chance to look within. And as our breath goes unnoticed, so does the present moment. Our mind is constantly being pulled either by past or future, rarely allowing us to rest in the now. Every breath we take brings a wonderful opportunity to pause just for a moment and observe ourselves in the very present moment we are experiencing. So, why not use it?

Here is a simple exercise of using your breath to return to the present moment.

Wherever you are and whatever you do, bring your awareness back to your breathing

Close your eyes, or just or just soften your gaze and take a couple of intentionally deep breaths.  Observe the sensations caused by the inhalation and the exhalation – the rising and falling of the belly, the expansion and contraction of the chest, subtle tickling in and around your nose, or anything else you might notice. 
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After two-three intentionally deep breaths, return to your normal natural breathing. Observe your natural breath for a minute - don’t try to control it in any way, just observe as it is. No judgments. No efforts. Is your breath slow or fast? Deep or shallow? Coming in evenly through both nostrils? Observe the sensations of your breath without trying to alter them.

As thoughts start coming to your mind, do not develop them further. Recognize that your attention has been pulled away from the breath by your thought, then gently return your attention to your breath and let the taught pass. 

Stay with the breath for as long time as you can spare, and a few breaths more, and then return to your daily activities with a calmer mind.


And for those moments when you feel that you really have no time, or patience, or focus to stay with the breath even for a minute, try doing the following: take one deep breath in, observe it. Exhale completely, observe it. Then take one natural breath, observe it. For the duration of these two breaths, try to disengage from anything that is happening around you as well as from all mental chatter going on inside your head. For two breaths stay out of it all and observe the world within and without as if you were watching a movie. Practice this whenever you remember it. You will be surprised to see that even only two fully conscious breaths at a time can make so much difference. 


Be happy.





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Finding your center

11/10/2015

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​If you feel like Mrs. Doughnut from the photo below when you sit for meditation in class and hear this instruction, then this post is for you. Here's my take on finding the center.
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​For me, finding the center means finding the point in your mind from where you can observe what is happening inside you and around you, with clarity and without judgment – accepting things as they are and remaining undisturbed.


Contrary to the wide-spread belief, meditation doesn’t necessarily have to be about emptying your mind, as this state is pretty much unattainable for most of us. Instead of fighting with your mind, trying to silence it, think of it as of a busy road. So, sit on the side of that big road. Cars, bicycles, trucks, buses are rushing past you. These vehicles are your thoughts. They are all going somewhere, although most of them are just driving around in circles, but you don’t have to take a ride with any of them. Instead, remain peacefully sitting on the side of the road and observe the traffic of your thoughts without trying to suppress it, because you will never succeed. The harder you try to stop the traffic, the more congested it gets. So, let it flow. You are sitting on a nice green grass patch soaking up the sun. What business do you have with the traffic? Enjoy your grass and let it all pass.

The second metaphor is inspired by an amazing talk by Wayne Dyer I saw recently.

Think about a clay pot. What makes it a pot? Clay? Varnish? Weight? Shape? Yes, all of those things. But if you break the pot, all of those elements will still be there more or less unchanged: chemical profile of clay, the color of the varnish, the weight of the collected pieces will all remain pretty much as they were. Nobody would call those scattered pieces a pot, though. Dr. Dyer makes a point that actually what makes a pot a pot is the empty space inside! This is what defines its purpose. The unchangeable emptiness in the center around which all the other aspects gather. 

Thinking in terms of applying this realization to meditation practice, to find your center is to find the empty constant inside you which is not defined by your gender, looks, likes, dislikes, actions, abilities, or any of your physical or mental features, but still it is this emptiness that somehow holds all of it together, making you - you.

So, in the end, Mrs. Doughnut was actually doing amazing in that meditation class!
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