Month: March 2020

“You do not have to be good” – A poem by Mary Oliver

A poem by Mary Oliver

“You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting –
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.”

 

 

 

 

How to “mindfulness” in 12 easy steps

Mindfulness Practice 12 point Cheat Sheet

  1. Mindfulness practice = sitting silently, watching feelings, body-sensations and thoughts come and go, not hooking into any of them
  2. If your thinking or any other natural phenomena of the body/mind are too overwhelming, put your attention on your natural breathing rhythm
  3. You cannot do this wrong, despite what your opinion about the quality or outcomes of your practice want to tell you or despite what anyone else says
  4. It’s impossible to stop thinking. The mind is designed to think, just as the stomach wants to eat. But you can decide what focus to give your mind
  5. To practise between 12-20 minutes a day – sufficient for maximum benefit. Perhaps start with less to build up “sitting stamina”. Extend for your own good reasons
  6. Mindfulness practice delivers benefits automatically! Practice to take a closer look at the life you live and are, to develop a greater intimacy with life itself
  7. Mindfulness knowledge is experiential. It increases through continuing practice. Not by courses or reading about it (although of course there’s nothing wrong with that!)
  8. Nothing needs further addressing or fixing or solving, the practice itself is sufficient. You will know to seek help or share or write or explore when you need to
  9. Practising can result in feeling uncomfortable, but it’s not a sign something is wrong, and you will still reap the (scientifically proven) benefits
  10. Mindfulness is a perpetually growing process in which we begin to appreciate our unique inner and outer surroundings in life, whatever they may be
  11. The changes you may wish to make on the basis of your mindful connection with yourself will come from your insight; not reaction, effort or force or outer authority
  12. Mindfulness is common-sense mind/body hygiene like brushing your teeth, but it will not “get you anywhere”. There is nowhere to get. You are already “it
Photo: Mathieu Cheze via Unsplash

p.s.: If you want to download this 12 point Mindfulness Practice Cheat Sheet as a one page, pretty looking, printable PDF, click here. There is a little catch though: it will make you sign up for my email newsletter. But I don’t email very often and you can also easily unsubscribe.

Breathing in, I know I am breathing in…

This beautiful, simple, guided meditation was written by Thich Nhat Hahn. Some twenty years ago, I found it in a library book while on my seeking journey. I learnt it by heart, so I would be able to say it to myself on the rhythm of my breath. For a while I used it every time I sat in the hotpools at the New Plymouth’s aquatic centre after early morning swims. Then I forgot about it for a long time. When I started teaching mindfulness meditation for Mindfulness Works, I traced it down on the internet, because I remembered how grounded, calm, connected to all aspects of earth, nature and breath it would make me feel. I have recorded it for you to listen to and use if it appeals to you (click here). In the recording I’m repeating the meditation-poem three times to coincide with a medium speed breathing rhythm. It lasts just under 3 minutes. Alternatively, use these words to make your own recording to play back to yourself, or learn it by heart and use it on the rhythm of your breath. Use not just the words as words, but also as visualisation or imaginations or mind-pictures if you can: Breath, In, Out , Flower, Fresh, Mountain, Solid, Still, Water, Reflecting, Space, Free.

#NZ Lockdown Day 3

When I was eight years old, my mother gave me the best advice ever: whenever you’re in doubt of what to do or confused about something, listen to your heart. I knew straightaway what she meant, and I knew she didn’t refer to my physical heart, or even my emotional feelings. She was pointing to my instinctual heart! In later years, she admitted sometimes regretting having told me so, because some of my decisions were ones she’d prefer me not to make. A bit later still, I would sometimes find myself in situations that felt uncomfortable or completely out of control, messy and disastrous (according to mind and emotions), and until the dust would settle to reveal a greater clarity than before, I would curse myself for not referring to the (conditioned)* mind. I also found out that what I sometimes think is my heart speaking, is in fact my mind. This is one of the reasons why I took up mindfulness meditation: I knew it would strengthen my “ear” for my (untainted) heart, which really is another word for inherent wisdom. Even the instinctual heart is a muscle that needs to be exercised if you want to use it. Living in a time (the 2020s!) that is ruled on survival based, scientific capitalist principles, sometimes intermingled with exoteric religion, consoling “spirituality” or psychological “positivity”, I need such strength to stay focused so I can hear my heart, even in the midst of this noisy world with its distractions, attractions, external opinions, media and knowledge. Because my instinctual heart is the location of my true peace and inherent wisdom, the natural intelligence I need to live a strong, happy and healthy life, the maypole I dance around. And it tells me it is the same for you. Keep practising!

*at that point I didn’t realise minds were conditioned or what that meant, I only found out about that even later still.

#NZ Lockdown Day 2

photo: Kapiti coast, by Sitara Morgenster

Open awareness meditation

I used to use a version of this guided Open Awareness mindfulness meditation in the last classes of the Mindfulness Works Introductory courses and a lot of people liked it. It takes into account all experience during “sitting still” while “focusing attention without judgment”: breath, body, sound, feelings and thoughts. It’s a refreshing, easy meditation. Note that there are lots of long silences, in which you get time to explore the instructions in yourself. The total time is 13.5 minutes.

Click here to access the 13.5 minute Open Awareness meditation (it will take you to Sound Cloud). Feel free to download it, use it, share it, like it and leave a comment!

#NZ Lockdown Day 1

Writing (as) meditation

Find a pen/pencil/felt tip and a piece of paper, a journal or a notebook. Find a place to sit, lie down or lean against. Check in with your body by feeling. Relax. Write a few comments in bullet points about what you’ve noticed, or felt or how you feel, physically, mentally, emotionally. If you feel nothing or numb, write that, too. Set your timer to 12 minutes. Take a few deep breaths in and out. Gently close your eyes and follow (watch, observe, witness your breathing with your mind (attention, focus, imagination). In, out, in, out, in, out, and so on. Keep going, in your own rhythm. Simply notice. Don’t change your breathing patterns, let your body do its thing. If your mind wanders, simply bring it back. Do this for as long as you can but no longer than until the alarm of your timer goes off. Write a few comments in bullet points about what you’ve noticed, or felt or how you feel, physically, mentally, emotionally. That’s it. For now. Ready to go about your day or night. Doing this once a day is sufficient for beneficial effects, but of course you can do it more often when you have the time. (c) Sitara 2020 Click here to use the sound file version of this instruction (takes 2 minutes to listen to).

Copyright © 2024 Mindfulness with Sitara Morgenster

Theme by Anders NorenUp ↑