Sitting quietly gives me the opportunity to see the content that is likely to show up outside of meditation. It’s the same mind I take with me so perhaps the most important moment in meditation is the last one, getting up. It can be a moment to continue to receive things as they are. That way I don’t leave my sit with a story about how it should be any different. I can continue to relax with this magnificent freedom that lets me move with life as it is.
As I go about my day I can choose to place less importance on the little voice in my head and rather take in the beauty and wonder of life around me (all happening outside my control). As I pay attention to the landscape of my inner life, so too can I bring equanimity of mind to the circumstances that arise. Where I find myself in a reaction, I can take note and recognise that I lost my orientation and in a gentle way, return to this safe haven of awareness.
Your mind will take the shape of what you frequently hold in thought, for the human spirit is coloured by such impressions
Marcus Aurelius, meditations
I love this quote because it reminds me to question my thinking. Controlling the content of the mind is an incredibly stressful idea. Seeing the thoughts for what they are – patterns of energy, is a much more effective way of neutralizing charged up thinking. We don’t need to buy into our patterns, often the trouble starts the moment we take our thoughts to be reality. Rather we can bring our attention back to the awareness in which they appear and discover a natural curiosity there. A whole world lives and breathes outside our conceptions.
Guiding principle: Notice the patterns of thinking that shape you but also see that no pattern has control over you when you are awake to it. With awareness, the thought has no inherent power. It is no different to an itch on your skin, a simple sensation, energy in the body.
Energy naturally settles when we allow it.