Mindfullness the Super Power to Unlock - Covid - 19 #7

My Authentic Self: July 8, 2020

Mindfulness = Super Power!

Mindfulness is a mental state achieved by focusing one's awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting one's feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations, used as a therapeutic technique.

I find that when I go into things mindfully, the outcome is often more positive for me and those around me.  Now that being said, mindfulness is a practice and it's actually quite fun to develop.  It begins with you really listening to what your heart, mind and soul are saying to you about an interaction.  Ask yourself the next time you have to make a decision, "How do I feel about that, REALLY?"

The Body as a Refuge

A piece by our guest wellness & yoga contributor

by Whitney Reed 

To be totally honest, many times I have felt overwhelmed by the shifts and changes that are currently occuring around and I have personally turned to this particular body scan meditation that I am introducing below almost everyday to calm my nervous system and bring a sense of peace to my mind.

Below is a simple poem, a few instructions on how to use the sensations of the body as a meditation focal point and a YouTube link.

Body scan video 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QS2yDmWk0vs

A Video about the benefits of Mindfulness

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6T02g5hnT4

Body as a Natural Refuge

Poem 

by Whitney Reed

Observe

Subtle 

Inner landscapes

Streams of 

Sensations arising 

Into obsolescence

New weather patterns 

Storming through

Waves of breath

Rising

Falling

Accepting

The nature of 

Constant inconstant

Body Scan Meditaiton Recipe

Sit in an upright and easy meditation position

Allow the eyes to shut

Kindly and gently draw your focus to the sensations at the top of the head

Investigate these sensations

Is there heat, coolness, tingling, or numbness?

Notice how this changes from one moment to the next

Gently allow your focus to move down to the skin of the face

Observe the air against your skin, coolness, heat and how it changes

With a kind awareness slowly scan down the rest of your body. 

Move down the neck and spine noticing the breath brushing against your bones

Shoulder to arm to hand.

Moving throughout the entire body part by part

If the mind gets lost in thought patterns, observe this and kindly bring the attention back to the sensations in the body

Whitney Reed - 

Whitney has been teaching mindfulness meditation on and off for 17 years and practicing meditation under the (Mindfulness) Vipassana Theravada lineage for 19 years. Her meditation path deepened while pursuing her PhD in Clinical Psychology she decided, amidst the piles of research, that Mindfulness/meditation was the modality she wanted to research over any other form of psychotherapy. She was also going through a period of time where many close friends and family died which stimulated existential questioning. Through this she left her PhD to focus primarily on Mindfulness, Dharma and Meditation which led her to undertake a series of long retreats where she sat several hundred hours in meditation which inspired the completion of an intensive 2 year dharma leadership training at Spirit Rock Meditation Center.