Refuge in the Present Moment
When the swirling of thoughts, worries, fears, and dread occupy your mind and impact your body through tension, fatigue, restlessness, how do you settle yourself? How do you acknowledge what’s there? How do you sit with it? How do you work with it? What’s the aim? What are we up for at that moment? Can we sit still and observe the thoughts without getting caught up in them… being able to see thoughts as thoughts, not facts, not necessarily reality. They are accumulations of our experiences and the filters we use to make sense of our worlds, including relationships.
Drawing on awareness of the five senses can bring about feelings of ease and stillness to help soften our mind’s tendency to worry and project into the unknown future. By cultivating stillness, our nervous system can slow down, allowing us to zoom out. Through bringing awareness away from the “default mode network” and moving into a more neutral state, we can focus and make choices about how to proceed. To notice if we need to tend to ourselves and address certain needs.
Being able to notice what’s around us with our eyes, what our ears hear, what we taste with our mouths, different scents, and how we experience touch can be anchor points of awareness to help move our minds from rumination to a place of more neutrality where you can observe the sensations associated with what’s right in front of you at any given moment.
These portable skills can be effective tools in the moment when we notice feeling distress, discomfort, and tension.
The process begins with a kind, gentle awareness of “what’s here now”:
What’s being observed in the mind, body, heart, and breath.
How do you greet your inner experiences and how are they presented to the world?
What’s it like to slow down and check in with yourself?
How is your breath? Can you deliberately slow it down and see if you can extend each inhale to a count of 5 and each exhale to a count of 5.
Notice what that’s like for you.
Sound Meditation
Unexpected time to myself one evening allowed me to reconnect with sounds surrounding me outside. It can be difficult to turn our awareness away from the constant stream of thoughts, worries, and plans we generate in our minds. I observed how hard it was for me to sit still and just focus on sounds.
I sat and began to bring awareness of what my ears noticed. I encouraged my body to be still and anchored myself in my chair by noticing where my body was making contact with the seat and the temperature of the air on my skin. I took some deliberate, slow breaths… noticing each inhale and exhale.
My eyes closed and I shifted my attention to what I could sense through my ears. My awareness turned to sounds that were close and then further away. I was enveloped by the sounds of insects, water flowing in the stream nearby, planes flying overhead along with the sound of my own breath.
Gradually my once buzzing body and mind began to settle. I was able to slow my breath down and help my body feel more relaxed. I gained perspective on what worry thoughts I noticed and gave myself permission to be still and just listen.
PRACTICE SUGGESTIONS:
To practice anytime and anywhere, consider listening to nature sounds such as forest or ocean noises on your favorite streaming app. Close your eyes, if that feels appropriate for you, and slowly anchor yourself where you are. Slow the breath by noticing its sensations. Move the awareness to just listening and observe how the mind and body are in response.
Finding Stillness Like a Mountain
It all begins with an idea.
In these turbulent times when we feel we’re on unsteady and shaky ground, we desperately seek to comfort ourselves. We lose sight of the inner resources and capacities we hold. By slowing down and cultivating stillness and ease in the midst of our circumstances, we can practice being like a mountain.
We can imagine the steadiness and grace that mountains have while facing seasons changing and weather fluctuations. Despite the chaos and intensity of what’s unfolding around it, mountains remain unyielding and still.
Learning to connect with this sense of ease in the face of discomfort is possible. This meditation offers a glimpse into a practice that may be useful in times of stress.