Lighten UP with MEDITATION
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There was a study that demonstrated that with regular mindfulness practices, the electrical brain activity shifted from right to left, "left-sided anterior activation," including a transition to more positive emotional states.
Simply put, meditation can up the odds you will feel lighter, brighter. Even happier.
This is in fact, my personal experience. I have been practicing meditation regularly since the early '90s, but my first introduction to meditation was as a 9 year old, when my mother dragged my entire family to Transcendental Meditation (T.M.). For a year, she enforced a 20 minute nightly meditation (which at the time, felt more like punishment). And, while I consistently began my practice begrudgingly, I always came out feeling renewed and more peaceful. This mandatory family practice lasted a year, but I used it on my own whenever I felt frustrated or stressed all the way through college. It was always my ‘emergency’ tool.
When I was 23 years old, I enrolled (on my own this time) in a Vipassana Mediation course through the New York Insight Mediation Center. I was gifted with the opportunity to have magnificent master teachers right from the start. Sharon Salzberg was my first real impact and helped me establish a great foundation. Then in 1998, through serendipitous circumstances, I wound up at a Pema Chordon retreat at Omega Institute, and since then I have studied with her annually.
One major teaching I have learned from my teachers, and what I also know to be true from my own practice and life experience, is that while my situation my feel heavy, intense, arduous, uncomfortable - how I respond is up to me.
In meditation (and eventually, in life), when it comes to experiencing heavier emotions, we don’t want to push them away, nor do we want to hold them tight. Instead—what I’ve learned is when my circumstances are 'unwanted', when I feel miserable, anxious, or frozen—the thing to do is pause and not 'feed' the feeling or shut it down. The practice is to let go of the “dialogue” with my feelings and my opinions about my feelings; and pause to relax my body, breath, and mind as much as I can in that moment. In this pause, I can stop accelerating the situation with additional reactions, and begin to make more room to breathe and see the situation more clearly.
Thoughts and emotions are not the enemy of a meditation practice. In fact, they are our friends. In fact, as Pema Chodron explains, "...Happiness is not required, but being curious without a heavy judgmental attitude helps. If you are judgmental, you can even be curious about that." And, instead of tightening, judging, berating, can you soften up? Can you be curious about what's happening? Can you practice inviting yourself back? This is the ability we are developing, to be able to be kind and come back over and over again.
The practice actually begins then, when you become aware that you’ve been chatting with yourself; aware that you've tripped out. When we notice our thoughts, we can practice relaxing our judgment toward our thoughts as we come back to the present moment of our breath. In this way, we are learning how to create space and lighten up instead of becoming more intense, angrier, and discontent. This act helps us to cultivate the curiosity and friendliness we need for compassionate, clear seeing. This is the root, of how our practice helps us lighten up our body, mind, and heart.
Read more about how your MINDFUL practice can LIGHTEN you up.
PRACTICE NOW
To help develop or continue a daily practice, I’ve created a 7 minute mindfulness meditation you can access right now! I have found that sometimes, its best to start small, make a habit, and then begin to stretch it out once you are in the swing of things. (Note: Huge Gratitude to Nikki Gregoroff and Paul Weinberg for recording this for you…)
MORE INSPIRATION
Great teachers on Mindful Awareness Meditation & ON Twitter @MindfulOnline
Trouble sitting still? Try 8 Minutes of MINDFUL Movement Yoga
5 Scientific Reasons To Practice Mindfulness Meditation.
MINDFUL YOGA: A HOME PRACTICE. Read more or purchase here.
“Jillian Pransky… has been revolutionizing the practice of chilling out for years, and now she’s sharing her wisdom in her first DVD…. The practices are perfectly suitable for beginners, while more-advanced students will appreciate Pransky’s attention to concentration and breath. Not only will you get excellent asana instruction, but also rich guided meditations that you can listen to in the restorative poses, when you’re deliciously horizontal and no longer looking at the screen.”
JOIN ME FOR RETREAT WITH ME THIS JULY AT KRIPALU 7/10-12 and 7/12-17
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