The Art of Living Mindfully course Welcome to the Art of Living Mindfully course.
This CD and the accompanying booklet offer a complement of sitting meditation practice and important cognitive behavioral exercises that allow the student to both understand the nature of their mind and of their suffering and to practice the mindfulness skills that have the capacity to relieve this suffering.
This CD contains seven separate tracks including guided instruction on the relaxation breath,
The body scan,
Mindfulness meditation and metta or loving kindness meditation.
The final track of the CD is a guided meditation using all of the above skills in a complete 30-minute sitting practice.
Establishing a wellness practice in your life requires a balance of effort and surrender.
The efforts include choosing a sacred time and place in your life for practice,
Avoiding distractions during these times and inviting intention,
Mindfulness,
Gentleness and non-judgment into your practice times.
However,
Your practice as with your life also asks for a measure of surrender.
The surrender to what might come up during your sits,
The surrender of perfection in practice and the surrender to the outcome of your meditation practice.
These are not completely within our control and the more we try to push and pull them according to our own expectations,
Biases and judgments,
The more tension will come into our practice and can cause us suffering.
So begin by choosing a sacred time and place for sitting practice.
Ensure a time and space when you will not be disturbed for the duration of your sit.
Phones and pagers are off and your roommates and family members have been asked to respect this time as yours.
Invite a straight yet relaxed posture upon a chair or a cushion upon the floor,
Whichever is more comfortable.
Allow your shoulders to fall away from your ears and a gentle,
Natural smile to come to your face.
If you are comfortable in doing so,
Close your eyes.
At times in your practice,
Your mind may be busier or quieter.
You may have lots of strong emotions or you may feel only peace.
Your body may feel restless or it may be very still.
The practice asks us only to sit with all of these without judgment and avoiding attachment or aversion.
Can all of these waves of thought,
Emotion and sensation simply be objects of mindfulness?
If particularly challenging emotions or memories come up or else your mind or body is particularly agitated,
It is sometimes useful to open your eyes for a period and just focus on relaxation breaths.
If this is still not helpful,
Then it is at times useful to get up and practice mindful walking to and fro in your sacred space.
After a few minutes,
Try sitting with eyes closed once more.
Meditation is not only about the 30 minutes or hour that you sit upon the cushion or chair every day.
It is equally about the rest of your life.
Your sitting practice is your training ground for the art of living mindfully in your relationship with others,
With yourself and with your life.
Your mind and your life will present lots of valid reasons why you could not do your practice on any given day.
Meditate anyway,
Even if it is only for 5 minutes of a usual 30 minute practice.
The consistency of effort and intention,
Together with gentleness and non-judgment,
Will create a strong practice and habit energy that will reinforce itself and nurture a momentum of peace and of mindfulness for your life.
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