This is the ninth of ten mindfulness practices designed to help you increase emotional balance and presence in the current moment.
The mind can be our greatest resource or our greatest burden.
It can solve complex problems,
Anticipate future events,
And make judgments that ensure our success and survival.
While we commonly think of the mind as being synonymous with thought,
The mind is also connected to the body and the emotions we experience.
Our thoughts directly impact our emotions and our emotions directly impact our thoughts.
The mind loses some of its advantages when it turns inward.
It tends to criticize and judge our self-worth and can create unhelpful stories and narratives about our past and future.
However,
There's wisdom in the mind to be discovered.
A helpful metaphor is to compare the mind to a waterfall.
The water represents the mind and its constant flow of thoughts,
Emotions,
And sensations we experience each moment.
While the waterfall is powerful and beautiful,
It can also be turbulent,
Particularly in the pool at the bottom of the waterfall.
Because we can't stop the steady current of the waterfall,
We often get lost in the disruptive waters in the pool where negative thoughts and unpleasant emotions habitually interact outside our awareness to produce distress.
While we can't stop the mind's constant activity,
We can change our awareness of the mind.
We can shift our perspective to observe the mind,
Describe it,
And discover its patterns.
In other words,
We can observe the waterfall rather than being caught in the cascade of thoughts and emotions at the bottom.
We discover wisdom when we bring patterns of the mind into awareness.
These patterns are significantly shaped by our past experiences and reflect our core beliefs about the world,
Ourselves,
And others.
However,
They're difficult to identify.
Undiscovered patterns of the mind can represent blind spots that limit our emotional and personal growth.
We can bring this blindness into awareness by quieting the mind through observing and describing rather than judging or evaluating.
When the mind is quiet,
We see more clearly.
This clear seeing can give us insight into how the mind impacts our beliefs and behaviors and how that relates to our values and life purpose.
Discovering the hidden patterns of the mind is one of the most challenging mindfulness practices,
But it also has potential for great reward.
If we practice this repeatedly,
We can bring habitual patterns of unconscious thought into awareness and break free from the limitations they impose.
Let's begin by finding a comfortable position.
You can be seated on the floor or in a chair.
Notice the sensations of touch and pressure where your feet connect to the floor and where your hands rest.
Widen your attention and notice your breath.
Notice the gentle rhythms of the breath as it flows in and out.
Your mind will likely wander from attention on the body and the breath.
Instead of returning the focus of your attention to the breath or body,
We'll follow the mind and observe what it's showing.
Imagine yourself sitting next to a beautiful waterfall.
Observing the calm and the peace and the beauty,
But also noticing the disruption and the turbulence where the water hits the pool.
As you're watching this waterfall,
Imagine that the mind is like the water.
Thoughts and emotions and sensations continually streaming down.
Observe from this place of distance,
Watching rather than being caught up in the pool at the bottom of the fall.
If you find yourself lost in thought,
Notice that you've fallen in the pool and take yourself back to the observing place where you can look and notice and observe without getting caught up in judgments or evaluations or stories.
Observe any sensations you're experiencing.
Label any emotions you're feeling and label any thoughts you're having.
You may begin with general labels such as thinking,
Remembering,
Planning.
These are helpful labels as they help you see what the mind is doing.
See if you can also notice patterns and themes of the mind.
Those recurring patterns that the mind constantly goes back to habitually that are based on past experiences and our personal histories.
A mosaic.
The individual puzzle pieces creating something greater.
These themes are difficult to discover.
They're often hidden.
They're often painful.
Sometimes they spring from unmet needs.
Some examples may be fear of failure,
Lack of belonging,
Need for approval,
Or helplessness or powerlessness.
These are just a few examples and there can be many,
Many others.
When you can observe the thoughts,
Emotions,
And patterns of the mind,
You're accessing the mind's wisdom.
You're bringing it into awareness and allowing yourself to find the stillness and the quiet that can increase your well-being,
That can offer inspiration,
That can help you transcend limitations and increase your capacity to overcome challenge and adversity.
It's likely that you've noticed that you find yourself in the turbulence of the pool.
When this occurs,
Just notice that you're there and go back to the observing perspective,
Watching and noticing without evaluating.
We'll practice this in silence for one more minute,
Observing the patterns of the mind,
Noticing if you fall into the pool,
And removing yourself back to where you can observe and watch and see the larger patterns.
We'll conclude the practice by returning the focus of your attention to the breath.
And when you're ready,
Open your eyes and bring this sense of awareness and contact with the present moment back with you into the next moments of your day.
