Wherever you are right now,
Take a second to relax.
If it feels safe,
Let your eyes soften or close.
Unclench your jaw.
Let your shoulders drop.
Feel the weight of your body being held by the chair.
The bed.
The couch.
In through the nose for four.
Hold for two.
Out through the mouth for six.
Let the breath do its thing.
Mindfulness is knowing where you are.
So you don't get lost in where you were.
In this series we're training the seven factors of awakening.
Like seven inner superpowers.
Some wake you up.
Some calm you down.
Mindfulness is the one at the wheel.
The part of you that keeps checking the dashboard so you don't burn the engine out.
Quick check-in.
Does your mind feel heavy?
Or spinning?
Heavy is that foggy,
I don't have it in me feeling.
Spinning is restless.
Buzzy.
Like you drank coffee you never ordered.
When the mind is heavy the medicine is gentle energy.
When the mind is spinning the medicine is gentle,
Calm.
You can't choose the medicine.
If you don't know your state you're not failing at practice.
You might just be pushing in the wrong direction.
I want to give you three tiny mindfulness moves you can actually use in real life.
First one.
Doorway check.
Every time you walk through a doorway home work bedroom bathroom you treat it like a little bell.
As you pass through you ask where am I at right now?
Feel one breath and just notice your state.
Heavy spinning or steady.
No judgment.
You're just letting mindfulness read the gauges.
Second move.
Phone anchor.
Most of us unlock our phones more than we open our front door.
So before you unlock it you give yourself three conscious breaths.
Hold two.
Out for six.
Again in four.
Let the breath do its thing.
If breath doesn't feel safe for you we don't force it.
You can use sound instead.
One clear sound in the room.
Or sight.
Rest your eyes on one color you can see.
The point is simple.
You touch your anchor before the scroll touches you.
Third move.
Feet on street.
Whenever you walk even just to the kitchen you give a few steps your full attention.
Feel the soles of your feet meet the ground.
Heel.
Ball.
Toes.
Notice the pressure.
The texture.
The small roll of your weight from step to step.
You don't have to walk pretty.
You're just letting your body say I'm here.
I'm on this earth.
It's just stuck in my head.
Let's practice together for a bit.
If it still feels okay keep your eyes soft or closed.
Check in again.
Heavy or spinning.
Whatever it is you don't have to fix it right now.
Now choose one anchor for this short sit.
Breath.
Sound.
Or feet.
If you choose breath feel the air at the nostrils or the rise and fall of the chest.
If you choose sound rest your attention on one sound near or far.
If you choose feet just feel the contact points even if you're sitting or lying down.
Here's the game.
For the next little while every time you notice you've drifted into a story you label it gently.
Drifting.
Then you bring your attention back to this one anchor.
No drama.
No self-hate.
Just a quiet comeback.
Comeback.
I'll sit with you in the silence while you practice that comeback again and again.
If anything in that felt like too much we go smaller.
You can open your eyes.
Anchor on something outside the body.
A sound.
A color.
The feeling of the chair holding you up.
You're in charge here.
Mindfulness is not forcing yourself to sit in pain.
It's recognizing your state and choosing a kinder move.
Before we close check your inner dashboard one last time.
Heavy.
Spinning.
Or even 1% more steady.
If there was even a tiny shift that's your nervous system learning.
That these little anchors actually hold.
This is mindfulness.
A superpower number one.
The driver that keeps you from getting lost in a loud world.
Next session we train investigation.
The factor that asks.
What's really going on here?
Behind the story my mind is telling.
Thank you for practicing with me.
Stillness is rebellion.
Compassion is a weapon.
Peace is within.
Carry all.
