Welcome to the Deep Mindfulness Collective.
For more information and meditation resources,
Visit deepmindfulness.
Io.
This practice is designed to support you to move through procrastination using mindfulness.
Let's begin by settling the body into a meditation posture.
If you're sitting on a cushion or on a chair,
Arrange your body so that the hips are higher than the knees.
Lift tall through the spine,
Through the crown of the head,
And allow the muscles of the arms and torso to relax.
Hang down.
Tune into the legs and feet,
Their connection with the ground,
And allow the legs and feet to relax.
If you're in the midst of a bout of procrastination,
Then you are ready for this practice.
If not,
Bring to mind a situation that often elicits procrastination in your life.
Really imagine as though you were watching a movie,
That you're approaching this task,
This goal,
Allowing all the thoughts and emotions that accompany that to arise.
And now let's move through the four steps that I use to work with procrastination through meditation.
So if you've come to this practice,
Then you've already begun with step one,
Pause.
Take a moment to appreciate yourself,
Your effort for taking that step.
And now let's move into step two,
Get curious.
And turn your attention to what is happening in your life.
And now let's move into step two,
Get curious.
And turn your attention to what's happening in the mind right now.
For now,
Just observing the quality of the mind.
Does it feel agitated,
Peaceful,
Tight,
Released,
Busy,
Quiet?
First,
Just notice the quality of mind that arises with procrastination.
And now see if you can locate,
Identify any quality of curiosity or wondering.
A subtle quality of curiosity may have arisen naturally just as you began to watch the mind,
To wonder what your mind state was in that moment,
In this moment.
If that's the case,
Really tune into this curious quality.
If not,
You can prime a little curiosity in the mind by asking questions,
Just saying,
Huh?
Or what's going on right now?
In this way,
We're shifting the stance,
The quality of awareness.
Often when observing procrastination,
It feels like there's a problem that needs to be fixed,
Something in the mind that needs to be eliminated or in our behavior that needs to be eliminated.
And here we're shifting the stance just to wondering,
What is going on for this being right now that procrastination is arising?
I wonder.
And from this stance,
Let's turn towards the contents of the mind.
So bring attention to the area between the ears and the head where mental audio generally arises.
Notice if there's any mental audio arising right now.
If so,
Really allow it to flow.
Allow the mind to say whatever it has to say with as little resistance or obstruction as possible.
And just watch from the curious awareness,
The curious watching place that you cultivated.
If no mental audio is arising,
That's absolutely fine.
Enjoy some moments of peace,
Of quiet.
And if you're not sure,
You can always do a little mic check.
Say hello,
Hello a couple times in the mind so you get used to what mental audio sounds like.
And you may notice as you listen that some distinct characters or voices arise.
Different personalities perhaps holding different places in argument amongst themselves.
And once a sense of some kind of distinct voices arises,
Let's move into step four,
Where we allow awareness to lead.
Up until now,
This curious awareness has just been watching what's going on in the mind.
Now this awareness is going to shift into a more active role.
So allow awareness to ask each of the voices that you've identified,
What do you need?
How can we support you?
And let that voice,
That character in the mind respond.
And here you may notice that as this curious awareness gains more deep understanding,
Listens more closely to what each of these voices,
Characters,
Personalities has to say.
These personalities can come to a more moderate position.
They can relax a little knowing that they've been heard.
And allow awareness to propose a solution to each of these voices that honors each of their different needs simultaneously.
Often just by listening closely,
A spontaneous compromise,
A path that works for all voices in the mind will become clear.
Know that this all takes practice.
As you work with this at home,
Feel free to take a lot of time with each of these four steps.
And in this way,
May we all be freed to deeply accept all parts of ourselves,
To move forward with compassion and ease.
