Week 2, Mindfulness Meditation at the Yoga Barn.

The Awakening Spirit

 

Week 2 in Mindfulness Meditation

As you may have noticed 2 weeks have passed since my last post on Mindfulness Meditation at the Yoga Barn. This was simply because the week doesn’t finish after the class. In fact we continue the practice for the next 6 days and of course this is where the experiences may flourish. It takes a full 8 weeks for you to fully absorb the teachings.




Moving forward I will wait for the full week to finish just in case I had more to share with you.

Since my last post I purchased the book ‘Finding Peace in a Frantic World’ by Mark Williams and Danny Penman. Its a great book so far and it will be one I’ll read again and again I’m sure! But for now I’m waiting at chapter 8 as we can’t move past the chapters that relate to the week we’re in. I’m really trying hard not to have a sneaky look though lol.

Week 2, for me, was very exciting! We moved away from the Breath Meditation and on to the Body Scan Meditation. Those of you that meditate will be use to this as its something we’re taught at an early stage. But some of us do forget to continue with this body scan at the beginning of our meditation sessions, just as I had. So it was nice to have a gentle reminder to, once again, introduce it to my daily practices.

So the body scan is great as it increases our familiarity with our bodies and in time in Mindfulness we will learn how the body responds to our inner and outer lives, to our thoughts and emotions, and to events around us. The Buddha saw the human mind and body as unified. When we suppress or ignore aspects of our emotional, cognitive, and volitional lives, we tend also to disconnect from the body, from the physical manifestations of our experience. Conversely, when we distance ourselves from our physical experience, we lose touch with our inner life of emotions and thoughts.

The Awakening of the body from within that comes with Mindfulness can help us to discover, not only our repressed emotions, but also, more importantly, a greater capacity to respond to the world with healthy emotions and motivations.

In the Mindfulness Meditation class for the body scan we are taught to let each part of the body dissolve in to mindfulness once we have scanned it then move on to the next. This I just naturally done by imagining that part of the body started to turn to smoke and slowly drifted up above me ’til the body part had gone. Then I moved to the next part and continued the process. When I got to my shoulders something quite special happened. Everything went silent and my vision in my mind started to turn completely white. At first this was quite a shock that made me jump which, of course, brought me back. After a few deep breaths I continued. Now I knew what to expect I should be able to let it happen. And yes it happened again. As the whiteness cleared I felt extremely light. As if I was floating. I was. I found myself some 6 to 8 foot above where I was. I managed to slowly turn over so I could look at myself. All that was there was a void where my body was. It was as if I was made of glass so I could see the edges but I could see right through me. I turned back towards the ceiling and just floated for a bit trying to absorb all the feeling and thoughts going through me. Within no time Tracey, our teacher, hit the Tingsha and I felt a huge pull downwards. All I could think was “oh no I’m going back!” I tried to fight it but I couldn’t stop! As soon as I felt my body I became very emotional! I wanted to cry! But at the same time I was very excited.

Once we were all ready we talked about our experience. Of course mine was the only one that would give the impression that there was a crazy person in the group lol. But those of you that know me would know this isn’t the first time something like this has happened. After all its the reason this site and my social media groups were created.

So it turns out it was just little old me that had this experience. And of course this isn’t was Mindfulness Meditation is about, I just wanted to share it with you guys as I know some of you reading this will relate to what I’m talking about! If that’s you, drop me an email I’d love to hear about it!

For the rest of the week you have to be quite disciplined and make the time to continue the practice. It’s just 10 minutes twice a day so it should be quite easy to squeeze in. (This just reminded me think of an old Zen saying…. You should sit in meditation for 20 minutes a day, unless you’re too busy then you should sit for an hour) lol. Just make the time, in later life you can thank yourself! Admittedly it doesn’t stop with the meditation. We had to go for a Mindfulness walk which you should all do next time you go for a walk. Listen to the birds, the cars, the planes above. Look above eye level. Look at the trees, the sky, the building. Feel every foot step you make. Feel the wind on your face, the rain if its raining. The sun if its sunny. Drink it all in. Connect with it all and see how it makes you feel!

The week before we had to have a Mindfulness meal. (you see I missed this out as I didn’t wait for the week to finish) So here you have to eat a meal with your eyes closed. Feel each bite. Taste each taste. Smell every bit before you put it in to your mouth. As you eat it try to feel it as you swallow it. Try to find the point of which you can no longer feel it. Not something to do in a posh restaurant as you can imagine! Probably best to do at home alone lol.

So that’s it for now. I’m off to practice week 3 which involves me acting like a big kid, I’m good at this one 🙂

 

 

 

 

One Comment

  1. yes you mention Mindful Walking….that is good way to walk….i guess it could be part of a certain meditative way of doing many things….like using a rake to clean pavement from stones spread on ground during winter…to give cars traction on ice….just rake…long and tough and slow motion….Meditative Motion..

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