Getting to know the mind has been my primary entry point for a more awakened life that grows and opens more with each moment.
Much like the eyes process light into sight, and the ears process vibrations into sound, the mind processes all of the other senses into what we call our reality. Basically, the mind collects these sense inputs and labels them as good or bad, matches them to a story about when we have encountered them before, or not, and conditions our actions accordingly. But what if your sense inputs weren’t always accurate?
Have you ever seen a piece of fuzz on your arm or in your hair and gasped “A TICK!” and frantically swatted the thing off, mind off in an instant planning your lifelong tick borne disease therapy, only to sheepishly realize a moment later, it was but a tuft of harmless crud brought in by the dog? This is what I am talking about. Or, what if you had a particular experience, say, as a child, where every time you felt angry and showed your parents, they got even angrier and maybe punished you in your room? Or spanked you? Or screamed at you? Maybe that left you crying and feeling frightened and unsafe and alone, so you learned you had better not show your anger anymore.
Well, something like that (or a lifetime of other examples) can stick in the mind, and the body, as habitual reactions if we are not mindful. And mindfulness is really just being willing to listen carefully, and look deeply at what the mind is telling you is happening versus what is really happening. The practice of sitting quietly with the mind, in stillness or during movement, is how we practice this mindfulness and learn how our individual mind works. What beliefs, and reactions it generates. Once we can see them, we can start to influence those habitual reactions, and find more space to make more peaceful, fact-based choices when I encounter the crud on my arm. Mindfulness practice opens the way to be calm in the center of a storm of thoughts and emotions.
As a survivor of a family with multiple addictions, I grew into an adult with my own set of neuroses and addictions, and I have found mindfulness meditation to be my most effective tool for right sizing my intense emotions, learning the patterns of my mind, and finding more ease rather than constant struggle, deeper curiosity than fear, and joy that far outshines any sadness in my life.
