In this practice, we interrupt the momentum of habitual thought patterns and come back to the sensations of the body or touching as the object of the meditation. Other sense perceptions can be used too such as hearing, seeing, tasting, and smelling. Pema Chodron in her book “How to Meditate”, she writes that when you do the habitual thing, when the mind is on automatic pilot and you’re swept away, lost in thought, or escalating into emotion, it is registered in the brain as deep groves. They are like habit grooves and get deeper every time you do the same thing. However when you realise that you have been thinking, wandering, this recognition is a gap and opens up a new neurological pathway. It’s like predisposing yourself to tuning in to a new experience, a fresh way of seeing, opening the being and the world. You’re creating your future here. The choices you make are creating the next moment, the next year. The whole lifetime is being determined moment by moment by the choices you make.
Feelings: Body Consciousness, Kiran Pillai
Everything is a feeling in body.
Nothing more. All emotions just are.
I got a hint that emotions are feelings.
You feel in your body. Maybe even mind things.
Anger. Just a thing in your body.
Fear. Again something in your body.
You shrink, clench and constrict.
Do that for long and sickness appears.
I know my policy is for joy and happiness.
Nothing else matters really for me today.
No getting stuck in emotions and feelings.
Live from depth of life. Nothing else matters.
Guide: Noelle Lim
Image credit: Matthew Larkin, Unsplash
Kindermind Center 