This is a meditation of learning to fall asleep and sleep better. Inspired by techniques of mindfulness-based insomnia therapy.
Guide: Noelle Lim
Image credit: Kate Stone, Unsplash
Falling Asleep
Steadiness
This week demanded steadiness. So here it is, Steady by Afiyah The Poet
Storms are coming
I go steady
Water is churning
I go steady
Whether the sky
is blue or gray
I keep going
with steady steps
Lived this life
long enough to know
upsets are many
Can’t break down
with every misstep
I’ve seen the floor
way too many times
Learning to go steady
when disasters strike
Assess and adjust
learn the lessons
I keep going
with steady footing.
Serenity
We’re always running, on a constant treadmill, wanting to be somewhere else. How about just accepting that you’re where you need to be right this moment – sitting, closing the eyes, meditating. What if we just paused and embraced the moment.
Serenity by Robert Longley
Peaceful in the moment
Tranquil in your soul
To reach a state of balance
Seems to be the goal
A point where cares are absent
Or maybe put on hold
Often redefining
The many rules were told
There is no need to journey
No need to get away
Just carve out a moment
And enjoy it every day
The moment will embrace you
Take time to give it care
Finding the serenity
Of just being there.
Cultivating Softness
A practice of meeting each moment—whether we welcome it or not—with softness rather than resistance so that we can sit with whatever experience that arises and not be so ruffled. Words by Rumi guide.
Don’t claim in spring on stone some
verdure grows
Be soft like soil to raise a lovely rose
For years you’ve been a
stony-hearted man (or woman)
Try being like the soil now if you
can!
Guide: Noelle Lim
Image credit: Paul Hanaoka, Unsplash
Slowing Down
Thinking, working too fast and constantly striving would kill our wellbeing. Here is an invitation to slow down, inspired by Thich Nhat Hahn’s poem Drink Your Tea, and in honor of his memory.
Drink your tea slowly and reverently,
as if it is the axis
on which the world earth revolves
– slowly, evenly, without
rushing toward the future;
Live the actual moment.
Only this moment is life.
Guide: Noelle Lim
Image credit: Mikhail Vasilyev, Unsplash
Have Hope
Whenever you’re feeling down, overwhelmed, anxious, have hope that these feelings don’t last forever and we’ll find our way home eventually. Inspired by “Hope” is the thing with feathers, by Emily Dickinson.
“Hope” is the thing with feathers –
That perches in the soul –
And sings the tune without the words –
And never stops – at all –
And sweetest – in the Gale – is heard –
And sore must be the storm –
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm –
I’ve heard it in the chillest land –
And on the strangest Sea –
Yet – never – in Extremity,
It asked a crumb – of me.
Guide: Noelle Lim
Image credit: Tran Mau Tri Tam, Unsplash
Arriving In The Moment
Arriving and embracing the present moment with the people around you instead of frequently being lost in the head with our thoughts, often reviewing the past or speculating about the future, or being buried in our mobile phone.
Inspired by Zen monk Thich Nhat Hanh’s poem: Please Call Me by My True Names (extract).
Don’t say that I will depart tomorrow —
even today I am still arriving.
Look deeply: every second I am arriving
to be a bud on a Spring branch,
to be a tiny bird, with still-fragile wings,
learning to sing in my new nest,
to be a caterpillar in the heart of a flower,
to be a jewel hiding itself in a stone.
I still arrive, in order to laugh and to cry,
to fear and to hope.
The rhythm of my heart is the birth and death
of all that is alive.
My joy is like Spring, so warm
it makes flowers bloom all over the Earth.
My pain is like a river of tears,
so vast it fills the four oceans.
Please call me by my true names,
so I can hear all my cries and my laughter at once,
so I can see that my joy and pain are one.
Please call me by my true names,
so I can wake up,
and so the door of my heart
can be left open,
the door of compassion.
Guide: Noelle Lim
Duration: 19 mins
Image credit: Lasma Artmane, Unsplash
Watching The Mind
Happy 2022! The mind is an incredible machine that generates ideas, solves problems but it can also produce thoughts that cause us grief and make us do things that we regret. How do we practice disengaging especially from thoughts that are not true, not realistic, not useful and only serve to weigh us down?
Inspired by the tradition of Soto Zen, we simply watch our thoughts, coming and going as they are as we are a third party, not identifying ourselves with thoughts, not judging, not needing to react to every single thing the mind tells us to do. Here we are just sitting quietly and watching. The pause allows wisdom to emerge and perhaps a new found appreciation for how the mind works.
Emily Dickinson describes this in her poem (extract).
The Brain — is wider than the Sky —
For — put them side by side —
The one the other will contain
With ease — and You — beside —
The Brain is deeper than the sea —
For — hold them — Blue to Blue —
The one the other will absorb —
As Sponges — Buckets — do
Guide: Noelle Lim
Duration: 19 mins
Image credit: Matheus Queiroz, Unsplash
Gratitude. Make The Leap.
Closing 2021 with a gratitude mindfulness practice, bringing to mind whom we’re grateful for, and what we’re grateful for this year and right this moment. Happy 2022, and make the leap, folks!
Crossing, Jericho Brown (extract)
We work, start on one side of the day
Like a planet’s only sun, our eyes straight
Until the flame sinks. The flame sinks.
Thank God I’m different.
I’ve figured and counted.
I’m not crossing
To cross back.
I’m set
On something vast.
It reaches
Long as the sea.
I’m more than a conqueror, bigger
Than bravery.
I don’t march.
I’m the one who leaps.
Guide: Noelle Lim
Duration: 19 minutes
Image credit: Sarah Shull, Unsplash
What The Heart Longs For
As we wind down for the year and set New Year resolutions, we anchor on what the heart longs for without judging ourselves. Simply just holding our desires in mindful awareness and allowing whatever emotions that arise when we bring to mind and feel in the heart what we truly want at the deeper level.
Inspired by William Wordsworth The Rainbow (or My Leaps Up). Life begins when we embrace our humanity with grace, and acknowledge what we really want even if it’s not within reach or seems silly.
My heart leaps up when I behold
A rainbow in the sky:
So was it when my life began;
So is it now I am a man;
So be it when I shall grow old,
Or let me die!
The Child is father of the Man;
And I could wish my days to be
Bound each to each by natural piety.
Guide: Noelle Lim
Duration: 20 minutes
Image credit: Andreas Brun, Unsplash
Stillness
Whenever we’re feeling down, upset, angry or worried about something, using stillness might be helpful. It’s about allowing our emotional energy to find a resting point. Inspired by this poem Stillness by Karen Lang.
In the stillness
I feel
I listen
I face my truth
In the stillness
I see
I acknowledge my needs
I let go In the stillness
I receive
I rejuvenate
I heal
In the stillness
I reconnect
I am one with everything.
Guide: Noelle Lim
Duration: 17 minutes
Image credit: Werner du Plessis, Unsplash
Radical Self-Love
Radical self-love by paying attention to the body with care and compassion is a way to tap into our subconscious wisdom for guidance instead of being confined by limiting stories and beliefs the mind tells us. We end with this poem on Self-Love by e.h. (Erin Hanson).
Every heart’s a hurricane,
Each soul a starlit sea,
Every mind’s a meteor
Unbound by gravity.
And everybody’s wishing
They could learn to tame their tides,
When nothing more than nature
Is what’s echoing inside.
Every life’s a lightning bolt,
Yet everyone’s told no;
Bite back all your thunder
And don’t let the wild things show.
Every heart’s a hurricane,
Everyone a world within,
Every life too short for loathing
Any storms beneath your skin.
Guide: Noelle Lim
Duration: 20 mins
Image credit: Ludemeula Fernandes, Unsplash
Today Is Precious
If every day is precious, every moment is too. This practice is about taking the time to just be, to appreciate the preciousness of each moment as it is. To just sit without constantly living in the head, in our stories and plans. Finding the balance instead of striving or planning in the head on how to strive. Being in the being mode.
Inspired by Days, written by Billy Collins, former US Poet Laureate.
Each one is a gift, no doubt,
mysteriously placed in your waking hand
or set upon your forehead
moments before you open your eyes.
Today begins cold and bright,
the ground heavy with snow
and the thick masonry of ice,
the sun glinting off the turrets of clouds.
Through the calm eye of the window
everything is in its place
but so precariously
this day might be resting somehow
on the one before it,
all the days of the past stacked high
like the impossible tower of dishes
entertainers used to build on stage.
No wonder you find yourself
perched on the top of a tall ladder
hoping to add one more
Just another Wednesday
you whisper,
then holding your breath,
place this cup on yesterday’s saucer
without the slightest clink.
Guide: Noelle Lim
Duration: 19 mins
Image credit: Jeanie de Klerk, Unsplash
Staying The Course, Not Giving Up
Our thoughts could be discouraging, demotivating, compelling us to quit. This is a meditation of practicing staying the course, not giving up so easily. Inspired by I Bend, a poetry written by Selena Odom.
I bend but do not break.
I’ve been lost, but I’m not a loser.
I’m a wreck, but I’m not totaled.
I’m fractured but not broken.
I’ve failed, but I’m not a failure.
I’ve fallen hard but can get up again.
I’m isolated, but still I’m free.
I have been destroyed but will rebuild.
My heart is broken, but it will mend.
See, no matter how close I come to breaking, I just continue to bend.
Guide: Noelle Lim
Duration: 18 mins
Image credit Paul Hanaoka
What Will You Let Go?
The question of the day is: what will you let go of? Here is a meditation session of learning to let go of what upsets and weighs us down, recognizing that all our experiences, good and bad, are impermanent. Often thoughts and desires that accompany the feelings magnify our distress, the need for things to be in a particular way, like the need for us to stay calm and centered during a meditation. Otherwise the session feels like a waste of time. Actually the best time to practice is when the mind is unsettled. We’re cultivating accepting situations or reality as they are before deciding on the next best response.
Nothing Gold Can Stay, Robert Frost
Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.
Guide: Noelle Lim
Duration: 20 minutes
Image credit: Dorothe Wouters, Unsplash
Responding To Negativity
It’s easy for negative thoughts or negative inferences to take root. They can be as subtle as “I can’t do this” to something extreme we won’t say to others like “You’re (I’m) stupid”, or excessive worry and downplaying ourselves or others.
One outcome of negativity is that it can lead us to a striving mode, needing to fix or improve ourselves. We sign up for a bunch of courses, throw ourselves into projects to shut off the pain, make ourselves feel like we’re progressing in life. A striving mode can also mean to deliberately avoid situations.
This is not to say we don’t do anything to improve our life outcomes or to purposely invite difficulties, but we want to be more discerning about what thoughts we want to act on and what actions are really necessary, lest we end up distressing ourselves further or shy away from living a full life.
In this meditation, we acknowledge thoughts as they are (just thoughts), and practice restoring a sense of being or balance. When we’re in a less driven-doing, judgmental mode, we can see our priorities and what really matters with more clarity.
We also use the poem Negative Thoughts (extract) by Murray Lachlan Young to convey the theme of the practice.
Negative thoughts
Oh, they come and they go
And sometimes they come
A lot more than they go
Then do what they like
And say what they please
To stifle your life
With their negative squeeze
So why not breathe in
And exercise choice
Why not breathe out and say “No” to the voice
And say “I’m worth more much, much, more than all that
And that negative voices
Are uncool and old hat”
So why not decide
That it’s time to get free
And stand up to the (deeply uncool) voice
Of Negativity
Guide: Noelle Lim
Duration: 14 mins
Image credit: Dim Hou, Unsplash
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I Am The Lake
This is an adaptation of the Lake Meditation written by Jon Kabat Zinn, founder of MBSR (Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction). We are cultivating the qualities and energy of a lake – silent, merely reflecting back what it sees as it is, and returning to stillness whenever the wind, rain and storm pass. Visualizing ourselves as the lake. Like it, we can return to our original being of stillness and silence once unwelcome thoughts and feelings move on.
We end with this poetry There In The Stillness by Show You Love (extract).
There in the stillness, the whisper of angel’s wings
There in the stillness a place for beggars and kings
There in the stillness a fluttering of the soul
There in the stillness someone broken is being made whole
There in the rest a river of life overflows
There in the rest a fruitful garden grows
There in the rest I am anchored and secure
There in the rest is a joy so real and pure
Guide: Noelle Lim
Duration: 17 mins
Image credit: Redd, Unsplash
Be Like A Mountain
This is an adaptation of the Mountain Meditation, created by Jon Kabat Zinn, founder of MBSR (Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction). We are cultivating the qualities and energy of a mountain – solid, strong, dignified, unmovable, and not apologetic for our presence. So like the mountain, we remain grounded despite experiencing strong emotions and intrusive thoughts.
I am the mountain
Snow falls, gone soon after winter
Spring clouds, drift by not a matter
Summer sunshine, only a fair friend
Autumn leaves, fall with an end
Seasons come and go
Yet I remain unmovable, to know
Thoughts emerge, emotions arise
Winds come
Rain falls
I don’t turn them away
Come what may
Because I am the mountain
Guide: Noelle Lim
Poem written by: Noelle Lim
Duration: 18 mins
Image credit: Justinas Tessalis, Unsplash
Change In Each Moment
Noticing each moment as thoughts and feelings change, noticing how transient our experiences are. One moment we’re upset, shortly after that we’re fine, and the cycle continues. As we learn to embrace change moment-by-moment, it helps us embrace changes and new chapters in our lives that take us out of our comfort zone. Inspired by New Chapter, a poetry written by Denis Martindale (extract).
One chapter ends, another starts –
Just like another game of darts.
New thoughts take hold, new people speak,
Past characters play hide-n-seek.
New meals are made, new shows are seen…
Forget about life’s in-between…
Fade out the memories, let them go…
Move on to greet some pastures new –
The sky above is just as blue…
Transcend the traumas life inflicts
And soothe the wounds with gentle licks…
Patch up the heart that drips life’s blood,
Refuse to wallow in the mud,
Cherish the chapter that’s just begun
And close the book on the previous one…
Guide: Noelle Lim
Duration: 18 mins
Image credit: Julian Ame, Unsplash
Well Wishing
Attention and compassion are twins that keep us in the present moment instead of living in the past and future which is exhausting and distressing. To cultivate compassion, wishing well is the mantra of our Wednesday Pause meditation for #WorldMentalHealthDay.
Wishing well a person whom you have an easy relationship with, someone who is experiencing difficulty, yourself in the midst of a difficult time, and those around you.
It’s possible that wishing yourself well might be the most awkward, even seemingly un-deserving. It could also be triggering, leading to more judgments, what is called a backdraft.
The purpose is to bring to bear an intention rather than to create any special feelings. And so the invitation is to keep wishing yourself well, bit by bit like dipping your toes in a cold pond.
This traditional Irish blessing comes to mind for you.
May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face
And rain falls soft upon your fields
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of His hand.
Guide: Noelle Lim
Duration: 13 mins
Image credit: Amy Baugess, Unsplash
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