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Aliveness

Aliveness

Mindfulness meditation offers a practice of returning to experiencing the world as it is, to return to the raw experience of feeling each moment without thinking, thinking, pre-conceived ideas and judgment. Feeling alive is feeling the sensations that come to us – the cool air brushing against the skin, the rhythm of the breath, and the faint pulses felt in the body. Each breath is a quiet miracle of keeping us alive. We are simply here, breathing, giving ourselves the gift of the present moment instead of being lost in doing, thinking, doing, thinking.

Alive by Haashimite (extract)

To be Alive is to grow
To keep Living
Through the calm of dawn, and the bustle of noon, and the sloth of sundown
Just stay living
Embrace the self balancing emotions
And dread living-dead
For in that is true death
A great life is a life lived Alive

Awake to every feel
A life of sading and cries, and of happiness and laughter
And growth
Intertwined in perfect harmony
And when the sunlight blesses our paths a last time
Thanks to living Alive
The joy of rest is fully savoured.

Guide: Noelle Lim

Image credit: Bianca Ackermann, Unsplash

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Let The Good Land

Let the good land is about honoring and celebrating us, moments and how far we’ve come and how we’re showing up, and intentionally focusing on what’s working well, what’s pleasant. During challenging times, when life feels overwhelming or when the mind and body have been traumatized, it’s essential to be mindful, to direct the energy deliberately to the good and the pleasant within and around us.

Look For The Good, Robert Longley

Amidst the pain and sorrow
Through clouds of clearing smoke
We face the realization
This can not be a joke

Our greatest fear turns present
And all that we hold dear
Is now caught in the chaos
As we confront our fear

The emptiness consumes us
As sadness takes it hold
Leaving us in darkness
With feelings that are cold

It’s there we shall not wallow
As we seek again the light
Ever looking for the good
To free us from the night.

Guide: Noelle Lim

Image credit: Kelly Sikkema, Unsplash

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Slowing Down: Feeling Your Senses

The practice of sharpening your perception of senses, and feeling them, one by one, starting with sound, smell, taste, touch on the skin, thoughts (mental events), and sight, in any order that you wish, cultivating the ability to pay attention and to differentiate various senses rather than viewing them as one jumbled, overwhelming mess.

A List of Random Things to Remember, by Victoria Erickson

Time heals.
Mountain winds sound exactly like ocean waves.
You are worth everything now.
Walls can be destroyed.
The sun always rises (and is always beautiful).
Children know the answers.
There is music in everything.
Logic doesn’t produce magic.
Somewhere, somebody loves you.

You don’t need to choose mediocre when fire exists.
The moon orchestrates our nights and tides.
Trees can grow through rock.
Your heart expands when it’s broken.
You should do it now.

Guide: Noelle Lim

Image by: Nillio Isotalo, Unsplash

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Hearing Meditation

Learning to sit with sounds as they come and go to cultivate the ability to be whatever that arises be it a mean thought, distressing emotion and strong physical sensations. Refer to Sharon Salzberg’s book Real Happiness.

This morning, by Edith (Thich Nhat Hanh Foundation)
I suddenly realized
I am good enough
This is good enough
I don’t have to be
more or different
It is just fine
to be who I am
And drink a cup of tea
in silence

Guide: Noelle Lim

Image credit: Zetong Li, Unsplash

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Appreciation / Gratitude

Using appreciation or gratitude of the smallest thing, from the moment right now to the things that went well today, helps us stay present and less anxious about the future.

Count Your Blessings, William Henry Dawson

It’s strange but true that common things,
     Like sunshine, rain and snow,
The happy little bird that sings,
     The fragrant flowers that grow;
The meals with which we’re blessed each day,
     The sweet sleep of the night,
The friends who ever with us stay,
     The shadows and the light,
The tender care of mother dear,
     The kiss of loving wife,
The baby prattle that we hear –    
     The best things in our life –
Are not loved by us half so well
     As things that seem more rare.
For instance some old, broken bell,
     Or stone picked up somewhere;
An ancient coin with unknown date,
     An arrow head of stone,
Or piece of broken armor plate
     Worn by some one unknown.
Exclusive ownership we crave,
     No matter what the prize –
True from the cradle to the grave,
     Of foolish and of wise.
Oh, selfish mortal, don’t you know
     ’Twould better be, by far,
If you would train your love to grow
     Among the things that are
Just common to your daily life?
     You’ve blessings by the score,
Then why engage in constant strife
     For more, and more, and more?

Guide: Noelle Lim

Image credit: Nils, Unsplash

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Sense Perception – Sensations

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

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Keep Coming Back

One essential ingredient in meditation is the attitude we bring to the practice. The word “attitude” could trigger some discomfort if we’ve heard it often, something our parents and bosses say to us, go fix your attitude. In the context of mindfulness meditation, attitude is something kind and gentle.

In this practice, the attitude we invite is one of keep coming back, inspired by a chapter in Pema Chodron’s book “How to Meditate”. Keep coming back to say the breath or a part of the body whenever the mind drifts off, usually down a rabbit hole of habitual thoughts, such as self-blame or blaming others or our circumstances. While it appears perfectly justifiable and valid to do so, we have to ask if this is helpful to our wellbeing and in breaking out of our suffering or finding a solution to our woes. So keep coming back is an invitation to disrupt our habitual thinking process and come back to the present moment, so that we could start to see situations with a fresh perspective, with unlimited possibilities, and with joy and equanimity.

In the arc of your mallet, by Rumi (extract)

Don’t go anywhere without me.
Let nothing happen in the sky apart from me,
or on the ground, in this world or that world,
without my being in its happening.
Vision, see nothing I don’t see.
Language, say nothing.
The way the night knows itself with the moon,
be that with me. Be the rose
nearest to the thorn that I am.

Guide: Noelle Lim

Image credit: Anton Lochov, Unsplash

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Dropping The I

This is a practice of removing the “I” to appreciate that we’re more than the sum of thoughts, feelings and impulses. When the thought arises “I am no good”, we reframe it as “the thought that I am no good is here”. Or when the emotion of sadness arises, we say “the emotion of sadness is here” instead of “I am sad”. If we are resisting to do something, we acknowledge the feeling and say “the impulse to resist is here”. Notice how that feels once you disengage and appreciate that thoughts are just thoughts, feelings are merely that, nothing more. Once we see that, we create more space between ourselves and thoughts etc to respond more helpfully to distress. Distress is just that, not us. Liberation is essentially what this practice is about.

The poetry below is inspired by the Adittapariyaya Sutta: The Fire Sermon, and writings by Dogen Zenji, founder of first Soto Zen monastery, Daihonzan Eiheiji.

liberation, by the Guide

body merely a vessel

through birth, decay, death

consciousness merely a non thing, formless

that fires love, lust, hate

grief, despair, pain

there it is, to burn the delusions

see the vastness of the heart

that fills the universe

depth of the minds

of a thousand monks

seeking the way

not knowing

not clinging

dropping the I

arriving at no return

there it is, there it is

liberation.

Guide: Noelle Lim

Image credit: Yusuf Evli, Unsplash

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Breathing deeply

Using the breath to keep us grounded and steady, and to release tension to find your way home.

Breathe Deeply, by Nina Heyen

Let your body sink

into the arms of silence,

the deep solace of a soul at peace.

Stop the world for just one moment,

and inhale the soothing still.

Rest your mind for just one instant,

and let your breath

steer your home.

Guide: Noelle Lim

Image credit: Designervn, Unsplash

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Heart Meditation

Often we tend to live in our heads, lost in our thoughts. In this meditation, the invitation is to feel the heart without judgment, without analysis, without having to arrive to any conclusion. Just feeling it and allow whatever insights that spring from the practice.

Heart to Heart, Rita Dove

It doesn’t have 
a tip to spin on,
it isn’t even
shapely—
just a thick clutch
of muscle,
lopsided,
mute. Still,
I feel it inside
its cage sounding
a dull tattoo:
I want, I want—

but I can’t open it:
there’s no key.
I can’t wear it
on my sleeve,
or tell you from
the bottom of it
how I feel. Here,
it’s all yours, now—
but you’ll have
to take me,
too.

Guide: Noelle Lim

Image credit: Syed Ali, Unsplash

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Patience

In a fast-paced, relentless environment that we live in, patience could be short in supply. Here we practise mindful patience, training the mind to focus on where we want it to be, steadying it.

Patience, Rabindranath Tagore

If thou speakest not I will fill my heart

with thy silence and endure it.

I will keep still and wait like the night

with starry vigil and its head bent low with patience.

The morning will surely come,

the darkness will vanish,

and thy voice pour down in golden streams

breaking through the sky.

Then thy words will take wing

in songs from every one of my birds’ nests,

and thy melodies will break forth in flowers

in all my forest groves.

Guide: Noelle Lim

Image credit: Anna Kumpan, Unsplash

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Celebrating moments, life and the road not taken

Life may have its ups and downs. We celebrate each moment by willingly showing up for it as it is. This gives us the steadiness and calmness to decide the next best course of action if one is needed. Celebrating moments, we cumulatively celebrate life. It seems apt to end off with a favourite poem, The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost.

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

Guide: Noelle Lim

Image credit: Jan Huber, Unsplash

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Meditating On Four Elements

Mindfulness meditation is so practical because we use what’s available to us right this moment. In this practice, we pay attention to the four elements as they arise for us.

eeling the contact points as support (earth), our breath (air/space) , moisture such as sweat, saliva (water), and our energy and mood (fire).

Fire, Water, Air And Earth, Soren Barrett

A soft silvery glow

A distant symphony of frogs and crickets

Play in concert under a shower of stars

Distant thunder rolls, lightning flashes

Drops patter on the clay tile roof

The smell of fresh rain on dry ground

Fire, water, air and earth

All that was, is or ever will be

Guide: Noelle Lim

Image credit: Jeanie de Klerk

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In Silence We Sit

A practise of sitting in silence because we allow ourselves too.

Sound of silence (extract), Paul Simon

Hello darkness, my old friend
I’ve come to talk with you again
Because a vision softly creeping
Left its seeds while I was sleeping
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains
Within the sound of silence

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Noticing the choices we make

It’s said that the choices we make shape our destiny. Here’s a practice of noticing the little choices we make moment-by-moment to deepen our capacity to become more conscious of the important choices we make on a daily basis that could have far-reaching consequences. In mindfulness, the invitation is to notice that we always have a choice of how we want to engage with whatever thought that arises – sometimes we can’t help thinking about something – how we choose to face it is a choice. We could choose to judge ourselves or simply just watch that thought.

Inspired by the Autobiography of 5 short chapters

I.

I walk down the street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I fall in. I am lost. I am helpless.
It isn’t my fault.
It takes forever to find a way out.

II.

I walk down the same street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I still don’t see it. I fall in again.
I can’t believe I am in the same place. It isn’t my fault.
It still takes a long time to get out.

III.

I walk down the same street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I see it there, I still fall in.
It’s habit. It’s my fault. I know where I am. I get out immediately.

IV.

I walk down the same street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I walk around it.

V.

I walk down a different street.

Guide: Noelle Lim

Image credit: Nine Koepfer, Unsplash

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Titration For Healing

Like a dance, we move towards and away from something so that our nervous system, mind and body can process what is occurring whilst learning to get comfortable with difficult emotions or when being out of our window of tolerance. We’re practicing self-regulating, finding balance and staying flexible in the present moment. So we start by grounding ourselves, and then feeling what’s arising for us, be it a thought, emotion, mood or sensation, and where it gets uncomfortable, we shift our attention back to our breath or a part of the body that feels safe for us, for example the belly or feet, and returning again to feeling what’s arising. We allow ourselves to move from one point to another according to what feels “safe” or “right” for us – a titration process.

It is a useful meditation when you’ve had a hard day and are finding it difficult to sit, or if you generally find it hard to sit through a meditation due to constant intrusive thoughts and difficult emotions. Also useful for those who are experiencing PTSD or had experienced trauma and are wanting to practice meditating as part of healing.

Whole & Worthy, by Jennifer Healy

A miracle is known not by its fullness alone,

But by its emptiness.

Even a blank piece of paper is a miracle,

Like a sky is worthy even if

The stars are hiding.

Guide: Noelle Lim

Image credit: Abed Ismail, Unsplash

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Open Mind

Here we are training the mind to stay open and steady whenever unwelcome emotions and experiences arise. Keeping an open mind, meaning when thoughts come through the mind, or emotions and sensations arise, we just meet them as they are, noticing them, as best as we can not judging although we might not be able to help ourselves. When that happens, not judging ourselves further! And when thoughts get too overwhelming, we can choose to return to an anchor like the breath or a part of the body that feels stable. The poetry Door by Miroslav Holub is read as we bring the practice to a close.

Door by Miroslav Holub

Go and open the door.
Maybe outside there’s
a tree, or a wood,
a garden,
or a magic city.

Go and open the door.
Maybe a dog’s rummaging.
Maybe you’ll see a face,
or an eye,
or the picture
of a picture.

Go and open the door.
If there’s a fog
it will clear.

Go and open the door.
Even if there’s only
the darkness ticking,
even if there’s only
the hollow wind,
even if
nothing
is there,
go and open the door.

At least
there’ll be
a draught.

Guide: Noelle Lim

Image credit: Yoonjae Baik, Unsplash

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Showing Up

Showing up in the present moment means showing up for ourselves in the bloom of the moment, instead of being lost in the head or lost in the “busy-ness” of our lives.

I’m Busy by Brooke Hampton

I’m busy;
but not in the way
most people accept.
I’m busy calming my fear
and finding my courage.
I’m busy listening to my kids.
I’m busy getting in touch
with what is real.
I’m busy growing things and
connecting with the natural world.
I’m busy questioning my answers.
I’m busy being present in my life.

Guide: Noelle Lim

Image credit: Bogdan Farca, Unsplash

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Coming Home To Ourselves

Ruminating or over-thinking, thinking in circles with no solution in sight, making inferences that are not valid, is exhausting and kills our wellbeing. This is an invitation to come home to ourselves, to be in the present moment instead of getting lost in the jungle of our striving, depressive and anxious thoughts. An act of coming home is to be present with the body or the breath. So each time we find our minds slipping away into rumination, we bring the mind back to the body, we come back home.

This draws inspiration from the poetry by Oriah Mountain Dreamer, Coming Home To Myself. It speaks about mindfulness – savoring the present moment as it is.

I had wandered so long

I’d stopping missing or even looking for myself.

But I longed.

Although even that became muted,

an underwater echo, blue green, and easy to miss.

Each day now a little more of who I am

is retrieved from the ocean floor:

the pleasure of my own cooking—

fresh eggs scrambled

with rosemary, and mushrooms, and sharp cheese;

the feel of silk across the back of my neck,

a cool caress to tender skin,

reawakening the need for touch;

the strength in my legs,

the joy of taking long strides with nowhere to go;

the quiet of the morning,

as I sit facing east just before the sun appears,

and then, the moment when the sun crests the horizon,

my gaze behind closed eyes flaring crimson and gold.

No recrimination for my absence

I am welcomed as the prodigal daughter

Longed for,

Looked for,

Home at last.

Guide: Noelle Lim

Duration: 20 minutes

Image credit: Tucker Good, Unsplash

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Disengaging From Rumination

Rumination is the source of stress. Thinking, thinking, mental chatter. Perhaps useful when trying to solve an external world problem, but not so when we’re judging our inner world experiences such as thoughts and feelings.

In mindfulness we recognize that thoughts are like like random photo-bursts or mental events and so we don’t have to cling on to them nor need to take them as the absolute truth. The invitation is to mindfully watch thoughts like sitting at the bus stop watching cars come and go without engaging with them. Until when we are feeling more calm do we only look at thoughts that really need our attention. We end the practice with writings by Rumi.

Be empty of worrying.

Think of who created thought!

Why do you stay in prison when the door is so wide open?

Move outside the tangle of fear-thinking.

Live in silence.

Flow down and down in always widening rings of being.

Guide: Noelle Lim

Duration: 25 mins

Image credit: Eric Han