Hi %%FIRST_NAME%%,
Welcome to Week Three!
How have you been getting on with mindful breathing so far?
Any thoughts or insights on last week’s technique? Here’s where you can share: Have you forgotten how to breathe?
Today we’re moving on to getting back into your body – and working with mindful body awareness to press pause on the stories of the Monkey Mind.
Turning Your Awareness Inside
We spend most of our time in our heads – or at least not in our bodies. If you were to interrupt someone in the course of their day and ask them how their physical body was feeling, most would be totally unaware.
We take the input from our senses and we analyse it, critique it, compare it, have long discussions with ourselves about it, but we rarely experience it.
What’s the problem with this?
Your head isn’t where your life is.
We are souls, here to have a physical experience of life, not just an intellectual one.
By coming back into your body, you will nearly instantly:
- Cut your stress levels, as you allow your body to stop producing so many stress hormones, rebalancing your sympathetic (‘fight or flight’) and parasympathetic (‘relaxation’) nervous systems.
- Get more clarity, as your thoughts slow down.
- Shift your focus from your Monkey Mind’s projections and stories to sensory perceptions of “what’s real?”
- Feel more centred, grounded and at peace.
- Allow your body to more easily go about its daily tasks, even at a cellular level.
How to turn your awareness inside:
Here’s an audio, to guide you through this process:
- Start with 3 Mindful Breaths [from week 1]
- Breathe in, with your focus gently resting on the physical experience of breathing. Consciously choose to bring your awareness back into your body.
- Breathe out and relax into your physical body. Gently close your eyes.
- As you breathe in and out, gently send your focus around your body, experiencing the physical sensations of being ‘in your body’ in each area for a few seconds.
- As you relax into this exercise, you may even become aware of the rhythms of your body, including your breathing, your blinking and your heartbeat.
- Accept any bits that ache. Perhaps say ‘thank you’ to each part, as you move around your body with your inner focus.
- When you feel ready, move your focus to one part of your body, for example, the big toe on your right foot. Allow yourself to become fully absorbed in noticing the physical sensations in that big toe. How does it feel if you wiggle it? How does it feel when you let it rest? Allow all of your focus to rest in that big toe.
- If your Monkey Mind needs a job, tell it to describe the physical sensations, without judgement.
- When you feel you are back ‘here and now’, release this practice.
When you have had a chance to experiment with this technique, how about sharing your experiences, over at the forum? Got any questions? We’ll get you the answers you’re looking for. 🙂
This week I invite you to spend a minute, a few times a day, turning your awareness inside and reconnecting with your physical self.
When you have had a chance to experiment with this technique, how about sharing your experiences, over at the forum?
Hope you have a great week!
Namaste,
P.S. Have you had a chance to go through the Kick-Start Guide yet? Want to share how you got on with your ‘snapshot’?
P.S. If you have any techy questions, you can get help from a member of my team by emailing hello@clarejosa.com