.. and how to use small practices to become more Mindful and present.

Today I wanted to share something that really contributed to me during my training to become a certified Mindfulness Instructor.

In this hectic life we often seem to find ourselves where we get very annoyed when a sudden sound appears in our experience. We may be sitting thinking really hard about something that we wish to find the solution to and then a sudden sound of a barking dog or a parent yelling at their child  or just any sound the mind wishes to conclude about disrupts us on our thinking path. We can become really annoyed and frustrated and feelings of stress may emerge. I think we have all been there. Partly because it is a human trait from long ago when we had to be on the lookout for someone chasing us, a wild animal or an enemy. Only now we have applied that to anything that adds discomfort to us in our daily life.. on our path to more.

Now you might think perhaps that you can recognize in yourself this pattern, or maybe you have been exposed to so much stress in your experience that not even a sudden sound can wake you up from your coocoon of numbness. So what can we do then?

In practicing Mindfulness we practice the ability to be present with what is without judging it. Or what is also call choiceless or effortless awareness. The awareness is not based on what your identity or person decides that is but is only aware of that it is.
We are aware of what we feel, think and perceive but there is simply no fixing going on. There is nothing to achieve. Nowhere else to be. Nothing else to be. In that present moment we meet everything without judgment. We can also add curiousity to pass the contextuality of what we perceive.

Now imagine you are sitting in a café. You have planned this time of the day to have some alone-time. You wish to be with only yourself. So you order your Latte with extra chocolate  and cream perhaps and already you imagine how you are going to enjoy it in the silence of not having your partner or your kid or your friend distracting you from your peaceful alone-time.
You are so happy to find a table by the window with just that chair that you love so much. You feel like YAY it´s gonna happen!! I knew it! It´s gonna be so grand!
The waitress brings you your latte and you sit down in  the perfect chair wearing your perfect outfit that you like so much and you exhale feeling all the stress go.
But then it only takes a few minuites until you become aware of a couple behind you. You can´t see them as they are sitting behind your back but your mind immidiately starts to make up a story about who they are. They start with talking softly and kindly to each other and you easedrop. Not that you feel like you have to but you enjoy it. It´s like a song of love floating through the air building up your feelings and thoughts of how lovely life is for you. You smile a little bit. Until one of them starts to get a little bit annoyed with the other. You try to focus on your latte, and perhaps you pick up that favourite book you brought or your notepad trying to keep that feeling of ease and joy by adding something that makes you feel happy . Your body becomes at ease as the dopamine rush hits it. But you are feeling a bit uneasy and you  find yourself starting to judge the couple and you start to feel more and more annoyed and more and more like shit. Why did you sit here? Why not over there where you wouldn´t be able to hear them? Right. You decide that you are not going to let it disturb your peace. But.. you can´t really stop yourself from thinking and the sounds of those voices just makes you feel really upset and annoyed and mm a bit angry. Who are they to sit here in public almost yelling at each other when people actually come here to find peace??

Just by you reading this story might very well bring up a lot of thoughts, feelings and emotions in you and sensations in your body may be present. Is your heart racing? Are you recalling previous experiences of your own? Maybe not in a coffeshop but in your everyday life,  trying to get something done only to find youself totally knocked off the path due to disturbance.
There is a lot of different methods offered in Mindfulness practice but this text was about how we can handle sounds in a different way.
So ponder you sitting there in the midst of uncomfortable sound. Can you be aware of how your attention is actually looking for more sounds to judge? You are paying attention to the sense of sound. Your attention has moved from being vast in the feeling of happiness joy and ease and you almost forget other sensations that your body is offering you.
Now ponder that you instread of using that sensation of soundwaves to be something that you seek to becoming something that you invite. That you receive. And that you do not have to make something out of or judge. You are, like the Buddhists say, an open house in which doors and windows are open that allows everything to float through you. You in your being is the house and what flows through you are the sensations, the thoughts, the feelings and emotions that you experience. Now as you have read all these words I invite you to stop right here….

Take a few breaths
Allow the body to inhale and exhale in no particular manner.
Feel the air enter your body.. and leave quite effortlessly
Perhaps close your eyes if you feel comfortable with that, otherwise just find a spot to rest your eyes on.
Now put your attention to your hearing. What do you hear? Are you looking for sounds?
Are you attentively seeking sounds?
Now can you instead  invite them to just come to you?
Is there a difference between seeking sounds with your awareness or allowing them to come to you?
Can you now use your breath and rest in your breath for a little  bit. Feeling the flow of the breath. And still hear the sounds reaching you?
Take a minuite or two and just be with it. Feel the difference. Seeking.. Inviting.. Seeking.. Inviting. And notice how the mind judges this excercise after just a short while to telling you that you are done. You now know what it´s about. Can you upheave an energy of curiousity to the next moment?
Give yourself a minuite to breathe.. .in.. and out.. and then come back to your self and open  your eyes.
Lovely!

Practicing Mindfulness is to a great extent about being in the present moment by using small excercises just like this. First you practice in the little things in your life, and then when the big things comes your way causing great disturbance in your experience of who you are and believe you are – then you can use what you have learned and it becomes easier to find the place of Mindfulness within.

I hope this has contributed to your life 🙂
Stina