“When you move amidst the world of sense, free from attachment and aversion alike, there comes the peace in which all sorrows end, and you live in the wisdom of the Self.”
- Bhagavad Gita
Week Three:
This week we begin to explore Mindfulness of Reactivity. Our minds can quickly label an experience as pleasant, unpleasant or neutral. By noticing the label and making purposeful, rather than unconscious, choices we can begin to free ourselves from our habitual behaviors of striving, rejecting or ignoring and move into a more peaceful place of allowing.
Week #3 - January 16, 2022
This Week’s Home Practice
Daily Sit: Continue your daily formal meditation practice adding into your awareness the flavor of, or relationship to, experience. Notice when experiences are pleasant or unpleasant and our mind’s tendency to grab or push away. You may want to experiment with a longer period of meditation (15-20 minutes). Explore “noting” as a support (i.e., “this is pleasant or this is unpleasant.”)
Informal Activity:
Note and record ONE pleasant activity each day. You can journal or your own or use this worksheet if it’s helpful.
Be mindful and notice when one (or more) of the obstacles present themselves to you - Desire, Dislike, Sleepiness, Restlessness and Doubt. What happens when you note their presence?
Supplemental Resources
Poetry: Unconditional by Jennifer Welwood
Poetry: The Cure for it All by Julia Fehrenbacher
Reading: Riding the Waves of Pleasure & Pain, Coleman