Meditation in COVID-19 time

In this time of change, uncertainty, and anxiety, pause to take care of yourself.

Perhaps you’ve had your first session of meditation. Did it seem easier than expected? or more challenging?
Just treat it like a new skill that needs practice.  Our mind is made to jump from ideas to ideas, lingering in the past or planning in the future. Over a period of time practicing meditation, the mind will settle down for a longer period of time.

Patience and kindness towards self is to take care of what’s most precious in us: our mind. In Eastern cultures, there is only one word for the mind and the body, all together as one. As we try to keep exercising during this shut-down stay-at-home period, so shall we try to keep our mind healthy. QiGong, Tai Chi, Yoga are practices that unites the mind to the body motion. Meditation is when we don’t move, as the mind intensely focus on … the mind’s object of interest, mainly the breath

So just for this session, it’s about increasing our familiarity with the practice.

So we’re going to begin taking a moment to get comfortable. Eyes open, nice soft focus, or if comfortable, you can close your eyes and have someone else read this next section at a slow pace to you. You can even record this on your phone, slowly speaking the words, and then play it for yourself later.

It doesn’t matter if you’re sitting in a chair or on a floor. Just sit in a comfortable position and take a few nice big breaths.

Breathing in and breathing out.

Taking a moment to notice how we are sitting or standing, how the back feels, the top of the head, the weight of the body either at the buttocks, thighs or feet and the contact with object or the ground.

Shifting the attention to the symmetry or non-similar feel of the body.

As you breathe in through the nose, focus on the lungs as they expand filling in with air.

As you breath out notice how the body softens

With the next outbreath, just see what else changes. Noticing without judgement.

Sometimes we’re caught in thoughts. That’s normal, just bring your mind gently back to the next breath. No guilt, no scolding, no expectation of perfection as there is no perfect breath. Each day, at the moment you are checking in with yourself, your breath will be different. So how is it today, at this moment?

Breathe and feel the breath through the body, from the start of the In-breath to the pause, to the transformation of the In to the Out-breath, and the next pause.

In the next breath notice how slow or fast the breath is, In or Out.

In the next breath notice how fresh or warm the breath is, In or Out.

In the next breath notice how far the In breath goes.

Directing your attention now to whether the breath itself has changed just naturally from us paying attention to it.

Even before COVID-19, life consumed us.

Of course life has big events, troubles that happen to us or those we love; life is made of small but also big changes that can shake us or the world around us to the core. This pandemic is one of these events.

But even before COVID-19,  the small stuff that happens sometimes make us sweat. Perhaps there was an uncomfortable conversation that took place, perhaps we didn’t get what we expected or planned, or perhaps we cannot find something. Whatever it is, we fretted over it.

If you ask yourself whether you would be still sweating or thinking about this in a few months or even in a few years, what would be the answer? If the answer is no, then why is it that we are so often overwhelmed by a single thought or emotion? If the answer is yes, as this pandemic is a huge changing time, just recognize that it is a big turn in the road of life. The road ahead lies unknown, unpredictable. The illusion of control, gone.

Right at the moment that these bothersome thoughts are triggered, It’s almost as if we can’t let go of them. They seem to be so real, so true, and it seems like this would last forever. We get caught up in our own story, our own perspective of that story.

Take five breaths now. There were lots of ideas.

Recognize what they triggered.

Beginning anew and bring the attention to the next breath.

It’s in the resilience of Mindfulness practice that one can learn to push a pause button in that story of ours. Sometimes it takes a few days before we realize “Wow, I have been consumed by this for a few days now! Is there another perspective I can try to look at?”

We have perhaps all experienced being blindsided by the passion we felt towards something, not listening to our inner wisdom.

Another breath. Our constant companion.

To suspend judgement and to keep a constant companion to ourselves. To be a witness to our emotions, is what the practice can nurture.

Emotions are usually felt in our body. Thus sometimes, even before we realize our emotions, our body already exhibited symptoms of that emotion.

Mindfulness practice basically proposes a tool to help us recognize the symptoms of the mind as it inevitably show up in the body. By now, we all have learned how to recognize  symptoms for COVID-19. So let’s learn to recognize our own mind habits. Let’s practice how to find and shift perspectives to lessen suffering, not only to ourselves, but to the others as well.

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