Five Ways to Get Present, Now
written by
Simone
on Tuesday, August 24th, 2010
Here are five ways to get into the moment when you’ve lost your center and stess has taken over. Maybe you have heard all of these words of wisdom before; however, here is the medtitative or yogic perspective. Remember, our mind, attachment to our thoughts, our stories, are the source of our suffering (stress); in order to reduce the feelings of stress (decrease suffering) we can a) move beyond the mind, i.e., detach from the thoughts, arrest the thoughts immediately and choose different thoughts. For some of us this is a possibility for others of us this is not yet possible (me included).
Option b) In the moment we realize stress has taken hold – we are engulfed in the thoughts, the story has started living us so to speak – here are five things to get yourself out of the story, away from its power, and back into your natural state of mind. All of these techniques increase your awarenes and with more awareness, over time we naturally become less and less attached to our thoughts. Try these techniques to help you get out of times of stress or anxiety and increase overall awareness.
1. Become aware of your breath for three minutes
With the mind focussed on the breath it is unable to focus on the thoughts and emotions; three minute is long enough to change your state of mind.
2. Get in your body
Bring your awareness into the body, feel the belly move up and down with each breath, feel your heart beat from the inside, try to feel your pulse; three minutes. We live in our heads, sometimes there is no adult supervision up there, get out and come back later.
3. Accept what is happening no matter what, immediately
Yogis would call this practicing non-resistance. When we don’t accept (accepting isn’t about judging like or dislike, or taking or not taking action that is different and may be required) we are stopping the flow of energy and in doing so we suffer (experience stress) so don’t resist what is happening, accept and then act.
4. Smile or even better laugh
Sounds sappy and may not be possible some moments but the fact is that the body informs the mind; the mind doesn’t know better, trick it into thinking its happy, or fake it until you make it.
5. This too shall pass
We will have a finite amount of experiences in our lives, remember, this one will pass too.
Categories: Meditation Tips
Tags: being present, breath and meditation, decreasing suffering, meditation, personal growth, reduce stress, relaxation, thoughts, why meditate
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