Punching Bag

“Come into your mindful posture. Sit with your back against the chair, body relaxed, feet on the floor. Feel your feet on the floor, where your body connects to the chair. Rest your hands gently on your knees. Your palms can be open or closed. I invite you to close your eyes.”

I am going to say a series of words describing different feelings or emotions that you may have had. As I say each word, simply silently acknowledge to yourself whether or not you have experienced it.

Happy

Sad

Joyful

Frightened

Excited

Anxious

Peaceful

Bored

Restless

Eager

Doubtful

Strong

Weak

Depressed

Curious

Serious

Worried

Lonely

Alone

Special

Envious

Jealous

Mischievous

Disappointed

Angry

Hateful

Grateful

Loving

Mindfulness teaches us how to notice when we are experiencing these emotions and feelings, to stop and watch how they feel in our mind and our body, and to react differently than we may have in the past. Did you ever play with those blow-up punching bags that have sand in the bottom and sit on the round? When you punch them they fall all the way down to the ground and then pop back up and wobble back and forth for a long time until finally they become still again. Well, the mind is like this when we are hit with a very strong emotion.

Can you think of a time when you have felt an emotion very strongly and you felt “knocked to the ground”. It may have taken you days before you finally didn’t feel that anymore and that you felt “balanced and still” gain.

When we develop mindfulness, that punching bag gets hit, but it no longer gets hit to the ground. It is stronger and it only gets pushed a little off to the left or right. And, because it hasn’t fallen so far, it comes back to the center more quickly.

When we practice awareness, or mindfulness, we are teaching ourselves to have better balance and to not fall down so far from a strong emotion or feeling.

Mindfulness of Sound

So, if we want to be pushed around less by our difficult thoughts and emotions, one thing we can do is practice mindfulness. Remember that, in short, mindfulness is paying attention to whatever is happening in our experience. Each day we will practice being mindful of one thing. Today we are going to pay attention to sound.

We’ll start by getting in a mindful posture. I am going to ring a bell. With your eyes closed, please let your attention go to the sound and simply listen to the sound from the moment it starts until it ends. Listen as closely as you can to see if you can actually hear the moment it ends. (ring bell)

Notice how you feel. Notice if that was challenging or easy. We will try again. This time notice if thoughts arise while you are trying to listen to the bell. This is not right or wrong, it is simply to notice what is happening. Ok. Close your eyes. (ring bell)

Now, we will listen to other sounds. Let your eyes close and let your attention open up to sound. Just gently listen to the sounds around you. (about 30 seconds)

Notice how you feel, if that was challenging, if you noticed thoughts or not, if you were able to just listen to sound for 30 seconds.

What you are beginning to develop is observing a single thing for an extended period of time. Our minds will naturally wander away because they are very happy to jump and run around. Actually, most of what we are doing each day is training our minds not to stay on one thing. Cell phones, texting, facebook, twitter, video games, all train the mind to move quickly. Because of that, this might feel uncomfortable in the beginning.

We will try a new object to pay attention to next time.

Journals

1. List any emotions you remember having in the past 24 hours. They do not have to be strong and they

do not have to be negative. Just anything you remember about the past 24 hours. Also write if you cannot

remember. This is an exercise in paying attention to how we are feeling. Then pay attention until the next

class to any emotions that arise. Right them down over the next two days.