Meditation or Mindfulness
“Don’t do anything…watch whatever the mind is doing. Don’t disturb it, don’t prevent it, don’t repress it; don’t do anything at all on your part. You just be a watcher, and the miracle of watching is meditation. As you watch, slowly, slowly mind becomes empty of thoughts…. As the mind becomes completely empty, your whole energy becomes a flame of awakening. This flame is the result of meditation. So you can say meditation is another name of watching, witnessing, observing—without any judgment, without any evaluation. Just by watching, you immediately get out of the mind.”
Osho, Mindfulness in the Modern World: How Do I Make Meditation Part of Everyday Life?
Life is such an adventure itself…my favorite quote is from Helen Keller who lived and loved life though she was born blind and deaf (and you thought you had challenges) “Life is a daring adventure or nothing at all” … I am embarking on another challenging aspect…challenges are invigorating to my psyche…until I lose (I am not a good loser…just ask Mr. P 😆(we check our Fitbit’s in the morning to see who had the best sleep score and losing at our games of chess…oh, we won’t even discuss that) …adventure/challenges …the reason that I haven’t taken up sitting in a rocking chair…smiling and waving at the world going by…
To increase the probably of success on this particular expedition…I am preparing more deliberately…preparing a life with every tip and technique that I know is best for my unique personality…there will be many things that I will not be able to control during this trek up my mountain…but there will be things that I can control and that will definitely assist in making the best decisions in those uncontrollable places…
I face challenges that have tripped me up…the reason for my skinned elbows and knees…I am sure that most everybody has heard of HSP’s …Highly Sensitive Person…sounds like a trumped-up excuse for someone that is just “overly sensitive”…as much as I have disliked this particular personality trait…feeling broken…it makes life easier to navigate with the knowledge…and yeah! I am not alone…supposedly 15-20% of the population are in my “tribe”..
Was it something that I had developed in childhood because of the trauma…I thought that it might be due to my need to be highly alert to any changes in parental behaviors to protect myself…scientifically being an HSP is genetic…https://www.futurity.org/highly-sensitive-people-brains-2559912-2/…although it did have an outsized effect on my ability to navigate life…
HSP’s have a fundamental difference in our brains…Sensory processing sensitivity (SPS) is a biological trait where our central nervous systems experience acute physical, mental, or emotional responses to any stimuli…
The best explanation that resonates with me is this…
I like to describe the difference between sensitive and non-sensitive people this way: every morning each of us gets up and tunes in to the world. For a non-sensitive person, tuning in to the world is a lot like tuning in to a radio station. The non-sensitive person tunes in to the one radio station to connect with the larger world. Sensitive people also tune in each morning. However, in the case of sensitive people, the experience feels like receiving all the radio stations in the world all at once. As a result, sensitive people are inundated and since this is caused by a physical characteristic, the nature of our nervous systems, we cannot turn it off. No off switch! https://sensitiveevolution.com/unique-frequency-sensitive-people/
So, what does being an HSP and witnessing thoughts have to do with each other…good question
Meditation/learning mindfulness is one critical component of the mental training for my endeavor …recently I was trying to find a way to increase my sleep score (😂 to beat Mr. P) and meditation was one of the suggestions…my mind never seems to be calm enough to sweetly drift off on the magic carpet of sleep…many years I took over the counter sleeping pills just to relax enough to get to sleep…not an answer…my sleep patterns were still horrible…but at least I got a few hours before I woke up again to face the racing thoughts…(my brain trying to make sense of all the static and messages that bombarded me that day)
I thought I should at least give it a try…for scientific purposes…always thought it was a bunch of hooey and mumble jumble…there are thousands of programs, apps and You tube videos…tried a few…none of them really felt harmonizing to my soul…I haven’t learned how to meditate without assistance…I have been using Waking Up app for over a year…***just a personal choice that works for me and no payment for my endorsement…my sleep score has improved once I started meditating…mornings are my preferred time of meditation…10 minutes to get me in a calmer frame of mind…
Back to how this all connects to becoming healthier…you thought if you just “dieted” and “exercised” several hours a day…short term it may work for some…for me it is not a sustainable or long-term remedy…well, not really even short term…more than a day or two at the most…
Mindfulness helps me to manage the stress and control the emotional eating…being able to just stay in the moment and watch my feelings…not being attached and feeling the need to soothe and alleviate them “right now” by overeating…they pass…the feelings and emotions do pass…really…really…if you let them…
Meditation allows us to shift through thoughts…question the foundation that we make our choices from…our bodies are only the outward manifestation of what is going on in the inside…if we do not change how we think…any physical change will only be temporary… that is the reason that 99% of people (I didn’t look up the actual amount, but I know it is a lot)that lose weight, gain it back and more…
Meditation and mindfulness affect the body as well as the mental “stuff”…it helps to reduce the stress hormone cortisol…the nasty thing that just calls to the sweet, fatty, and salty foods for immediate surge in energy for the “fight or flight” those stressful situations used to call for…
Because we do not need to run from the caveman next door…most of the time, anyway…it doesn’t have anywhere to go and usually starts hanging around our belly button…maybe, it’s looking for a way out🙃…our bodies complain by feeling more depressed and tired…and that’s so that’s why it is important in my preparation to consistently continue the habit of mindfulness…
“It is never too late to turn on the light. Your ability to break an unhealthy habit or turn off an old tape doesn’t depend on how long it has been running; a shift in perspective doesn’t depend on how long you’ve held on to the old view. When you flip the switch in that attic, it doesn’t matter whether it’s been dark for ten minutes, ten years or ten decades. The light still illuminates the room and banishes the murkiness, letting you see the things you couldn’t see before. It’s never too late to take a moment to look.”
Sharon Salzberg, Real Happiness: The Power of Meditation
BTW – 10,000 steps (564 calories)1336 calories (which included a gin and diet sprite) …developing the habit of exercise and keeping a food diary…more preparation still to go…little by little…
Turtling On
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