Don’t forget to meditate! Day 5
“If you’re alone in the kitchen and you drop the lamb, you can just pick it up. Who’s going to know? ”
A central practice in mindfulness meditation is noticing when your mind has wandered away from your anchor. During your meditation practice today, give special attention to this moment of awakening, when you arrive gently back to yourself.
Here is a teaching from Jack Kornfield to help:
“You feel three breaths, and then you start thinking about something else. You feel four breaths, and then all of a sudden there’s an itch or a tingle or an emotion that arises. You can acknowledge that, notice it very gently, and then just come right back.
An image that’s helpful in the training of awareness of the breath is that of training a puppy. You don’t want to beat the puppy. It doesn’t feel good to the puppy, and it doesn’t feel good to you either. You notice the attention has gone elsewhere. You acknowledge that very simply, without any judgment. And come back. Sit and stay, again, just being here in this moment.
And that movement of your attention, of returning to the breath, is the key moment that you’re coming back and you’re really here where you are.”
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