Ever so gently…
When you realize that you have been lost in thought, you can gently bring your attention back to alert, thoughtless awareness in a myriad of ways. Here are a few you can try–using your senses, as Eckhart Tolle often suggests:
- Look at what surrounds you; quietly observe and take it all in. Become aware of various hues and shades of color in your field of vision, the different kinds of light, the dark and shadowed areas, the hard edges and the soft, smooth rounded surfaces that you see.
- Feel your breath moving into your lungs, and then moving out. Is the temperature of the air slightly cool against the inside of your nostrils when you breathe in, and warmer when you breathe out? Notice any odors that are carried into your nose, without identifying what they are caused by.
- Listen attentively to all the sounds that surrounds you–the hum of a computer or refrigerator, the gurgle of your stomach, the song of a bird. Listen with equal attentiveness to the silence within which all the sounds arise.
- Blink slowly. Feel how smoothly your eyelids operate, how perfectly they cover the orbs of your eyes. Pause when your eyes are fully closed, and then slowly open them. This feels good, doesn’t it? Do it again.
- Choose a random muscle to flex, and feel all the tension that goes into that action. Then relax the muscle and experience how that feels.
Don’t bother thinking about any of this, nor labeling your actions, and don’t chastise yourself for losing sight of the present moment. Just bring your attention ever so gently back to Now.
Comments Off on Ever so gently…
theblackbuddha.wordpress.com 