Bubble Meditation

Are you addicted to thinking? 

So are we all. The brain was made to think, and problem solve and get things done. The issue is that sometimes this function goes into overdrive and we become overwhelmed, anxious, depressed and essentially a victim of our thoughts.

Thinking is not in and of itself a problem; it is how we choose to relate to thoughts that makes the difference. 

The following mindfulness meditation can help you to take a step back and observe your thoughts with kindness, without judgment and without getting too attached. Your mind will inevitably get attached to certain thoughts in this meditation and you'll find yourself falling down the rabbit hole of some fantasy or memory. This is OK! This is normal!! Every time this happens you have the opportunity to come back to an awareness of your thoughts with compassion and self-acceptance. 

In this meditation you have the opportunity to observe your thoughts by visualizing them as bubbles that bubble up into your awareness and then float away. Perhaps you'll enjoy visualizing your thoughts like soap bubbles floating on the screen of your awareness or perhaps you'll prefer visualizing them as bubbles forming on the bottom of a pot of boiling water and popping as they reach the surface. Try them both and see what works for you!

“Thoughts are bubbles that are waiting to be popped by awareness”

— Jon Kabat-Zinn

BUBBLE MEDITATION 

1. You might begin by setting a timer for 5 or 10 minutes. 

2. Find a comfortable seat either on the ground or on a chair. 

3. Begin by connecting with sensations in your body.

   • Feel into the sensation of the points of contact your body makes with the ground and/or the chair.

   • Connect with other senses as well: hearing, taste, smell, sight.

     • Just be curious as you open your awareness to the present moment.

4. Notice the sensation of breath moving in and out of your body. 

   • bring your attention back to the breath with kindness every time you notice your mind wandering. 

5. After a period of time observing the breath begin to observe your thoughts like little bubbles bubbling up from a boiling pot of water and popping when they reach the surface or you might imagine soap bubbles gently floating across the screen of your mind. 

   • Whenever you get sucked into a thought (and you will get sucked in) gently bring your attention back to a spacious and kind awareness of your thoughts as they come and go. Can you observe them without judgement? Not preferring one thought to another. Perhaps it is helpful to you to label the contents of your thoughts: “planning” or “dreaming” or “fear” or “memory”.

6. Settle in to that feeling of spacious awareness around each thought bubble. 

   • Spend as long as you'd like here just observing your thoughts, noticing when you get carried away, and bringing your attention back to nonjudgmental awareness of thoughts.

7. When you’re ready come back to your breath, come back to your body and release the meditation. 

In this meditation you have a chance to be in relationship with your own ego.  Notice how you are with yourself. Are you kind? judgmental? impatient? compassionate? Practicing this bubble meditation is a way to check in with the relationship you have with yourself and a way to become more intimate with the inner workings of your mind! Do you find that the majority of your thoughts are about planning? recalling memories? things you’re anxious about? I’m a planner. Totally addicted to planning. Anyone else?

If you'd like to dive deeper into the practice of self inquiry and strengthen your mindfulness practice join me for Finding Ease in Difficult Times, a 4 week series of classes that begins a week from today! We'll use the tools of yin yoga, mindfulness meditation, somatic journaling, stream of consciousness journaling and conversation to release stress, learn how to comfortably be with discomfort, develop a more intimate relationship with your body/mind and gracefully ride the waves of life. 
October 15th-November 5th. 5:30-7PM EST. $35 per session or $130 when you pay for all 4 weeks at once!

Learn more here and absolutely feel free to e-mail me with any questions you have!

B. R. F. W. A.

Breathe Relax Feel Watch Allow!

A Kripalu classic!

All Kripalu trained yoga teachers learn to use this in each yoga pose, in meditations, and in everyday life! 

BRFWA pronounced BRIF-WA is an easy technique you can use when things get heated, when you’re stressed, overwhelmed, in an argument, or in a challenging yoga pose…OR just when you want to be more present!

1. BREATHE: When you are experiencing a challenging moment whether it be a yoga pose your teacher is making you hold for what feels like forever, or a wave of anxiety, or you’re having a difficult conversation, just remembering to breathe can make all the difference. Deep breathing can help to break up the stuck energy in your body and to allow for more internal flow. The breath can also help shift your nervous system from fight/flight to rest/digest. 

2. RELAX: Scan your body for any tension and invite the body to soften. Common areas of tension are the jaw, shoulders, belly, and hips.  

3. FEEL: now that we have released tension it is a bit easier to truly feel what is going on physically, emotionally, and mentally. It can be a courageous act to truly let ourselves feel the experience. See if you can do this without judgement. Notice sensations, emotions, thoughts. Be curious as you navigate your internal landscape.      

4. WATCH: Now step back from your experience and observe sensations, emotions, and thoughts as if you are the blue sky and they are all clouds passing by. Watch as your experience shifts, ebbs, and flows. You are the steady anchor observing the waves of life. You are the witness. From here you have perspective on the current situation.

5. ALLOW: now let go of any doing- - any desire to make something happen-  allow the experience to be as it is, we let go, we ride the waves of experience.  Let yourself feel exactly what you’re feeling—even if the emotions seem odd, out of place, annoying, frustrating, allow it to move through you. 

Five Senses Meditation

Five Senses Meditation. When experiencing anxiety, stress, and overwhelm one of the most helpful things you can do is to connect with the here and now. Often anxiety and overwhelm can be a result of worrying about the future, thinking about the many things you have to do, and feeling helpless. The solution to this is to connect with the simplicity of the present moment. One way to do this is to practice a Five Senses Meditation. This helps you connect with reality instead of the imagined reality you're worrying about. In a five senses meditation you spend about one minute meditating on each sense: sight, touch, smell, taste, and hearing. After doing this you might find that one sense felt particularly good to sit with. Perhaps you’ll want to linger a bit longer on listening to the sounds around you, or just sitting and feeling the sensations in your body.

Mantra Meditation

"Dharana", the sanskrit word for “concentration” is the sixth limb of the eight limbs of yoga. Once the mind is focused you can meditate, which is “dhyana” the seventh limb. Then comes “samadhi”, or “enlightenment”, the eighth limb. These three final limbs can also be thought of as “focus, flow, and let go”. (I think I first heard that from my teacher Sudhir Jonathan Foust). ⁠⠀
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For there to be freedom in the mind there must first be focus. We can find that focus through mantra meditation.⁠⠀
As I mentioned last week 98% of our thoughts are the same thoughts we thought yesterday, and the day before, and the day before that! Mantra meditation is a great way to insert a new thought into your daily thought carousel, and a great way to focus the mind for meditation.⁠⠀
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So far I’ve shared the mantra “my roots run deep into the center of the living earth” and I will continue to share more. You also can make up your own phrase or just choose a word.

Some to get you started:

1. OM

2. I am that I am

3. I am enough

4. I am where I am meant to be

5. Peace

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In meditation you can choose many things to focus on: breath, sound, sensation, etc… no matter what you choose to focus on all you have to do is come back to your point of focus every time you realize you have wandered off into some fantasy or a rabbit hole of thoughts. In this case you will come back to your mantra. ⁠⠀
You can repeat the mantra in your mind until you feel you’ve “dropped in” to a flow state and are ready to let go of it. You could also begin by repeating it out loud, then whisper it, then just repeat it in your head. ⁠⠀

Try it out and see how it goes!⁠⠀
Happy mantra-ing! ⁠⠀