Author Archives: Teresa Jordan

Poems and Quotations for Mindfulness of Thoughts

Posted on by

Mindfulness of thoughts:  become a field observer of your own wild interior

We can make our minds so like still water that beings gather around us that they may see their own images, and so live for a moment with a clearer, perhaps even a fiercer life because of our quiet. • William Butler Yeats

 

Enough by David Whyte

Enough. These few words are enough.
If not these words, this breath.
If not this breath, this sitting here.
This opening to the life
we have refused
again and again
until now.
Until now.

 

Thanking a Monkey by Kaveri Patel

There’s a monkey in my mind
swinging on a trapeze,
reaching back to the past
or leaning into the future,
never standing still.

Sometimes I want to kill
that monkey, shoot it square
between the eyes so I won’t
have to think anymore
or feel the pain of worry.

But today I thanked her
and she jumped down
straight into my lap,
trapeze still swinging
as we sat still.

 

Invitations for Working with Mindfulness of Thoughts

Posted on by

Mindfulness of thoughts:  become a field observer of your own wild interior

Watch your thoughts through the week and start a list of your Top 10. What turns up over and over again?

Some things to pay attention to (and possibly journal about):

  • What do you find challenging when working with mindfulness of thoughts?
  • What are the thoughts that most put you in trance?
  • What are the thoughts that keep you awake at night?

Meditation: practice mindful breathing a minimum of five minutes a day. In mindful breathing, the breath is the anchor, the focus of attention that you can return to if you find your thoughts have strayed. If paying attention to the breath is difficult for any reason, or if you just want a change, choose another anchor. This can be the body, most especially a point of contact such as one hand resting in another, or the feel of both hands resting on your thighs; the sense of your seat on your cushion or chair; the soles of your feet on the ground. Yet another anchor is sound: Become fully aware of the soundscape, of everything that reaches your ears. including silence itself.

As you become comfortable with sitting in stillness — such an odd thing for us busy Westerners to do! — consider lengthening your practice time by five or ten minutes a day. Establishing a habit of daily practice is more important than how long you meditate. Experiment to find what is comfortable and doable for you. Setting a goal of too long a meditation can easily become the task you don’t have time to fulfill.

It helps with any habit to have a repeatable pattern. Experiment to find that time of day that you can be available for practice on a regular basis. For many people, this is first thing in the morning, before anything else is scheduled or interferes. This is my own pattern. Because I like the restfulness of meditation, it is easy to get out of bed, and I like the lovely solitude and silence of being up before others. I put the coffee on (something to enjoy after meditation!) and sit, usually for 30 minutes. It sets the rest of my day on a good course.

Other people find they can make regular time during the lunch hour, or just as they finish work, or before they go to bed at night. There is no right time, just your right time.

 

Some Helpful Resources for Meditation

Posted on by

Mindfulness Daily

Several of you mentioned when you signed up for the class that you had tried meditation before but had never been able to establish a practice. It’s helpful to set a minimal goal, something you know you can find time to do each day: even five minutes a day is enough to establishish a habit. It can also be helpful to have structure and guidance, and the free, 40-day series that Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach are offering right now, Mindfulness Daily, is a gem. Each day is a bite-sized session, 10-15 minutes.

And it’s not just for beginners! Deeply experienced meditators know the delight of a return to “beginner’s mind.” In the past few weeks, I recommended this series to several people who asked to sign up for the class after it was full. After the first couple of recommendations, it struck me that I should listen to a session or two to be sure it was as helpful as I thought it would be. After the first couple of “bites,” I was hooked. Each one is a little jewel, rich and thoughtful, and I’ve found that the series is a perfect addition to my day. The forty days coincide almost exactly with the length of this 6-week class, and would be a wonderful supplement. You can access the course here.

Meditation Timer

A meditation timer is a helpful addition to your practice, and there are dozens of apps available, many for free and others available at minimum cost. I use a very simple one called i-Qi Clock and Meditation Timer that functions only as a clock or timer. Probably the most popular app is Insight Timer, which has many more features, including guided meditations and the option of belonging to an online community.

 

Poem: In the Time of Pandemic

Posted on by

Thank you, Greta, for sharing this poem. Greta also shared an article that provides the backstory of this poem as well as links to several other poems written in response to the challenges of our day: “A Viral Poem for a Virus Time”

In the Time of Pandemic
Kitty O’Meara

And the people stayed home,
And read books, and listened,
And rested, and exercised,
And made art, and played games,
And learned new ways of being,
And were still.
And listened more deeply.
Some meditated, some prayed
And some danced.
Some met their shadows.
And the people began to think differently.

And the people healed.
And, in the absence of people living in ignorant,
Dangerous, mindless, and heartless ways,
The earth began to heal.
And when the danger passed,
And the people joined together again,
They grieved their losses,
And made new choices,
And dreamed new images,
And created new ways to live
And heal the earth fully,
As they had been healed.

Invitations: Mindfulness of Breath

Posted on by

THIS WEEK: LET US GROW AWARE OF OUR BREATH, AND OF OUR DEEPEST INTENTION

Three Invitations:

• How do you want this pandemic to change you? Write down whatever arose for you during tonight’s talk, and revisit the question through the week.

• Commit to a period of practice every day. It can be as short as five minutes, but even a few minutes of stillness, of following the breath, can calm and clear the mind. A wonderful resource, if you would like some guidance in this, is Mindfulness Daily, a 40-day mindfulness course that Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach are offering for free during the pandemic. Each day is a bite-sized lesson and short meditation — 10 to 12 minutes each day — and the series is deep and rich and delightfully accessible. You can access the course here: Mindfulness Daily

• Check in with your breath a few times a day, taking one or two or three breaths with complete attention. It helps to have a trigger. Some people take one deep breath each time before they check their phone or a text. Another possibility: right now all of us are washing our hands a lot. Two deep breaths takes about 20 seconds, and is a lot more satisfying than singing “Happy Birthday” in your head for the umpteenth time. Fully engage with your breath, and enjoy the sensual pleasure of soapy water on your hands.

Please share your experiences or questions in the comment section.

Readings on Tranquility and Finding Meaning

Posted on by

THIS WEEK: LET US GROW AWARE OF OUR BREATH, AND OF OUR DEEPEST INTENTION

screenshot.png
On Corona Virus Lockdown? Look for Meaning, not Happiness
New York Times journalist Smith has studied how people respond to adversity for years. Here, she looks at why some people experience post-traumatic stress while others – equally disturbed by the events – experience post-traumatic growth.
by Emily Esfahani Smith, New York Times, April 7, 2020

Tranquility: Brook Hopkin’s Story
When Brook Hopkins was paralyzed from the neck down in a bicycle accident just a few weeks after he retired, he and his wife, renowned medical ethicist Peggy Battin, decided they could still live a beautiful life. Early on, they asked themselves: “How do we want this to change us?”
From The Year of Living Virtuously (Weekends Off) by Teresa Jordan

Poems for the Pandemic

Posted on by

This weeK: Let us grow aware of our breath, and of our deepest intention

Pandemic, by Lynn Ungar

What if you thought of it
as the Jews consider the Sabbath—
the most sacred of times?
Cease from travel.
Cease from buying and selling.
Give up, just for now,
on trying to make the world
different than it is.
Sing. Pray. Touch only those
to whom you commit your life.
Center down.
And when your body has become still,
reach out with your heart.
Know that we are connected
in ways that are terrifying and beautiful.
(You could hardly deny it now.)
Know that our lives
are in one another’s hands.
(Surely, that has come clear.)
Do not reach out your hands.
Reach out your heart.
Reach out your words.
Reach out all the tendrils
of compassion that move, invisibly,
where we cannot touch.
Promise this world your love—
for better or for worse,
in sickness and in health,
so long as we all shall live.

Posted on LynnUngar.com

 

You Reading This, Be Ready by William Stafford

Starting here, what do you want to remember?
How sunlight creeps along a shining floor?
What scent of old wood hovers, what softened
sound from outside fills the air?
Will you ever bring a better gift for the world
than the breathing respect that you carry
wherever you go right now? Are you waiting
for time to show you some better thoughts?
When you turn around, starting here, lift this
new glimpse that you found; carry into evening
all that you want from this day. This interval you spent
reading or hearing this, keep it for life–
What can anyone give you greater than now,
starting here, right in this room, when you turn around?

 

by e. e. cummings

i thank You God for most this amazing
day: for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes
 
(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun’s birthday; this is the birth
day of life and love and wings and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any-lifted from the no
of all nothing-human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?
 
(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)