Dear Diary,<\/p>\n
One of the things I enjoy about teaching is also being a student.\u00a0 I get to have wonderful conversations with people about my teachings, what they found immediately impactful, what resonated with them over time, as well as what they just didn\u2019t agree with or didn\u2019t understand.\u00a0 I\u2019m not a person who gets offended if someone doesn\u2019t like a particular piece as much as others; considering we have different backgrounds and experiences, it is natural that we will appreciate things differently.\u00a0 I am fortunate, however, the people who engage with me do so out of a position of positivity, even when letting me know a particular piece or thought wasn\u2019t their favorite.\u00a0 Bruce Lee\u2019s Jeet Kune Do teaches us to \u2018Absorb what is useful, discard what is useless,\u2019 after all.<\/p>\n
I recently received some feedback, and while the message in my recent piece (Dear Diary, Why So Many Get Meditation Backward) could have been constructed better \u2013 a valid criticism \u2013 it was the rest of the feedback that truly stuck with me.\u00a0 This individual took the principles of Body Scan Meditation and took it to another level.\u00a0 It was one of those moments I could do little but share in their joy and celebrate their progress with them.\u00a0 When they credited me for being a part of the reason for said progress, I successfully avoided minimizing my role, a bad habit with which I\u2019m only occasionally successful. This time, my gratitude at seeing such a clear milestone outweighed my nature of avoiding spotlights.<\/p>\n
What is Body Scan Meditation?\u00a0 At its core, Body Scan Meditation is a practice wherein we turn our focus inward and see how we are doing at that point in time.\u00a0 How is your head and neck?\u00a0 How are your chest and shoulders?\u00a0 How are your arms?\u00a0 We repeat this process down to our toes and back up again.\u00a0 This practice serves as a grounding tool to recenter ourselves, pulling us back from where we have cast ourselves, to the present.\u00a0 How are we doing *now?*\u00a0\u00a0 This practice is also used to monitor injury recovery, and a host of other day-to-day concerns.<\/p>\n
Body Scan Meditation absolutely does not need to be exclusively about the body.\u00a0 We can apply the same basic principles of refocusing our attention, not just on the present, but also on how we interact with it.\u00a0 Where are your thoughts?\u00a0 What are you feeling?\u00a0 In my core lessons about Environmental Harmony, having a solid grasp of one\u2019s thoughts and feelings is essential.\u00a0 How can we stop lashing out if we don\u2019t understand what anger is?\u00a0 How can we let go of the attachment if we don\u2019t know what grief is?\u00a0 The list continues, but Body Scan Meditation is one of the tools in the toolbox that we can use to go \u201cOh! I am (insert status here).\u00a0 Knowing this, I am going to make (insert decision here.)\u201d\u00a0 Which is precisely what the individual in question is beginning to excel at.<\/p>\n
Without getting into their business too much, after all, it is not mine to do so, they\u2019ve taken the principles of Body Scan Meditation and been able to place themselves at differing points in time without getting lost.\u00a0 They\u2019ve been able to communicate with their younger selves, while still being aware of their thoughts and emotions here and now.\u00a0 They\u2019ve opened up the opportunity to let go in a meaningful and lasting way, and I am so happy for them.\u00a0 One of the definitions of attachment I use frequently is being forced to change in relation to another change. In this case, attachment to the past doesn\u2019t always fit this definition, as the past doesn\u2019t change like the present does.\u00a0 We only have so much capacity for life each day, and attachment to the past can fill that capacity each day without adding value.\u00a0 Underworld, in their song Motorhome teaches us, \u201cWhat don\u2019t lift you, drags you down. Keep away from the dark side.\u201d<\/p>\n
Being a part of this person\u2019s progress and helping them unlock this ability is gratifying; it is why I give this my best.\u00a0 Of course, they\u2019re the one doing the work; I just showed them the way, but I understand I did work too, putting these concepts into words which can initially impact people.\u00a0 Sometimes, when I finally figure out a mantra or a definition, it feels so obvious I feel a bit silly I hadn\u2019t done so before, but I\u2019ve certainly come to realize simple does not always mean easy.\u00a0 Healing is not linear, and where we get stuck isn\u2019t always where we expect it to be.<\/p>\n
For me, writing (or saying) more than I need to feels counterproductive.\u00a0 I, often, think about the Tao Te Ching:<\/p>\n
\u201cThe tao that can be told
\nis not the eternal Tao
\nThe name that can be named
\nis not the eternal Name.<\/p>\n
The unnamable is the eternally real.
\nNaming is the origin
\nof all particular things.<\/p>\n
Free from desire, you realize the mystery.
\nCaught in desire, you see only the manifestations.<\/p>\n
Yet mystery and manifestations
\narise from the same source.
\nThis source is called darkness.<\/p>\n
Darkness within darkness.
\nThe gateway to all understanding.\u201d<\/p>\n
This is the first chapter.\u00a0 It lays out one of the most foundational principles up front and doesn\u2019t need to say it 50 times to pad out a youtube video for length or the illusion of content.\u00a0 It tells you immediately our ability to put things into words will render something incomplete.\u00a0 What are words?\u00a0 Words are symbols for meaning and one needs not look very far to see how people interpret them differently, sometimes drastically so.<\/p>\n
I will continue to do my best to make my symbols for meaning effective and impactful with the awareness I\u2019ll never be perfect (and that\u2019s ok).\u00a0 I\u2019ll be grateful when I can see my successes and work to clarify or otherwise improve on the misses.<\/p>\n
If you haven\u2019t, give Body Scan Meditation a try, you might learn something \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n
reBLUEvinate<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dear Diary, One of the things I enjoy about teaching is also being a student.\u00a0 I get to have wonderful conversations with people about my teachings, what they found immediately impactful, what resonated with them over time, as well as what they just didn\u2019t agree with or didn\u2019t understand.\u00a0 I\u2019m not a person who gets […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[304,337],"tags":[334],"class_list":["post-29135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dear-diary","category-the-mindfulness-journey","tag-334"],"yoast_head":"\n