Home Practice Guide-Week 3 - Emotions

“Acceptance. . .simply means that you have come around

to a willingness to see things as they are.”

~Jon Kabat-Zinn

Seated practice

This week we ask you to put to use these two practice elements —R.A.I.N. & the Hindrances—in your home practice. Play with them. Maybe in one sitting you commit to using the R.A.I.N. technique and in another you bring some particular awareness to what Hindrances are showing up for you. Or you might loosely integrate them into your practice, intentionally bringing acceptance and interest to your aversion or restlessness, etc. Note: The anchor of your meditation is still the breath.

R.A.I.N.

R: Recognize

A: Accept, Allow

I: Interest, Investigation

N: Non-identification-letting go: “Not me, Not mine, Not who I am”

THE HINDRANCES

1) Restlessness (worrying, remorse, agitation)

2) Sloth & Torpor (sleepiness, boredom)

3) Sensual desire (wanting)

4) Aversion (anger, frustration, irritation)

5) Doubt & Fear

While you are still focusing (and returning to) the breath, you are allowing for greater awareness of what draws you away, particularly the emotional quality of what draws you away. We are NOT interested right now in the story. Instead, allow yourself to briefly explore the texture of your felt experience (where in the body you feel the emotion, its weight, its breadth, its changing quality) and then let it go and come back to the breath. Remember to honor the hindrances as guests—we aren’t denying or pushing them away but we also aren’t letting them decide who we are, take over our house and run the show.

For those of you who are new to meditation, we are now asking you to sit for 15 minutes a day.

For those of you with an established practice, focus this week on really grounding your practice in some way— committing to a specific length of time, strengthening your intention as you sit or filling the gaps in the regularity of your practice.

Mindfulness in Daily Life: Sound

Whenever you can (whenever you remember!) notice whatever sounds are present. Hear the tone quality, the loudness, softness, continuity, sharpness, dullness, roundness, even the silence underneath. Notice the sounds of walking, eating, cooking, breathing, going to the bathroom, computer keys clicking, voices, wind, cars, birds, plumbing, whatever it is. And of course, notice when there's a mental story or judgment about the sound; whenever there is, meet it for a moment with curiosity and acceptance, and then come back to the physical quality of the sound itself. If you find yourself caught up in an emotion, a personal drama or any kind of mental gymnastics during the day, come back to the simple experience of the actual sounds arising in that moment. Enjoy!

Rebecca & Jenn