Have you ever had a thought that as they say “didn’t serve you”? Like in the last 5 minutes? Me too. As a coach I am trained to transform my thoughts from negative to positive. Or from limiting to unlimiting. From victim to empowered.
So obviously, after years of practice and teaching others how to do this, I am no longer plagued by any low-vibrational thoughts right?
Nope. Not even close.
Recently I have been trying to cultivate a more consistent practice of meditation. Not just pausing and going for long walks with my dogs or lying in yin yoga type of restorative practices but traditional sit-up-and-not-move-type-meditation.
And to be honest, it has been a real challenge for me.
Naturally I bought a beautiful meditation cushion to inspire me but more often than not it sits unused in the corner. I think about sitting on it daily but have every excuse in the book why it is not the ‘right time”. “Maybe later” I tell myself and shocker, later does not happen.
Can you relate?
Thankfully I have some company on my journey as the past few weeks I ‘sit’ with a group of other wanna-be-meditators – some seasoned and some trying it for the first time. And we will sit together and try this really crazy thing called noticing.
Noticing our thoughts.
Noticing our body.
Noticing our mind.
Noticing our breath.
Noticing our discomfort.
Noticing our ego.
And trying very hard to do that and only that.
We are offered the metephor of sitting by a river tasked with simply watching what floats by. This is like our thoughts. Just logs floating by. No judgement about the logs. No analysis about the logs. No stopping to pick up the logs and drag them out of the river. Just watching them go by.
Being a big fan of transforming ones thoughts, this watching of ‘log-thoughts’ without switching them up or wrestling with them is proving to be quite difficult.
But I really love the metaphor so I am committing to the art of noticing. I do believe there is a place for transforming of ones thoughts but not during meditation. That is just for the noticing of them.
And maybe I will do a little alchemy of them later.
Or maybe I will just let them go by.
How about you? Have you tried the art of noticing?
Love to know if you are.
xo