THE 5 BULLET POINTS:
- Any length of meditation is better than NO meditation
- The difference between anxiety and excitement is breathing = We can heal anxiety by breathing through it
- Our brains are ALWAYS creating a story, that story is usually not REALITY
- Living free = not being imprisoned by every negative or positive thought we have
- WE ARE NOT OUR THOUGHTS
Repeat after me,
“I am not my thoughts.”
“I am not my thoughts.”
“I am not my thoughts.”
Right now your super-powered, caffeine fueled, flesh-computer is running a 3 million year old survival program tasked with one chief objective: keeping your entitled ass alive. It’s an operating system contrasting and comparing countless images, “facts,” and data points every mili-second your eyes are open. The result of this is your conscious and subconscious mind send little, unpolished reports to you, and the only problem with this is that you think that this glimpse into operations is actually who you are.
We can go into technical detail about the interplay between emotion, cognitive thought, ego, and the feeling of “self,” but practically, we know that the misinterpretation of this equation is the cause of our most prescient existential suffering. We think things, and then we think the things we think are reality. So in the midst of navigating the perilous 3rd dimension, our brain investigates the weird glance the barista gave us when we ordered our 5 step, half-almond, half-skim milk machiatto. When we peek into this dialogue (between who knows what entities are computing up there in cranium land) we think, “oh shit I suck,” or “what an asshole,” or “next time I just won’t ask for what I want because I’m always a pain in the ass, that’s what mom said, and I’m tired of being a pain in everyone’s ass.”
FACT: all that shit is jut not true. You don’t know everything, you’re not some secret X-men, KGB, psychic mastermind and you don’t fucking know everything! It’s a mental drama we take part in, it’s what the brain loves to do most. Romeo and Juliet, suicide pact style drama. Playing off of our suppressed emotions and over stimulated, immediate gratification seeking mind states. Our brain creates the most viscerally compelling version of reality because it has to. It’s job is to make sure we are at peek awareness and peak connectivity and the drama of the mind is one way it does this. Sucks for us though, right?!
We are not our thoughts.
The practice of meditation is primarily concerned with being able to SEE all of the bullshit that is going on in your mind at any given time and then the practice of moving freely INTO and OUT of this bullshit with out becoming attached to it. That might mean reliving the painful moment you and your ex broke up, yelled insane things at each other, and then you not siding with either party. It might mean re-watching the asshole who cut you off in traffic and breathing through the rush in your body, and understanding that what you were feeling and thinking was as temporary as the placement of the clouds in the sky.
There are a million examples of breathing, witnessing, and letting go. Examples aren’t going to help you for shit though. The only thing YOU CAN DO is take ANY amount of time (even if it’s 30 fucking seconds) to close your eyes and go through any size “emotional disturbance” and breathe through it. If you have thirty minutes good for you. If you have 30 seconds, do it now. Shut those peepers, relive one thing and let it fucking go, while breathing as deeply as possible. Use these 30 second retreats as your stepping stone to bigger and longer breaks. Trust me, you’ll see the positive results.