Relaxation #1. Noticing The Monkey Mind Week Three

Relaxation #1: Noticing Your Breathing ---

Meditation Practices To Still The "Monkey Mind"

Week Three Dr. Kathy McGuire, Director

From Creative Edge Focusing: This month's Relaxation Exercise : Week Two ---"Ahhhhh....pause with me for ten minutes....and just relax!!! I will send this exercise each week as a reminder to pause...

Some people find it easy to drop all their stress and enter into an interior Focusing space. But, many people need easy first steps of practice for "going quietly inside." And even experienced Focusers get caught up in stress and business and welcome a reminder to take a moment to....pause.....(sigh!)...pay attention to their breathing.......(ahhhhhh!)......and...relax...

While many people use meditation techniques as an end in themselves, a way of healing mind and body, we are using them as a way of "clearing a space" in the body for the specific problem-solving process of Intuitive Focusing.

FREE MEDITATION EXPLANATIONS AND PRACTICE ON THE WEB!

Just "Google" "meditation techniques" and a number of excellent websites offering free explanations and practice exercises will pop up. In general, meditation is a way of escaping from and stilling the endless "go-around" of our thoughts and worries, the endless activity of "the monkey mind." Our Noticing Your Breathing exercise, as a form of "clearing a space" for Focusing, is similar to this breathing process described at the free Meditation Handbook website, which explains seven basic approaches:

"Another useful method is to lend special awareness to the breathing process felt in the belly. Just behind and below your navel (belly button) lies the hara, which is felt as an ethereal ball of energy. The hara is a natural balancing point of your consciousness which can be thought of as the center of your being. Subjectively and poetically speaking, the hara is where man and universe meet. It is the gateway where we merge and become man-universe and universe-man. No one really knows what the hara actually is, but we can use it to our full advantage. Consciously developing a powerful hara center is the most important secret of meditation.

When your consciousness is centered in the hara instead of the head, your thinking process slows down and you can relax in the expanded world of being. Trying to stop distracting thoughts through will power alone leads to more thoughts and a self-defeating inner struggle. By transferring your center of awareness to the hara, thoughts gradually disappear on their own without inner conflict. That is why you see Buddha statues with a big belly. It is an esoteric message that the hara is the key to meditation.

Sit quietly and focus on your belly as it moves in and out as you breathe. Over time the hara point will become more noticeable as your meditation grows stronger. Sudden emergencies, such as near collisions on the highway, tend to activate the hara center. We often get a "gut reaction" from sudden danger. You can nourish the feeling of the hara by simply paying passive attention to it. This relaxed concentration is very close to doing nothing, yet it is still a subtle effort. Drinking herb tea or hot water before meditation sessions relaxes the gut and facilitates awareness of the hara. Overeating and consuming cold drinks tends to make hara awareness more difficult."

The bolding is mine, showing how this meditation practice is seen as strengthening your ability to notice "gut feelings," "intuitions," a great companion to Intuitive Focusing.

If you are really intrigued, you can go to Free Meditations website and find several different versions of a Buddhist breath meditation and many, many more meditation techniques.

And, last but not least, at The Meditation Society website, you can find links to 108 different meditations on the web!

But we are using meditation as a first step, a way of opening up enough "free attention" in the body for the deeper process of Intuitive Focusing, which involves a more active back-and-forth between the "intuitive feel" of an issue or idea and symbolizations (words, images, gestures) that arise from it.

Print and Practice!!!!!

Here is your relaxation exercise for this month. Print it out, keep it handy, and take those few moments to relax every day, if you can, or as often as possible. Or, you can just open this weekly reminder and walk through the exercise online. Relaxing is one way to "clear a space" inside for a longer-term Focusing Problem Solving session.

You will also find this in the Complete Focusing Instructions download at Creative Edge Focusing, p.3: Pre-Focusing Practice A. Relaxation Suggestions #1: Noticing. You get it by joining our e-support group for further support in practicing Listening and Focusing.

And, if you order our Self-Help Package, also in the sidebar icons of our website, you can listen on audio CD Intuitive Focusing: Disk one, Track 2, with Dr, McGuire's peaceful voice to keep you company -- and help you stay on track!!

PRE-FOCUSING PRACTICE

A. RELAXATION SUGGESTIONS (from Complete Focusing Instructions)

The quiet time between instructions is an important time for just breathing---and relaxing.

You can lie on the floor or, for most exercises, sit in a chair. If you fall asleep, it's okay! Means you need more rest! But you may also want to practice sitting up to avoid sleeping.

Especially at the beginning, time those "1 minute" pauses for breathing in---and out--- You will be amazed at how long a minute is, how seldom we ever pause for a whole minute!!!

1. Noticing-Allow 10-15 minutes

Lie down and make yourself comfortable---Loosen any clothing that is too tight---

Massage your own neck and face, making small circles with your fingertips over small areas at a time---Find at least five different spots on your neck and five on your face to massage in this way--- Feel the tension leaving---

1 minute

Stretch your whole body three times, reaching your arms out over your head, arching your back, and pointing your toes--- After each stretch, collapse into the floor and breath deeply, relaxing---stretch---and relax---stretch---and relax---stretch---and relax

10 seconds

Now, lie there and notice your breathing. Don't try to change it,just notice the breath going in and out---in---and out---in---and out---in---and out

10 seconds

Now, begin to notice any thoughts or pictures you are having. JUST NOTICE THEM---and keep breathing, in---and out---in---and out---

1 minute

Just notice your thoughts going by, like a movie---don't think or problem solve---just notice---and keep breathing, in---and out---in and out---

1 minute

If you realize that you have started thinking about something and are trying to solve a problem or have started worrying about something, just allow yourself to leave that thought and to come back to noticing your breathing, going in---and out---in---and out---

1 minute

If you have started thinking and problem solving, just leave that thought---and come back to noticing your breath, going in---and out---in---and out---

1 minute

Just noticing your thoughts, like a movie, letting them go, returning to noticing your breath, going in---and out---in---and out

3 minutes

Now, massage any parts of your body that seem tense or uncomfortable---

1 minute

Stretch one more time, and get up when you are ready.

About Creative Edge Focusing

Located by Beaver Lake in Rogers, AR, our goal is to support people in the practice of listening/focusing skills, throughout the world, and for personal growth, interpersonal conflict resolution, and creative individual and group problem solving.

Creative Edge Focusing (TM)

Dr. Kathy McGuire

Director

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