Stress Meditation- Recognizing Stress
Introduction, highlighting the key points of the recognizing stress course.
The Art of Insight Meditation
In it's simplest terms 'the art of insight meditation' is experiencing the true nature of things. This done by first becoming interested in the object of the main experience i.e. body sensations, emotional feelings or mental thoughts. When the object of experience is clearly recognized, and before forming a reaction of "I like" or 'I dislike'. The objects true nature, can be experienced and learned from. (more)
Awareness
The felt present moment experience of Awareness is sometimes described as, Clear Spacious Awareness.
Other words use for Awareness are, knowing, seeing, recognizing, sensing, feeling, before thought and bare awareness.
The 3 Awareness Lessons
Lesson-1 Awareness of body sensations, by experiencing hardness and "sitting like a mountain"
Lesson-3 Awareness of the heart's emotions, by noticing unpleasant feelings and 'I dislike ...' reactions.
Lesson-5 Awareness of the mind's thoughts, by anxious 'I Am-ness' naming anxious thoughts.
Caring
The felt present moment experience of Caring is sometimes described as, Gentle Firm Caring.
Other words for Caring are, compassion, love, acceptance, friendliness, willingness, kindness and love w/o conditions.
The 3 Caring Lessons
Lesson-2 Caring for the body, by experiencing softness and feeling "soft as a feather"
Lesson-4 Caring for the emotions, by offering forgiveness and appreciation.
Lesson-6 Caring for the mind, by offering guiding phases of intention.
Caring Awareness
Caring Awareness the active part of Compassion and Wisdom. As best we can, we practice being more aware of the body, heart and mind, then caring for the main sensations, emotions and thoughts. When we are aware of what is happening inside us, we can chose to bring a caring/helpful response to it. "Caringawareness is the basic process of dropping stress, which then allows for more joy and contentment in life."
Stress Symptoms
These are helpful to identify the symptoms of harmful stress.
The Body, Heart and Mind
We experience the world through:
The body's physical sensations
The Heart's, emotional feelings
The Mind's mental thoughts
The more we are in aware of these three ever changing process, the more insight we gain into our true nature.
The 3 Brains
Are designed to work together, without one being more dominant then another. When we bring the awareness these three parts we respond to stressors more skillfully, and less out of emotional reactive habits.
The 3 Nervous Systems and the 4 Hormonal Systems
As we learn how these complex system work, we see that importance of knowing the intentions under our thoughts, speech and actions. Some hormones will stay in our body for weeks, so it is helpful not to expect that this will change quickly. The more we learn about the benefits and liabilities of these systems, the less we can be caught in misunderstanding our energy levels and moods.
The Power of Emotions
The short and long path to the brains emotional centre and why emotions are faster and more powerful the logical thoughts.
The 2 step short path:
With the shorter (reactive) path, information from eyes etc. goes to the Thalamus then the 2nd brains Amydala (emotions).
The 3 step longer path:
With the longer (responsive) path, information from the eyes etc. goes to the Thalamus, next up to the 3rd brains (thinking) cortex, and then down to the 2nd brain's Amydala (emotions).
This explains why, when the emotions are strong, it is difficult to think clearly. And why after the emotions have settled down, we can more clear see what was really happening.
The Safety of the Present Moment
This is where we can experience first hand what it is like to be grounded. We start by bringing awareness to the weight of the body sitting and the hardness of the spine's posture. As if we were as strong and secure 'sitting like a mountain'. We then invite all the muscles to become 'soft as a feather' as we bring awareness to the physical sensations of the belly breathing. This caring intention allows for the release of the body's held stress. We can then experience being 'grounded in the present moment' with an relaxed effortless awareness.
Next with open minded interest, we recognize the emotions and thoughts as they come and go. If the emotions or thoughts become to overwhelming, we move the awareness back to the safe grounded sensations. To the physical sensations of heaviness and hardness of the body and 'softly' release the newly accumulated stress in all the muscles.
This bare awareness with caring and without judgmentalness and open minded inquiry allows for new insights to arise. We then can apply these new personal understandings to our daily life reducing the formation of stress.
Summary of the summary:)
Interest, an open minded curiosity is essential for insightful meditation.
Experience, allow for all new experiences to arise in the 6 meditations.
Inquiry, into all the experiences, again with and open beginners mind.
Trust, what has been experienced by inquiring into "Is really this true".
Apply, the new insights, continue to practice being aware and caring.
"The more grounded we are in awareness; the less stress we will hold onto."