Listen to Your Action Signals!

Have you ever wondered WHY we feel anger, frustration, fear and sadness? Wouldn't life be so much better if we only had positive feelings?

Bob Stahl, my meditation teacher, puts it like this: negative feelings are signals for you to realise that something is not in balance. That there is something that is incongruent to your values or that you need to work on.

Instead of pretending that everything is just fine and ignoring negative feelings, we acknowledge them in our meditation practice. We notice all of the feelings that are coming up, pleasant or unpleasant, then we sit with them and observe how they run their course. Often they are fickle and of very short existence. They come and go like a bad mood. So we let go of them when it's time.

However, some negative feelings are of longer lasting nature and contain a deeper message for us. Then we should pay closer attention and really listen into that feeling. Where does it come from? What does it indicate? When does it occur? But try not to over-analyse! Feelings are rooted much more deeply and get interpreted too fast. So leave aside your opinions and story-lines. Especially anger may actually be rooted in a different emotion, such as a being hurt and longing for acceptance and love. Maybe we are angry because we want to be heard, seen and respected..

Sit with that feeling. Observe it, get into it. Feel it in your body. Maybe you can locate it in your chest, stomach or throat.

It might take us a while to understand where that feeling comes from or what it means. That's part of the process. A strong negative feeling will return to us until we have dealt with it and got its message. Meditation gives us time and space to listen and observe.

So don't try to ignore bad feelings. Like Bob says, "Don't try to be the family dog - always happy and content". Dealing with our feelings means learning, growing and developing wisdom. Be open, don't judge or over-analyse, just be aware and take actions along the way.

Your heart never lies. Your gut feeling never does either.

Increase Your Concentration Trough One-Pointedness

Meditation is a great tool to increase your concentration. In our everyday life, we are constantly distracted by emails, messages, mobile phones, TV and radio. Studies have shown that our ability to concentrate has decreased over time. We seem to be real experts in multitasking nowadays. However, all those external stimuli really drain our energy reserves and decrease our productivity. In order to achieve great results and live in balance we need to train our concentration. This is not an excerpt from the Budhhist Dharma but from contemporary time and human resources management literature.

So how can meditation increase your concentration? During your meditation practice you focus on one thing at a time. You start with observing your breath, your inhalations and exhalations. As simple as that. Simple but not easy.. You will notice that your mind is wondering of a million times and that your body is itching nonstop. But don't worry, this is absolutely normal! It is part of the process. Acknowledge how busy your mind and body are and stay seated anyway! With every breath bring back your awareness to your breathing. Let go of everything else, just stay with your breath. This method is called one-pointedness and it trains your concentration.

After only a few weeks of practice you will experience some improvement. Focussing on your breath will get easier and your overall concentration will increase too.

One-pointedness and mindfulness go hand in hand. Carrying out your activities mindfully means focussing on one thing at a time from moment to moment. This reduces things like careless mistakes, forgetfulness and inadvertence.

By the way, mindfulness does not mean to be slow! You can be mindful and focussed while running, speaking or acting fast. This being said, one-pointedness and mindfulness are even more important when you speed! Think about it!

Meditation Is About Restoring Our Balance

Our life often requires full power in all areas. Every day, we are supposed to perform at our best at work, in our partnerships and friendships, our recreational and sports activities etc. The to-do-lists are endless. And we try to push through our agenda, because we "have" to. Most of the times we don't even notice how exhausted we are. This is when we start to burn our energy reserves. We are ignoring our inner warning signals.

Our body and mind are highly sensitive indicators of our well-being. They show us how much energy is left, what is good for us and what is congruent to our values. Whether good or bad feelings, positive or negative thoughts, health or illness they all indicate what is going on and what we need to deal with.

Meditation is the practice of listening to ourselves and restoring that fine alert system of ours. We sit, we observe what is coming up and we allow it to be because it holds valuable information for us. When we practice regularly we can enhance our sensitivity and see what is happening early on before we burn out, get unbalanced or upset.

In a nutshell, meditation helps us:

-to increase our concentration

-to see what is happening inside and what we need to work on

-to understand how body, feelings and state of mind are interrelated.

Meditation is finding that inner wisdom that tells us exactly what is going right or wrong. On this basis we can re-evaluate and adjust our behaviour to keep and restore our well-being.

Frosty - The Snowman and The 5 Hindrances Attack

I have just come back from a very inspiring and insightful 5-day silent meditation retreat taught by Bob Stahl, a senior teacher at the Center For Mindfulness at the University of Massachusetts Medical School and the world-famous Spirit Rock Meditation Center near-by San Francisco. Bob also lived in a Buddhist Monastery in Burma for over eight years.

Retreats are great to deepen our practice of meditation and mindfulness and allow some very profound work within ourselves. As all external factors get eliminated through silence, minimal eye contact, no Internet, telephone or TV, and a remote setting, we are pretty much confronted with ourselves. What we would think to be a relaxing and peaceful retreat turns out to be (quoting Bob) a "shit accelerator". The setting seems so beautiful and calm but inside ourselves it's just the opposite. All that stuff that we successfully ignore in our busy lives is suddenly flying high. Our likes, our dislikes, our pain, our restlessness, our fears and our doubts, they are all there, all at ones! And on top of that we are realising how tired we actually are. So try to deal with that!! :)

Bob put on his big smile and looked like a sassy little boy when he started talking about "shit is flying high" and explaining that this is the best stuff to work with. The shit-accelerator gets us away from our daily routine, our rat race, our auto pilote. It shows us where we have work to do.

Bob's easy-goingness and humour made us laugh and so we started our "work" at the retreat: meditating and being mindful of what is coming up. Just sitting and observing.

Bob calls this the "Frosty - the Snowman" approach: When the snow globe is shaken and the snow churns up, no matter how bad the snow storm gets, Frosty sits. So referring to us, whatever churns up within or around us, we stay grounded.

I love this sweet metaphor because it really describes what meditation is about and adds a sense of humour. Often we take our likes and dislikes and our fears and doubts so serious that we find it difficult to get over them. When we understand that "shit is happening" but it is impermanent, and that as we remain seated we can literally see it coming and going, we have developed a powerful tool to regain control over our mind and can start using it properly.

There is more to come on this retreat.

Meditation Teacher Training with David Nichtern in New York

Last week I started a great teacher training program with David Nichtern in New York, senior teacher in the Shambhala Buddhist lineage of Chogyam Trungpa and Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche. It was a course with great spirit and the goal to teach meditation in a straight forward, secular way and to share the benefits of meditation with others. David is a knowledgable and kind teacher who does bring some good humor into his teachings.

We were able to deepen our knowledge of mindfulness and meditation techniques as well as the Buddhist dharma, and discussed the bridge between the traditional Buddhist approach and a more westernized, secular way of teaching meditation to people in Western societies to become more mindful, balanced and peaceful. This discussion was highly interesting and fruitful. David seems to be the perfect partner in this conversation being a Buddhist in New York. His view is very open, sincere but humorous. He believes all humans encounter problems and pain in their lives and need to deal with what is. Understanding that everything is impermanent and that we can strengthen our mind power through mindfulness, concentration and contemplation allows us to develop more acceptance of what is, a better friendship with ourselves and all beings and a certain easiness as things come and go.

David is a great inspiration to me and I m looking forward to continue my training with him this fall.

If You Walk, Just Walk, If You Sit, Just Sit...

"If you walk, just walk, if you sit, just, whatever you do, don't wobble." This famous saying by zen master Unmon explains the idea of mindfulness. It is about being present and fully aware of what we are doing in this very moment. Mindfulness is the opposite of multi-tasking. It puts our focus on the one activity we are carrying out at that very moment, and thus bundles our energy. Instead of being distracted by a multiple of thoughts, tasks and emotions, we are able to fully concentrate on each activity.

Stress arises when we or others expect us to achieve more than we can actually perform. Stress is aggrevated when we try to juggle all those different tasks having even less time and energy to accomplish each one of them.

Think about it like this: how good are your results when you try to cook, phone, email and watch the news at the same time as supposed to carry out each task separately and mindfully?

But it is not only about results it is also about the intensity with which we experience our lives. We live more fully when we use all our senses. So when you cook do you feel the fresh ingredients, smell their flavour and see their shape, colour and texture?

Mindfulness isn't some complicated, mystic practice it is rather a way of life that is more focussed, more rich in experiences and more truthful. It helps us to stay grounded, balanced and awake.

Our breath is a great tool to bring us back to that mindfulness. So we can use our formal and informal breathing practice to generate a greater awareness and alertness to what is happening in this very moment.

Use Your Breath As Your Anchor

Last week you tried a first sitting exercise focussing on your breathing for 5 minutes once or twice a day. You probably noticed a calming effect, maybe even some sort of inner stability. This is what you call anchoring yourself in the present moment. In meditation you use your breath as an anchor to find your inner balance even in stressful or troubled moments. This is a powerful tool and always available, because as long as you live you breathe.

We can use this anchor not only during formal meditation sessions but also in day-to-day life. Whether you are at work, travelling or carrying out all sorts of tasks, you can focus on your breathing at any time. You can use different triggers such as your phone ringing to remind yourself of becoming present, also called mindful. It takes some practice until mindfulness becomes a habit.

Being mindful helps you to becoming aware of your thoughts and emotions and to take the role of the neutral observer. Instead of being caught up in distressing thoughts or drowning into negative emotions you can detach yourself. This does not mean that you will think or feel differently but you will be able to put things into perspective. Acknowledging your thoughts and emotions is helpful to understand what is actually happening.

So this week I want you to remind yourself of being mindful as often as possible during the day. Notice the difference in your breathing, the fickleness of your thoughts and feelings and the different sensations in your body. Don't try to change or judge. Just become aware of what is happening. Notice how you do things - even simple routine activities such as driving your car or brushing your teeth. How do you use your body? What do you sense? How easily does your mind wander off? What feelings come up?

You might notice that most of the time your mind is not present. You live on auto pilote. By being mindful you have the chance to actively engage in your life again.

After only a few weeks you will start to feel a difference. You will get a better understanding of how you function and gain new perspective.

Tell me your experience!