Turning off our thoughts, by turning on our senses

Sense-memory meditation

Tapas

Tapas

Sense-memory meditation

I often wish for an easy little off-switch for my thoughts.  Trying to fall asleep but thinking through that embarrassing moment…  Snap. Off.  Trying to find the vibe at yoga class but worst-mom-ever thoughts keep poking in…  Done. AH.   Trying to have a nice evening with the hubs…  Click, switch, ready.  

First of all, notice how each example begins with “trying” and ends with a magic switch that isn’t trying at all?  Hmmm.  Perhaps there is something in between panicked hard work and no work.  Yoga suggests developing a discipline, or routine, called tapas to burn away those thought patterns.  Yes!!!  

One tapas routine to try is sense-memory meditation.  Close eyes (or soften the gaze like you are daydreaming) and imagine the feel of something warm on your skin.  Maybe laying on a beach?  Now imagine the feel of something cool on your skin.  Maybe cold water tickling your toes?  From here, you can go back and forth between warm and cold.  Or you can introduce other sense-memories, like the feel of a kiss or the smell of a campfire or the sound of a bubble brook. Allow sense-memories to float in and out of your mind.

Ok, tapas isn’t a magical switch.  But if we have a desire to rid ourselves of habits that aren’t serving us (like those damn thought patterns) then it really is that sweet spot between panicked hard work and no work.  It’s developing a discipline or routine, like sense-memory meditation, that gets easier and easier and works better and better each time we do it.

Turning off the mind by turning on the senses.  That sounds like a disciple I can start right now.

Until next time, 

Laura