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1.1 | What have you observed about your mindfulness of body practice?
Below, you will see the Session #1 reflection questions. Please answer these questions at the bottom of the screen.
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58 Replies
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What have you learned / observed about your mindfulness of body practice?
I’ve learned that I tend to shut down certain feelings in specific body parts from feeling overwhelmed in past experiences and when I’m in that place my body shuts down and the thinking takes over. I want to think my way out of discomfort and that’s the main difficulty staying in the body and scanning the emotions particularly in the belly area. I am making conscious effort in developing awareness when I am automatically doing it again and slowly building a practice of sitting with the discomfort in certain areas and as I do, I notice I regain self-control when I am faced with challenges that trigger emotional response in those areas on a daily basis. For example: stressful interactions in relationships that brings discomfort I am recovering the choice between eating to soothe the feelings of discomfort in the belly. I can breathe through the discomfort and assure myself that I can hold space for those emotions and discomfort in the body and accept them without needing to numb out with eating mindlessly.
What have you learned / observed about your self-care practice?
I have observed that I have the tendency to make it very complicated and overscheduling myself with very little time to just be spontaneous so I have created a day in the week where I refuse to schedule anything and the difficulty of sticking to this boundary is the greatest lesson on how much I need to grow in this area. Allowing space for non-scheduled time has become my biggest step towards self-assessment of my real needs without creating complicated lists or rules around what self-care should look like to me on a daily basis.
How do these practices inform or influence your leadership?
They help achieve clarity over my human condition and redefine my expectations towards myself and others because I am looking at reality from a honest and open minded perspective. There is a lot of empathy that comes from that place and I release the need to be right or being in control. I can accept my shortcoming and as a result be more understanding of other people’s journeys. When I accept that it isn’t a race and there isn’t any type of graduation when it comes to self-awareness and the process of realization of who I am there is a deep process of surrender that unfolds and when I’m able to recognize that I can recognize myself and others on the same path. Regardless of where we are coming from. That has a very positive influence on my leadership because I am able to arrive at the present moment and from an embodied space be able to contribute to the stream of life rather than focusing on what I can get from it. It’s been really interesting to witness that shift from interactions with people who I’ve been working for years but also with strangers I happen to have just met. There is no longer a separation between what I can give nor fear of losing who I am in the process. There is only this deepening of a heart opening and ever growing awareness of the great reality and the privilege of every breath. Wonderful stuff! So much gratitude for experiencing it with all its ups and downs.
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Body meditation has made me far more aware of my own emotions and how they are relating to my body. This practice of noticing my body has helped me hone in on and be attuned to my emotions as they rise and fall. In one instance, I felt the anger rising in me as my husband and I discussed some misunderstanding. I felt my stomach go tight, my through clamp, my body temperature rise as my heart beat faster. And while the temptation to let that emotion control my reaction was there, very strongly , by noting I was having a reaction I was able to pause instead. I asked that we pause our conversation. I said I felt myself having a reaction, that I wanted us to stop talking for a minute, that I requested we pause and I be able to process for a moment. It was not very long, only 5 minutes or so, that I felt the anger seep and flow out of me. This small pause between the stimulus and my reaction, allowed me to see the impermanence of this emotion, and be free of it. Calmly and genuinely I was then able to engage again, and we were quickly resolved and recentered.
At work, in a meeting, I found myself in a meeting with two coworkers, arguing with each other and me over a charged issue. In this moment, I was body aware. I actively listened, and said little initially, and observed, and absorbed their words. I noticed my own reaction starting – how I wanted to react with some anger and charged energy. How I was judging and felt my body tense, heartbeat rise, and even noticed my hands gripping the chair. When the two finally stopped speaking, I simply said: I’m having a reaction and I’d like to pause and process. I’d like some time. I think this came as a surprise to them, but they agreed and we ended the conversation.
After a couple hours, I was able to return to the conversation, and give some less charged thoughts on how to proceed. I felt calm and unreactive in my approach and could sense they were also matching my stride. It reminded me that if a flight attendant is calm on a turbulent flight, everyone else is also calm. If they are panicking, so will everyone else. I’ve now practiced this with the many times I feel anger and heated reactions rising in my body. Noting my body changing, noting the need to pause and just notice my body. In that noticing is just enough time, just enough of a breath, to also see the reaction dissipate, to realize its impermanence. Then I see with some freedom and wisdom a way forward to the conversation and conflict.
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What have you learned / observed about your mindfulness of body practice?
One very interesting thing that I learned is that I can feel in my whole body when I am happy for someone else, and for me. I started noticing this listening to people achievements and felt true joy inside me.
What have you learned / observed about your self-care practice?
I noticed that I need to focus a little bit more on self-care than I thought. I need to take care of my feelings.
How do these practices inform or influence your leadership?
This helps me especially in listening to others in a more mindful way
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True, I also expense joy. Thanks for sharing!
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I have had a mindfulness practice for a long time, but no matter how long, I continue to learn and deepen, and encounter different experiences when embodying attention. I continue to notice how the body is always responding to what is present without “me” doing anything and how important it is to be aware of the body. I noticed when there’s a lot a thinking present, the muscles of my face tense up more. I observed that when there is a deep and still drop into the body it is almost as if the body disappears (everything becomes more subtle), which may seen counterintuitive to embodiment from a logical perspective.
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I’ve been still in isolation, and I’ve been spending many hours in front of the computer. This has created restlessness in the body, and sometimes aches and pains.
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1-) MINDFULNESS OF THE BODY is helping me to connect with my own human condition and accept different forms of pain and shame. I’m learning to see myself without judgment and it is a lot of work. Nevertheless, it is helps me to release energy and create more space inside and around me.
MBP also brings a sense of softeness, safety and love. There are times when my body becomes a friendly place to be and a sanctuary for my spiritual practice. I also noticed that I enjoy my nature walks a lot more when I pay attention to the contact of my feet with the ground as we do during walking meditation.
2-) THE SELF-CARE practice allows me to accept myself and be more gentle when I need to.
It helps me to access my inner voice.There is more joy and love to connect with. As “healing is situated in the heart,” I find myself softening that chest area through breathing and self compassion breaks.The RAIN practice allows me to feel without becoming entangled in a storyline, but to simply recognize what I’m sensing or experiencing through my body at a particular moment.
3-) In LEADERSHIP, I started feeling more grateful for the presence of my work partners, for their contributions and ideas. I can welcome them more each time. Even I often see them only on zoom, I began to treasure those moments and pay closer attention to what each of them have to say. The, I care more and can engage in the conversation.
When I remind myself that I’m listening and that’s all that I need to do, I find more peace to let myself rest in the present moment. There is nothing to prepare for or be protected from. No place to go, but simply to stay and contemplate.
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Over tha past few years, mostly thanks to a daily exercise routine, I have developed a (for me novel) mindfulness of the body. I can now feel fairly readily and clearly when I am tense, stressed, or experiencing some discomfort, or when I am at ease and relaxed. In the last two weeks, in my regular morning sitting practice, I have observed a recurring restlessness of the body: it feels fidgety and it takes it a long time to settle, and even then, at times, there is a mounting stiffness in the shoulders and neck. In each instance, I observe the body, allow it to be, and help the mind not to over-indulge or speculate.
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I have had a prolific mindfulness of the mind practice for years. Focusing on the body is relatively new. I’m just beginning to understand it better. I have found that adding back in a light yoga practice before meditation helps with feeling vibrations in the body when I’m meditating. It wakes the body up. I’ve noticed some anxiety centered in my throat area that I haven’t had before popping up. I wonder if it has always been there but I have been ignoring it (probably). I have tried during my working day to be mindful of the body but it is so hard to remember to do. I think I will put some post its around. Early days.
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I recently returned from a longer meditation retreat, where focusing on the body was a main point of practice. It was wonderful to reconnect with my body then, and the continued body-breath guidance has been a great tool to both strengthen my body-mind connection as well as a steady reminder of its importance.
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I’ve been practicing for about a decade and still when I being mindful of the body throughout the day, my body relaxes. This lets me know that being absorbed in thoughts brings stress and sensations of tension in the body.Even now as I bring awareness to typing these letters I felt growing sensations of relaxation, calm and just noticing the position of my body – I feel more connected to the sensations in the moment.
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I am new to mindfulness practice. I feel a complete disconnect with my body and this mindfulness of the body effort is illuminating some behavior and tendencies I wasn’t aware of: holding my breath, rounded shoulders, furrowed brow, tightness and tension. When I take time to meditate I become conscious of these and can breathe into them and relax. Bringing a habit of meditation into my life is helping me connect to my body at other points throughout the day.
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Although it can sometimes be hard for me to sit in meditation, I have many moments when I’m simply sitting and observing my surroundings where I feel I can really access my body and be present. In those moments, I get access to more sensations (pleasant, unpleasant, neutral), feelings of discomfort, warmth / coldness etc. When I open my eyes or return to another activity after these moments, things feel slower and I notice new things in my surroundings or interactions. I can sometimes even have more patience and make clearer decisions.
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My connection to my body has been the most challenging aspect of my mindfulness practice. I have noticed recently home much tightness I hold in my throat, stomach, shoulders, eyes, and hands. My body has been telling me how much emotional stress it has been taking and holding onto, and I have been slow to listen. I am opening up to it now.
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I’ve been practicing about 10 years and I notice when I am not mindful of my body now more than I notice when I am. I am very keenly attuned to where exactly in my body I am feel a pleasant or unpleasant sensation where int he past it was more generalized; “my back, my knees, etc.” Now it is more like the right-side of my lower lumbar vertebrae right below my kidney and extending toward my side. This helps me to be friends with any discomfort rather than push it away because now it is something very specific rather than a more disembodied or general sense.
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I realized that I often sit in uncomfortable postures–perhaps as if I expect I’ll need to get up quickly, or sometimes I’ll realize that I”m sitting crushed up against the table leg, whereas if I just moved the chair a foot to the left or right, I could sit without interference, but I haven’t moved the chair. I’m making a bigger effort to be conscious of how I sit and choose positions that will be comfortable.
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