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Mindfulness Welcoming and Letting Be
MINDFULNESS WELCOMING AND LETTING BE
My Vipassana teacher taught me a very simple, but profound mindfullness exercise that involves "welcoming" and "letting be". In essence this ancient drill is an outstanding integrator. Within "welcoming" and "letting be" is the dual essence of mindfulness. What arrises you welcome or accept, then you let it be in a non-intefering way.
Here's a write up of this ageless Mindfulness approach:
***Warning: Folks with a history of mental illness, trauma, or panic are urged not to use this process without a therapist. If you decide to do this process you will agree to absolve the webmaster, his server, Steve Mensing, or Emoclear.com of any responsibility for the application or misapplication of this process. Within any mental or emotional process there is always the possibility that someone could experience some discomfort. So proceed with this warning.***
(c) Steve Mensing
WELCOMING & LETTING BE
1st Level (learning to welcome & let it be--not the final practice)
(1) FIND A COMFORTABLE POSITION:
Find a comfortable sitting position. Nothing fancy. It helps to keep your back straight. Take several deep breaths through your nose and let them out. You will not be paying any further attention to your breath. Just keep breathing and don't hold your breath. Keep in mind this drill is just a preliminary to just welcoming and letting go of feelings.
(2) BEGIN TO WELCOME YOUR FEELINGS & THOUGHTS:
Welcome any feelings or thoughts that arrise in your body or mind. You can choose to focus on your feelings in your body or your thoughts in your mind. If you attend to your body, fully feel those feelings in your body. Welcome them! Greet them with acceptance. Whatever feeling or thought arrises in the body or mind will not be met with aversion or judgement. It is just a feeling or just a thought unvarnished with either averson or judgment. "Welcome Feeling!" (3) CALL YOUR FEELING "FEELING" OR YOUR THOUGHT "THOUGHT": Simply label your feeling "feeling" or your thought "thought". (This mindfullness method will help you dis-identify or separate from your feeling and tends to undercut aversion and judgment).
(4) NOTICE FEELINGS & THOUGHTS AS THEY COME & PASS AWAY:
Pay attention to your feelings and thoughts as they come and pass away in your body and mind. Do not interfere with them. Just observe them arrise and die away. Accept this coming and going. Label each feeling "feeling" and each thought "thought". Get used to experiencing these feelings and thoughts without interfering. Allow the feelings and thoughts to be there. No aversion--no shoving them away. Just let them be there. No aversion. No grasping.
(5) AFTER 15 MINUTES OF WELCOMING, BRING YOUR ATTENTION TO LETTING BE:
After 15 minutes has passed and you have become used to the intention of welcoming your feelings and thoughts, then allow yourself to let them be. Letting them be is just fully experiencing these feelings and thoughts without interference or aversion. You are dis-identified with the feelings and thoughts. You neither push them away or cling to them. You just let them be. This is the essence of letting be. There is no push to letting be because letting be happens quite naturally when you are dis-identified with your feelings or thoughts and observing them without either aversion or attraction. They are just feelings and thoughts afterall. You got an instantaneous intuitive sense of their messages by being fully with them, then the feelings and thoughts depart without the varnish or charge. You gave them the distance and room to let be.
WELCOMING & LETTING BE
2nd level--MINDFULNESS WELCOMING & LETTING BE.
When you have a good sense of how to both welcome and letting feelings and thoughts be, then do the 2nd Mindfulness version. (Here we'll just focus on feelings in your body--if you want you can also focus on thoughts in your mind and let them be in the same manner)
(1)FIND A COMFORTABLE POSITION:
Find a comfortable mindfulness position where your back will be straight. Take several deep inhalations and exhalations through your nose. Pay no further attention to your breath except to keep breathing during your feelings meditation.
(2)BRING YOUR ATTENTION TO YOUR FEELINGS IN YOUR BODY, FULLY FEEL THEM, & WELCOME THEM:
Attend to your feeling in your body. Fully feel it with no intention of getting rid of it or keeping it. Welcome your feeling. This is a sincere attitude of acceptance. You neither want to get rid of the feeling or keep it. You fully allow it to be there. No aversion--no attraction.
(3) CALL YOUR FEELING "FEELING":
Simply call your feeling "feeling". This will dis-identify you from the feeling or allow you to notice the separation between you and the feeling. Neither attempt to push away or cling to your feeling. Just let it be. Give it your attention. Be open to it's intuitive message. What does it prefer for you? What does it want you to do?
(4) LET THE FEELING BE:
By letting the feeling be we mean allow it to be there with no intention of getting rid of it or keeping it. Letting be in mindfulness does not mean deliberately pushing a feeling away or having an aversion or judgment about it. It is accepting the feeling. You observe the feelings come and go. There is no effort on your part. Nothing to do other than just watch the feeling come, intensify, give up its intuitive message, loose energy, and begin to depart on its own. Letting be is non-interference. Welcoming and letting be are the two pillars of mindfulness!
Take care, Steve