Last month in meditation, I sat on my blue meditation cushion with my eyes closed, crossed my legs and started some conscious breaths. I wanted to experience a quiet space within that would allow my heart to expand into the awareness of stillness. There I was on my cushion breathing in and out, slowly and deeply. On this particular morning, as soon as I started my breath work, my mind chatter began sprinting in my head like a racehorse out of a gate. Immediately, running thoughts and questions began: ‘What are you doing…Can’t you do more…Can’t you keep up…Other people are thriving, Don’t you want to be like other creative people…Your week is too busy…You are not doing enough’…and on and on and on. I watched then as my breath became faster and faster until I became light headed. Suddenly, my entire body exhaled. I was exhausted.

I breathed slowly into each part of my body with awareness and intention. I breathed into my feet, my legs, my stomach, my abdomen, my heart, my arms, my back, my neck, my eyes, my head over and over again. Each breath was a gift to my body. I noticed the absolute silence in the room. I found myself with a big smile on my face swaying to stillness. As clear as day I heard, “How much is mind chatter costing you? Stillness is free.”

I have been taking an inventory of my mind chatter. I have noticed and watched the impact my mind chatter has on my body, my energy, and my spirit. It’s not a matter of shouting to my mind chatter, “Shut Up!”, because the chatter will only get louder. Instead I watch the thoughts float in the air and imagine them on the sands of a beach and with each wave I ask the water to wash them into the sand. My mind chatter begins to get swept up by the waves of the ocean until they completely disappear and I can no longer hear the thoughts.

How much is mind chatter costing you? How do you release mind chatter?

I invite you to breathe into all parts of you. Breathe into your body and wait for stillness to emerge.

Wishing you the gift of stillness – Mary Anne

Tags: Conscious Breath, Meditation, Mind Chatter, Stillness, Watching Thoughts

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 21st, 2009 at 8:38 am and is filed under Meditation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.