Exercise
Take a few moments to be still. Congratulate yourself for taking this time for meditation practice.
Begin this mindful check-in by feeling into your body and mind and simply allowing any waves of thought, emotion, or physical sensation to just be.
Perhaps this is the first break you’ve taken amidst a busy day. As you begin to enter the world of being rather than doing, you may notice the trajectory of the feelings that you’ve been carrying within yourself.
There is no need to judge, analyze, or figure things out. Just allow yourself to be in the here and now, amidst everything that is present in this moment. Spend about three minutes simply checking in with yourself in this way.
As you come to the end of this mindful check-in, again congratulate yourself for doing this practice and directly contributing to your health and well-being.
Reflection
The audio files that accompany this MSBR workbook are horrible. I was so annoyed by the plastic-y sound and his blurred voice. It woke some primal anger within me and my mind wandered to the recording studio in Enschede and in what way I could use that studio without disturbing the students currently taking the “Storytelling through sound” course. I kept thinking about how I could do the recording I was listening to in a much better way and how come the publishers ever accepted such recordings. They should be ashamed of themselves. Selling workbooks accompanied by such horrific audio files. How am I supposed to focus on meditation and mindfulness if I get triggered by the low-quality guidance files?
During the moments the recording was silent, I managed to pull my attention back to my body. I felt the bed rocking underneath me from the wind. I felt my pulse in my groin. I felt my feet dangling off the bed. I felt difficulty keeping my eyes fully shut, they wanted to open partly. I felt the coarse fabric of my t-shirt rub against my bare breasts with every breath I took. I felt tension in my neck and shoulders and I can still feel my jaw clenched.
I heard the wind blow against the window. It is stormy outside. I felt my hands being cold compared to the rest of my body.
But mostly I felt annoyed by the audio quality.
References
Stahl, B., & Goldstein, E. (2019). A Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Workbook. New Harbinger Publications.