Mindfulness meditation helps us: think less, sleep well, and like to laugh

Last weekend, I participated in two days and one night of mindfulness meditation at Nalanda Jingru Zen Monastery in Meihuazhou, Jiaxing. The reason why I want to record this experience is, firstly, to do a review for myself. With input and output, many things I see, hear and feel truly become my own; secondly, it is to be a Share, through this course I feel that mindfulness is indeed an excellent thing. If you are destined, you will read this article. From then on, there will be more imprints of "mindfulness" in your memory. Maybe one day you will have the opportunity to experience and Feelings; thirdly, I have participated in mindfulness meditation. I have posted a few posts on Moments in the past two days. Many likes, comments and private messages have been sent to me asking for specific arrangements and introductions to the activities. I will also tell you about them.

There were special considerations in not writing down the experience as soon as the course ended. Because I was worried that the many perceptual experiences brought about by the course at that time would affect the objectivity of the evaluation of mindfulness meditation itself. Today is the third day after participating in mindfulness meditation. A lot of the perceptual part has been removed. What I can still write down must be the content that touches me the most and is full of useful information, hehe.

What is mindfulness and what is meditation? Now that information search is so advanced, you must be able to find the answer through various channels, so I won’t go into details. I only speak of my true experience and awareness. I have always believed that only those who have truly experienced it are the most powerful.

Let me first talk about why I participated in mindfulness meditation, then talk about what I experienced and noticed this time, and finally talk about how I will practice it next, that is, according to why, what, and Let me explain the logic of what to do, maybe it will be of some use to you.

1. Why I participate in mindfulness meditation: I want to solve problems. As for me, my anxiety index is quite high, and when my anxiety level is particularly high, I will not be able to eat well, sleep well, and often frown and feel unhappy. Anxiety also brings about busyness, such as work, business trips, lectures, etc. Wait, I am so anxious and busy that I have no time or energy to take care of my body, so last year my resistance was seriously weakened to the point that it affected my health and I had to undergo a minor surgery. I think there must be a way to solve the problem of anxiety. I have read books, listened to classes, and done consultations, and I have talked about "mindfulness" in these. So when the five-dimensional community I joined launched a mindfulness meditation class, I signed up immediately.

?My classmates who participated in mindfulness meditation with me also mentioned their expectations during the course: There are professional managers who consume too much at work and want to come to mindfulness meditation to replenish their energy. Some of them can do it themselves. The boss of the company wants to come to mindfulness meditation to get rid of the smell of copper. There are also people who are pushed around by various things in work and life every day and are so busy that they can’t stop or feel happy. There are also people who want to come to mindfulness meditation to find answers. I was just curious to see what mindfulness meditation is all about... The 30 fellow practitioners who participated in the course together were like a small society, which allowed me to roughly see all kinds of states and conditions. Life. Maybe you also share these people’s fatigue, confusion, and expectations.

2. What I experienced and noticed during this mindfulness meditation: This is quite a lot. I can talk about it for a long time. I briefly summarized the particularly important gains in three aspects (that is to say, there are many other gains, so I won’t go into details one by one. If you are interested, you can invite me to have dinner and drinks and I will tell you about them separately): After two days of mindfulness meditation experience, I feel that it has solved the problems of me and many fellow practitioners, and allowed us to initially realize: think less, sleep well, and like to laugh.

(1) Thinking too little: Many of the troubles, difficulties, and negative emotions that everyone has in work and life actually come from "thinking too much." Thinking too much specifically means that you make up a lot of stories for yourself, and these stories are basically related to the past and the future. At the same time, your role in the story is either a victim or an abuser. In short, it makes you not The kind of story that makes you happy too easily. ?

For example, if you consume too much or exert too much force in the workplace, you may make up a story for yourself that you must work hard and work hard, get a promotion and a salary increase to gain respect and attention, and then you can be a loser. Be rich, handsome, have savings to buy a car or a house, win wealth and beauty, and reach the pinnacle of life.

There are also people who are pushed away by various things in life and work every day and cannot find happiness and meaning or take on too many responsibilities. They may make up stories for themselves: so-and-so develops better than me because of their family connections. and special resources. If I were him, I could do it. Why did the leader set a target again? Today’s customer is really difficult to deal with. Why does my wife have so many things to say? Why can’t my child do his homework well? I won’t show him how awesome he is. It seems that it is not possible; or why is it so difficult to start a business? Why do these people make mistakes and problems? There are so many problems waiting for me to solve every day...

?These are " "Stories about the past and the future", and we ourselves have added more details to the story to make it more vivid and colorful. In fact, what will happen after hard work is the future that has not happened yet, what will happen to the leaders and customers, that is the past that has already happened, and how does so-and-so develop? Today you don’t fully know, you just made up a story for yourself that seems reasonable and reasonable; your wife’s seemingly “nagging” and your child’s seemingly “not doing homework well” are just stories from the past. Here are Your "judgment" is no longer an objective fact, it becomes a "story".

Thinking too much makes us live in "stories". Stories exist in each of our minds, which are also so-called "thoughts". Countless thoughts float in each of our minds every day. However, there are some thoughts that you pay close attention to, which directly affect your next action. There are some thoughts that you seem to ignore, but they vaguely affect the emotional ups and downs that you are not aware of. These thoughts are the source of your confusion and troubles. The so-called mindfulness means no longer paying attention to thoughts related to the past or future, but only "focusing on the present moment."

?So how to achieve mindfulness and "focus on the present moment"? Teacher Jingru from the Zen Academy gave me a magic weapon: pause. You need to be aware of pressing the "tentative button" at the right time to remove yourself from thoughts of the past and future and invest yourself in the present. In the mindfulness meditation class, we do deliberate practice. By listening to voices, drinking water, looking at each other, eating oranges, clapping hands, meditating, etc., we can experience the feeling of "living in the moment" and let the body remember it. This wonderful feeling of living in the moment.

? Teacher Jingru from the Zen Academy once said: Is there a past? No! Is there a future? No! Only then can we really see the truth. Living in the present is really important. Key: Pause.

(2) Sleep well: The two-day mindfulness meditation class has also solved the chronic problems of several insomniacs and patients with sleep difficulties that have persisted for many years. In the words of a fellow practitioner, this mindfulness meditation class was a class where he was either sleeping or playing. However, it was in such a class that he inadvertently realized the true meaning of life and learned how to eat, how to sleep, and how to walk. There has been a transformation.

In this class, more than 30 of us slept together three times. Each time lasted for more than ten minutes. The forms of sleeping were different, but many people at the scene shared their experiences on how to sleep soundly. , is also very wonderful and interesting. In my opinion, one of the secrets is conscious abdominal breathing while sleeping. Many people know this, but they do not do it intentionally while sleeping. Even if you understand the truth, but you still can't sleep well, then who should you blame if you don't do it? Mindfulness meditation classes create an opportunity to sleep well. Another reason why I can’t sleep well is because there are too many “thoughts” in my head. This brings me back to the problem of “thinking too much” just mentioned. Let yourself pause, detach yourself from thoughts, and focus on the present moment and breathing. , you will sleep well.

Regarding sleeping well, there are a few details to share in the mindfulness meditation class: First, we have been eating vegetarian food for the past two days, and the physical burden is much lighter than usual; second, we have done bone-setting exercises and I did a lot of physical exercise, which not only straightened my bones but also made my body very tiring. Third, ancient sound therapy was arranged on the first night. The vibration of ancient sound and body frequency had a very good healing effect. Fourth, we had a lot of fun, catching chickens and throwing handkerchiefs on the green grass of Meihua Island like children. We felt so happy and happy, but our bodies were so tired. How could we sleep well?

(3) Like to laugh: Teacher Jingru of the Zen Yuan is sometimes a master "preaching", sometimes an actor "acting", sometimes a singer "singing", sometimes a child "naughty", and the atmosphere is pleasant. It was relaxing, everyone sang class songs together, and also learned and shared together. It was very happy.

In fact, at the beginning of the course, what Teacher Jingru shared with everyone was the essence of "play". Only if you can play can you truly relax and live in the present. Only if you are a fun person can you live a happy life.

? When it comes to playing, we all need to learn like children. Especially young children are the best able to live in the moment and have fun. When we see how dedicated they are, we can't help but laugh and feel happy. Why can children do it, but adults can't play and invest so freely? Because children can "truly be themselves", but as adults we can't. We have too many scruples, care about the outside world, and consider other people's expectations, so we cannot "be true to ourselves" like children.

Teacher Jingru does not call everyone by their full names in the meditation class. She is used to calling everyone Xiao so-and-so, such as Xiao Lianlian, Xiao Junjun, etc. I think maybe it is also in this way. Let us try to be that child who is full of curiosity about the world and others, is friendly, is very brave and can easily show weakness, and lives an extremely real life. Suddenly I remembered that sentence: Sing as if no one is listening; dance as if no one appreciates it; cry as if no one knows. Taking good care of yourself and living your true self, not the self that others expect of you, is the only way to realize "like to laugh".

?Perhaps you would say that children are true and innocent because they have less experience. If I were like them and didn’t know anything and didn’t care about anything, I could have fun every day. What I want to say is: The so-called Zen practice is about individual practice. Perhaps it is precisely because the older we grow and the more experiences we have, that we need to continue to practice ourselves and maintain a childlike innocence. That's when it really happened: leaving for half a lifetime and coming back as a young man.

3. Next, how will I continue to practice what I have experienced in mindfulness meditation: Our class has conducted a 100-day mindfulness meditation check-in camp. You need to pay a deposit of 108 yuan to enter the camp, which will be refunded after completing 100 days of check-in. Of course, if there are some who fail to complete the check-in halfway, we can share their money equally with those who persist until the end, yeah! The so-called "hundred days of foundation building" means using 100 days to truly implement what you have learned in two days. This is "cultivation". What to punch in: record your practice of mindfulness meditation courses every day, including: mindful eating, mindful sleeping, mindful meditation, mindful bone-setting yoga, oral and tongue exercises, shaking the central channel, singing class songs, smiling, smiling, listening to the seven flowers Lotus and so on. There are so many beautiful things you can do with mindfulness.

Oops, I wrote a lot of words. I felt very happy when I wrote it, but I don’t know how it would feel to people who read it. The most important thing to learn in mindfulness meditation classes is: it is better to talk a lot and listen a lot than to do a lot. Only by doing it will you have feelings, experiences and changes. No matter how many words you read, no matter how many shares you hear, no matter how many promises you make, you will never be able to experience the beauty of mindfulness unless you practice it.

Take a break from your thoughts, pause, and experience the present moment. What sound do you hear? The honking of a car, the barking of a puppy, the sound of television images, or the singing of background music? What did you see? Look up and look around, family? A friend or a stranger? The TV at home? Or the pot of flowers on the windowsill? What color are they? What shape? Approximately what is the size? Observe carefully what you see and remember it with your eyes. What do you smell? The smell of food? Or the fruity scent of scented candles? Or the body scent of the kids around you? To breathe, to feel. are you eating? Stop for a moment, look at it carefully, smell it deeply, lick it, and taste it slowly in small bites. Do you find that it becomes more delicious? Congratulations, you have entered the "now". If you listened, saw, smelled, and tasted just now, then you have already started the journey of mindfulness. Isn’t it amazing, because those sounds, tastes, shapes and details are usually ignored by us? Our senses become sharper and richer due to mindfulness. At the same time, in the experience just now, there is no anxiety, confusion and distress. There is There is only peace and beauty, and there is only the present moment.

? ?None of your past can define you; all of your future has not yet arrived. Every moment is the real you. May you and I live our true selves with righteous thoughts, think less, sleep well, and like to laugh. Play with the moment, be at ease, and be yourself.

Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to Teacher Jingru from the Zen Academy, Teacher Chen Xu from the Five Dimensions, and fellow practitioners who came together to practice mindfulness meditation. Thanks for meeting.