There are two main realities. The outer world that you are connected to by your senses and your inner world which you are connected to with your consciousness. Our senses guide us outward, so it is natural to have our attention directed that way. Whatever happens in the external world triggers a response inside of you. Without paying attention to what these inner responses are and why they arise a person becomes blind to their own motivations. In meditation you connect with your inner world through awareness of breath, body, emotions, thoughts and energy.
Every time you have a thought there is an associated positive or negative judgement. This judgement gives positive or negative charge to the idea, which if not expressed, gets held in the body as emotional energy. Think of emotions as pockets of energy that are stored in your muscles, organs, glands or spine. Pockets of negative emotion create a drain on your life force, block the flow of energy, and can contribute to poor health. As these emotions store up in the body over time, they create an unconscious burden that continues to build. This is why building awareness of your inner reality is so important. It is difficult to have high quality of life if you do not have high level of health.
People may not always be aware of what they are thinking so first, the body and mind need to be brought to a reasonable amount of stillness. This is done through breathing. The mind controls the body, the breath controls the mind. As breathing slows down then so will the monkey mind. This stops the cycle of the mind building up these energetic charges in the body. With practice you learn to know when your body is calm and relaxed. Once you have a good sense of this, then you start to pay attention to the different sensations in your body in the relaxed state. The types of sensations you will feel are:
1) Muscular – muscles contracting, tension, restless limbs, clenching of jaw, furrow of eyebrows, curling of toes, tapping of fingers, general fidgetiness, tightness in ribcage that restricts breathing, heartbeat, shaking
2) Temperature – hot, warm and cold sensations.
3) Nervous system – shooting, twinging, butterflies in stomach
4) Density, heaviness, weightiness – this is a sign you are getting deeper into relaxation
5) Lightness, vibrations, softness, energy moving, tingling – signs that your energy body is waking up.
This is just a short list. It is important to note what you feel in your body even if its not on this list. Sometimes when a body is brought to stillness an emotional release occurs. If something has been brewing under the surface for a while, stillness can be the event that triggers the release of that emotion. So be aware that sometimes in the beginning of this process that emotions can come up and there can be crying, shaking, getting angry or being afraid. They key is to just allow them to express and when they are done, use the breath to get yourself back to center. If you start to think something is wrong with you then this only feeds into a negative emotional loop that will repeat and cause you to be stuck in that emotion. Let it flow, let it go, and move on.
Since the mind builds up these energetic charges in the body, all of the effects you are feeling in your body are always related to a certain thought that needs to be brought to your conscious awareness. As you begin to recognize and become familiar with certain sensations in the body, the next step is to then notice what thoughts are arising when those physical sensations occur. With practice you will notice many of the same thought patterns re-occurring.
Once you can recognize a certain thought pattern arising then name it by putting it into a category that relates to the theme it is about. Some of the categories you can name your thoughts into are judgements/criticisms, expectations, thinking about the past, thinking about the future, daydreaming/fantasy, seeking pleasure, avoiding pain, power/control or lack thereof and projections. You can have your own categories too, but these should cover just about most thought patterns that cause problems. It seems like a simple thing but repeatedly naming what theme you are thinking about has a powerful effect of detaching you from the hold that the idea has over you. The issue is not really the thoughts themselves but how much you attach yourself to those thoughts that causes problems. Once a person strongly attaches to a belief then the belief starts to have power over you. Once the idea has power over you then you play less of a conscious roll in your own decisions.
It is your reaction to the idea that causes greater attachment. By labelling the theme of your thoughts you immediately override your habitual reaction to the belief and create a distance between you and it. With this distance you can now start to observe and inquire about the line of thinking. You are now looking at the idea from many different angles and as a result will start to see holes and discrepancies with the thought in question. Through this process you continue to diffuse the effect the belief has on you. This has the effect of empowering you and disempowering the belief.
This is a general guideline on how to build awareness of your inner reality. Rewiring your internal system can have profound effects on your overall well being but it does take time and patience. The result is a newfound awareness that’s empowers you to overcome your lower impulses, make better decisions and transforms you into a happier more well balanced person.
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