[Andre BMember]

Our minds are muscles and in a sense integrate our previous experiences. If we have used labeling in the past then the mind will likely continue to label experiences even if there is not a conscious intention to continue to do so. So can we hold the activity of mind, the labeling, lightly? Can we in a sense hold an awareness of this activity while setting an intention to be aware of the sensations? As TMI discusses there is generally a degree of pre-processing of phenomena prior to the projection into consciousness. As wonderful it is to read about the progression of how the perceptions of the physical sensations themselves may change through the development of mindfulness, I find that this can also create a sense of expectation of what we “ought to be feeling”, or that somehow what we are experiencing is not in line with reality. This expectation is something we can note in our practice “oh it is just this expectation of what I ought to be feeling being known” or simply “expectation” perhaps we can gently set the intention to notice whatever is being experienced at the nostrils, regardless of the degree of processing of these sensations. Hold the intention lightly and explore in a curious way what that may mean. Moving from this place of “I’m seeing the reality of actual sensation” or “I am not seeing the reality of the actual sensations” and stepping into the place of not knowing of wonder.

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