[Julian SMember]

With regards your other thoughts, I’m actually pretty motivated about mindfulness in daily life. I find it so beneficial that I frequently return to bare awareness of body or breath sensations throughout the day. However, it’s just spontaneous without any pattern. For a year or so back when I started meditation, I used mindfulness while scrubbing dishes (I don’t have a dishwasher). I’ll return to that, thanks for the tip.

I take a walk most days in the afternoon to help with pain, and again I often bring attention lightly to the soles of my feet, although without doing what one could call “formal meditation” (thoughts come and go freely too). It’s good to know that it comes recommended by Culadasa!

[Julian SMember]

Hi @maryhill, thanks for your words of wisdom. I too have “been there” with striving. It took the whiplash pain syndrome to get me to slow down, in meditation as in daily life. It’s been a profound discovery that meditation deepens when given space to grow according to its nature instead of being pruned and prodded into shape (I often bring to mind the image of the gardener from the early part of Culadasa’s book).

I’m finding the metta practice quite wonderful and it’s already helping me be more compassionate and patient with friends and family. I skipped metta yesterday due to emotional overwhelm, and not having read your suggestions. But thankfully the personal issue I mentioned resolved with some good conversation. When inevitably another such situation arises I will do just so much as I feel able.

The metta practice itself has led to an important realisation: when turning the feelings back on myself at the end of the sit, after having shared them with others, making the wish “may I *continue* to be happy”, I am realising that happiness, love, peace and comfort ARE the wish for others to feel that way. This is a wonderful thing and I find myself coming back to it throughout the day (except yesterday!).

Thankyou so much for pointing me in this direction 🙂

Julian

[Julian SMember]

@Wiley thanks for taking the time to share. I’ll take a few days absorbing what you wrote and experimenting with how it relates to my own experience and then report back.

@maryhill I have split my 90 minute practice into 3x 30 minute practice and finding the reduced intensity of effort and the loving kindness once per day very much a balm.

I have had some emotional difficulties the last few days… I’m curious what the advice is around doing lovingkindness when emotions like fear, resentment are strong. It would certainly be too much to perform the loving kindness practice for the person who is the unfortunate target of these feelings, but is it advisable at all to do these loving practices when such strongly negative feelings predominate? Or is it better to wait until they abate slightly?

Thanks so much for your heartfelt help thus far.

Julian

[Julian SMember]

That was very beneficial this morning! Thank you Mary. I will incorporate this into my routine.

[Julian SMember]

On my latest retreat I incorporated loving kindness meditation after remembering Culadasa’s suggestion that it can help with pain in Stage Four. I found it soothing. But now I’m home it is hard to stabilise attention for long enough to generate the qualities. Do you think it needs to be done with a certain level of sati and samadhi? On days where I reach some stability, then I’m still doing it.

[Julian SMember]

Thanks Mary. I don’t feel like I have very much determination some days! I think in a way that having ADHD is a perfect goad though, because without daily sitting life becomes impenetrable fairly quickly 🙂

I was sorry to hear about your chronic pain though. Perhaps this is not the place to discuss it but I have had a lot of relief from following a protocol of mental exercises that I found in a book on neuroplasticity. I run through them at the start of each sit and throughout the day. Feel free to private message me if you’d like to know more.

I’ll look for the video you mentioned, I think motivation is going to be the thing I have to keep on top of if I do proceed with the Culadasa method (which so far I intend to do).

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