Week 1: Mindfulness of the Body
“As long as you are breathing, there is more right with you than wrong with you, no matter what is wrong.” Jon Kabat-Zinn
There are no assigned readings. The subject matter is your life.
I invite you to approach this course as an experiment and a challenge rather than a chore or one more thing on your to-do list.
Mindful awareness is the awareness that arises from paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, non-judgmentally with kindness.
Life Practice
Experiment with the body scan meditation at least six times this week (practice in class can count as one time). The challenge is to bring beginner’s mind to it each time, encountering your body as if it were the first time. And in fact, each time you practice you are different.
Experiment with the 9-dots exercise. See if you can bring awareness to the experience of working with the exercise – what thoughts and emotions arise? Any familiar patterns?
Experiment with bringing mindful awareness to eating this week. Perhaps you could eat an entire meal with full awareness. Or perhaps you take one mindful bite at every meal this week. What happens?
Informal Practice: Choose a daily activity to bring full awareness to for the week (slowness is not necessary, just do one thing at a time, with full presence). Examples include brushing one’s teeth, washing the dishes, making tea or coffee in the morning, walking the dog, washing one’s face, etc. You should select something you do every day that is brief and fairly routine or ordinary.