Week 2: Perception and Creative Responding
“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.”
Marcel Proust
Perception – how we see or don’t see things, including our stresses and challenges—influences much of how we experience our daily lives.
The way we perceive a problem tends to limit our ability to see solutions.
The way we perceive ourselves may also be limiting.
Life Practice:
Experiment with the Body Scan at least 6 times this week (practice in class can count as one time). Can you bring curiosity to each body scan?
Experiment with sitting meditation for 10 minutes each day (not necessarily before or after the Body Scan). As we practiced in class this week, each session you will choose a specific ‘anchor’ that is available to you and rest your awareness with available sensations in that anchor. Gently but firmly guide attention to your anchor. When you notice that your attention has wandered, choose to direct attention again to your anchor. This aiming, sustaining, and re-aiming is the “muscle” work of mindfulness training, strengthening your innate capacity to be aware.
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.
Fill out one entry per day in the Pleasant Events Calendar. What is considered pleasant in the culture of you and what makes it so?