Today’s Spiritual Practice is a something you can do as a daily exercise. It can take as long or as short a time as you wish. And you may stop whenever you like.
The point of this exercise is to be completely present in every situation you encounter during this exercise time. By present I mean fully focused upon the situation at hand and not distracted by any other thoughts of feelings.
The practice is the following:
Whatever situation you encounter during your practice time is to be met with no initial emotional or mental reaction. No thought at all if possible.
You can certainly respond if people speak to you.
However, the method is to simply WAIT a beat or two when you encounter a situation. You don’t have to have an immediate response. Simply WAIT and WATCH your mind. SEE what kind of reaction it has.
And you don’t want to think about what your response should be.
Is there an emotion generated in a particular situation? Do you remember something? Do you seem to have an automatic feeling response to the situation? Do you have an automatic reaction or thought?
WATCH the mind as it responds. You don’t have to react.
If there’s a situation with a strong emotional pull, you may certainly feel that emotion. However, you can feel it, and let the feeling pass without feeding the emotion with additional thought.
See if you can simply Notice that you are feeling – and let it go.
The goal of the exercise is not to become emotion-less or automaton-like. It is to make you aware of what your mind is doing and how your body reacts when you have an emotion or feeling.
The point of the exercise is to feel the Presence within you that observes. This Presence is not your mind, feelings, or emotions.
After your exercise time is over, write up your experiences in your journal.
This is an exercise that you may use many times in different situations. A goal would be to approach an entire day like this. And then a week, etc.
