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February 11, 2010
Mindfulness Practice
As you know, I joined several other facilitators for an evening of mindfulness practice sessions for coaches last week. My session explored the following questions which have occurred for me during my tai ji and meditation learning:
“What happens to our mental or emotional balance when we are out of physical balance?
What happens to our presence when our attention wanders? How do we bring our attention back to the ‘now’?
Using exercises from tai ji, we explored the process of just standing, just gently moving and just walking, both alone and with others in a single file. Taking time to slow down, notice what is happening in our bodies, how our minds wander and how this can throw us off balance, were some of the elements that we explored. People acknowledged how difficult they found trying to stay in step behind someone else and we pondered on the reasons for that. We acknowledged how comfortable it is to ‘walk in our own way’ and of course this raised a question of how this might impact on our client relationships.
Some participants already have some form of meditation practice and they found applying this to walking gave them a new perspective and in fact seems a possible approach to offer coaching clients. Others noticed that one or other side of their bodies used more energy and can distract their focus – so, we pondered how this may impact on their emotional and mental attention. Indeed, it may make no difference at all, but merely the fact of bringing this into awareness raised people’s interest. We enjoyed working largely in silence and moving physically rather than sitting, and either thinking and/or in dialogue.
And I continue to marvel at how this practice enables me to notice when I am in touch with and attending to what is happening in the present moment as distinct from reflecting on what happened yesterday or what might happen tomorrow. As my teacher suggests: the only reality is now!
Posted by Alison at February 11, 2010 08:14 PM
