Tuesday's Morning Meditation

I woke up very early this morning (well, early for me) because this nose of mine. I've been stuffed up for a month - it's been so dry. I think I might go to make an appt with the ND because it's lasted so long but I'm not really sure she'd have more for me to do than I'm already doing. I think I just need the season to change already... After going pee, I sat back on the bed and decided to do my morning meditation. I really enjoyed calming my body with relaxing breaths and really getting the sensations of the body and breathing. I realize how much I'm in my head a lot of the days and this is a very nice experience. Kornfield talks about meditation as a way of truly becoming intimate with ourselves and with what is - with all life itself. I get that very clearly and feel grateful for it. There were plenty of thoughts and again MUSIC! I didn't realize how much music I have in my head! What a multi-tasker I am! LOL If thoughts became distracting, I gave them a name: REMEMBERING or FANTASY or PLANNING and then went back to the breath. What's nice about morning meditations is that there aren't a lot of emotions getting in the way so it really is just a way to notice thoughts and get back to belly. I'm making the commitment to do meditation at night to see what happens - if there is a difference because the day's experience will be at a close... After some time (not exactly sure how much - 20 minutes, maybe 1/2 hour) I noticed that I was getting sleepy. This was interesting and nice. I hadn't wanted to get up so early and I was also happy that I could get sleepy once I had gotten up. That hasn't happened in a long while for me. I attributed it to feeling so relaxed and letting my mind NOT get caught up in various thoughts or plans, as is the case for me in the morning. (My mind will typically go into a great turning of things to do and intentions for the day and then I'm awake no matter how much sleep I've gotten.) Again, I'm carrying the intention of keeping mindful throughout the day - all with compassion and non-judgment. And this is a very good intention to keep with me as I walk into Town Meeting and hear the many opinions and arguments and see how they may or may not trigger things in me. :-) In the video yesterday, Tara Brach mentioned that the Buddha once said, "People with strong opinions just go around bothering each other." I giggled at this and think it's a perfect way to end this post. Particularly knowing what I'll be walking into in a few minutes here... :-)