Impermanence Week 4

“There are many ways to calm a negative energy without suppressing or fighting it. You recognize it, you smile to it, and you invite something nicer to come up and replace it; you read some inspiring words, you listen to a piece of beautiful music, you go somewhere in nature, or you do some walking meditation.”

Thich Nhat Hanh

Thich Nhat Hanh offers valuable alternatives to getting caught up in the negative.  A perfect example of impermanence when we wish to change our thoughts. Our thoughts are also impermanent, but we can get caught up in them, so it may seem as though we can never escape. Consider this, when something “good” happens, you celebrate for a day, for example, your birthday. When something “bad” happens you might cry, whine or complain about it for a month. Can we swap out this thinking? Try making positive thoughts last a little longer in our minds and giving the negative thoughts that occur only minimal attention. Limit the time we spend thinking and ruminating over them. We know that all things in life are impermanent as we have been contemplating all month, but humans tend to linger on those negative feelings and events. If you practiced last week’s suggested technique you felt the value of releasing the tenseness in the body. This week we take it one step further.

The idea that we can release, even just a little bit, probably contract again, and release yet again — just gaining a little bit at a time, guides us to recognize the tension and work through it. This is a practice that allows our self-awareness to build and begin to work on the body, giving it permission to let go.  When we tighten or contract muscles and intentionally release, we ease into giving our bodies more space. For me it opens my mind to follow suit. It enables me to concede that the negative thought or event which has already happened or is even still in the future is keeping my body tense, tight and unyielding.  

Can you change the way you think? Absolutely but it takes practice. Try this week to release tension from a body part that seems to be nagging, by contracting and releasing several times. Then try it with that ruminating negative thought.