Week 05
Having simply practiced paying attention to the shape of our life, we'll now take a little time to practice the skill of noticing ourselves and what's going on in our interior world through our daily life. The practice we'll use is some light journaling with another worksheet, with this simple outcome in mind: to be able to identify which parts of my day that affect me in different ways.
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• This week, see if you can become more aware of how you’re breathing. Let your belly fill up with air, and notice how your chest barely needs to move as you take a slow, great big breath.
• As you begin your times of examen this week, in that first step of “Be Still,” take an extra moment to notice what sensations, images, feelings and thoughts (SIFT) are present to you and your body before you begin. You can use the attached SIFT handout or the SIFT audio demo to guide you in this.
• See what other opportunities you might have this week, during your day—maybe during a lunch break, at a stoplight or taking a pause after work—to practice this same SIFT awareness exercise.
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Looking back on your week of practice:
• What do you notice has shown up for you most clearly when you’ve tuned in your awareness—bodily sensations, thoughts bubbling to the surface, feelings coming through, images popping into your mind, something else? Which of these might seem to be coming in not as strongly but still there for you to notice more closely?
• Can you notice any particular sensations or feelings that may have shown up in you repeatedly through the week. What do you notice about them? How is it for you to notice these?