My Mind Won’t Shut Up!

Born: 1/1/2021

Big News!

We got a book deal! It’s out in January and published by Trigger, a dead nice mental health publisher. Part of the deal is that we change our website and social to reflect the title of the book. So our new site is: www.mymindwontshutup.com (guess what the book’s called?) and we have a new Facebook Twitter and Instagram.

Ok, and?

If you followed or subscribed or said something nice on our FB and can be arsed saying it again, you’ll give us a superb tingly feeling. A tingly that’s so powerful and awesome we’ll send it back to you with bells on!

We hope you come along because you’re ones who were there at the start!

Lots of new stuff coming.

Marion and Linda x

Nothing Like A Global Pandemic To Bugger Up Your Plans

Having your nose rubbed in uncertainty

Clearly the most immediate and worrying concern that we all have about Covid 19 is that you or your loved ones might die of it.

Even if it doesn’t come to that, everyone is going to spend an awful lot of time dealing with how much their world has changed.

It also highlights an uneasy truth, that life is fundamentally uncertain. Most of us deal with this dilemma by ignoring it. We work hard, make plans for the future and when feeling less productive, we can get drunk, binge eat Cheetos and watch pornography. All in an effort to keep chaos at bay.

So when something as disruptive as a global pandemic takes over, it rubs your nose in life’s horrifying unpredictable nature. The virus has the potential to derail your entire life without so much as an apology. Losing one’s shit when this happens is a completely natural response.

This situation is a harsh reminder that your plans are just that; whims about what you want to happen in the future. Unfortunately stark reality doesn’t give a buggering stuff about this.

All you can ever be certain of is the present moment. And meditation trains you to be steady right now, even in face of butt-clenching uncertainty.

Authors Note:  This post has been really tricky because we are very aware of the fear and distress people are going through. Meditation can help with this and being ultra kind to yourself will support you through the chaos until things feel safer.

Marion & Linda x

 

A Really Interesting But Often Overlooked Aspect of Consciousness…

Hold on to your hat, we’re going to talk about the open nature of consciousness…

Er what?

Yep, it’s a big concept but actually one you live with all the time.  A good example is hearing sounds. This is a tricky idea to get your head round because it’s such a normal part of your experience.  But here goes…

You hear stuff all the time, right? But try not hearing things.

We’re not talking about your ability to control sounds: putting your fingers in your ears or playing the trumpet. We’re talking about how you receive sound.

You can’t make make sounds last a second longer than they do. Noises just come and go as they damn well please.

Hearing is effortless, you don’t need to do anything.

Your awareness (another word for consciousness) is always open.

There is no effort to be made. Likewise, you don’t control your ability to taste, touch or see.

Once you stop thinking all the bloody time, meditation makes the unstoppable nature of this river of sensation ever clearer.  You can relax with the constantly changing input from your senses.  Like really relax.

Eventually you’ll see that all experience is like this. Sensations, thoughts, sights, emotions. They all come, do their thing and go.

You don’t have to respond to everything you receive. The effort you make to control all this information is why you are tired, frustrated and scared. So relax and let them pass instead.

 

FIVE helpful wee things to remember about meditation

Some useful thoughts that will comfort reluctant meditators…

Where does all that stuff in your head come from?

1. Be really nice to yourself.  This isn’t optional. If you’re shouting at yourself when your meditating you’re kinda missing the point.
2. Accept that your brain talks nonsense most of the time.  Getting comfortable with just how much crap is in your head makes it easier to deal with.
3. Lighten up.  Everyone has a shed load of problems, major personality defects and oodles of shit that they haven’t processed’.  It’s okay, that’s why we made this place.
4. Don’t expect something to happen.  Meditation isn’t about achieving a blissful state or being all ‘spiritual’. It’s about noticing without judgement what its like to be you, moment by moment.
5. Stop reading about meditation and you know, actually do some.

Fuck it

We get it; sometimes you’d rather clean the oven than meditate.

You’ve got stuff to do!  A company to run,  a house to organise and lies to tell your children.

You don’t have to feel like it to meditate. Yep, you in your ‘oh fuck this I’d rather unclog the drains’ state is ideal because if you waited for a window where you feel calm, motivated and serene, well you’d never do it at all, would you? Waiting on a good mood, or for the perfect five minutes to arrive is a really good way of not doing any meditation at all.

Not In The Mood For Meditation, Meditation

• Accept your mega-strop and sit down
• Fold your arms, think to yourself ‘this is ridiculous’
• Roll your eyes and REFUSE to meditate
• Focus your attention on one breath
• Breathe in. Breathe out
• When you get distracted, go back to your breath
• Repeat for 10 breaths

Meditation isn’t about being calm and happy.  It’s about accepting when you’re not.

It’s actually better to do meditation when you don’t feel like it because you learn that tolerating, or getting interested in your massive sulk is excellent training. It teaches you that any emotion is a good object for meditation, and the worse the mood the easier it is to focus on!

Just bloody do some