Thank you little Buddha…

by Christine Russell, co-Founder 889 Yoga

…for making me feel more at ease and smiley once again.

I was in Los Angeles in January with my fiancé Hutch and took a day to do a day-long mindfulness meditation retreat with the funky modern Buddhist, Noah Levine of Dharma Punx

I was there with the intention to take a day to check-in and take a look inside, spend some time in silence, and to nurture my little inner Buddha. We were so grateful to get to connect, be refreshed and to soak up some spiritual juice together.

There were 50 people or so gathered at the Dharma Punx center on Melrose Avenue and we were led on a series of mindfulness meditations and exercises by Noah – guided, self-guided, partner-sharing, and walking. I loved walking meditation, particularly the contrast of being outside in the middle of Los Angeles. I had never done one before in a big group; it was almost hypnotic.

I had a few powerful take-aways, one that I thought I would share with you in the event it will bring you some freedom and smiles.

Let’s talk about the idea of discontent. I loved this teaching from Noah I’m about to share because one of the few things that regularly gets me down is discontent. Imagine being able to get rid of lagging, lingering self-discontent to free yourself up for more positive stuff in your life?

One of the teachings of Buddhism is that discontent is everywhere and that is normal; it’s life. I love hearing that, it’s so comforting. Noah shared that discontent – be it fear, anxiety, sadness, regret, etc – will always arise in humans; it’s human nature. The key to managing it is through mindfulness, and examining how you are relating to this discontent.

Through mindfulness – being mindful – we have power over our discontent. Consider this: “I am responsible for how I relate and respond to this discontent.”

First, he teaches to examine the discontent. Identify the discontent. Is it fear, anger, anxiety, sleeplessness, jealousy?

Then see it as it is – it’s not you – it’s just fear, anger, anxiety or sleeplessness.

How freeing is this? By choosing to relate to it, just as it is, we can separate it from the self, making it feel like it’s not ‘me’ and simply looking at it as it is. For example, instead of ‘I’m so exhausted, and so useless’ think ‘Oh, fatigue. There you are! There’s some fatigue. It’s just fatigue.’

The next part was most powerful for me. Next he said to look at how you relate to your discontent? Do you hate it? Does it make you furious? Does it make you sad? Does it make you reject yourself? Does it totally consume you and ruin your day?

The powerful mindfulness piece here is – through being mindful, how can you change the way you relate to this discontent? Maybe you can just see it as it is, and that it’s a moment, it’s impermanent and it will pass.

Noah shared that it’s learning how to subdue the discontent: learning how to relate to it with ease of heart and gentle understanding that will bring us freedom from our discontent

You may even be able to take it one step further and let it go and set it free from you. This is a big step. Most of the time I’m not very good at taking it this far.

For me, I am regularly discontented by regret. What if I made the other choice? Why didn’t I leave more time? Should I have done that the other way I was considering? Why didn’t I do x, why didn’t I think of y?

How has this mindfulness exercise helped me?

This exercise of mindfulness Noah shared so simply has been amazing and powerful for me and it’s easy especially when you can catch it (our dismal discontent) in the moment. It’s helping me shift my regret in the very moment I see it come up for me. In most moments (?) I can now identify the regret, call myself out on it, and choose to relate to it knowing that it’s only regret. It’s only regret. I feel the freedom to shift my energy around it knowing that it’s impermanent and will pass, and it’s just regret. Then I can get on with the good stuff – more love and happiness!

I feel the most support in knowing that I can choose how I relate to any discontent I feel, and that I can choose to be gentle with myself. It’s my choice to react and respond, be it to regret or any other discontent I feel. I’m certainly no expert and can only aspire to consciously choose how I relate to a feeling more and more.

THANK YOU little Buddha. Thank you for reminding me that my response and reaction is my choice, and to tend to myself with ease. You really are so smart and soulful…

Try it out for yourself – what eats away at you? What takes you away from loving yourself to the max?

More about Noah Levine and Dharma Punx

I encourage you to read more of Noah’s teachings, download his free meditation podcasts, etc . He’s a really cool guy (by LA standards, many would say say he’s RAD), and he is doing so much good in the world spreading the dharma of the Buddha in a modern, relatable context. These here are just some of my personal take-aways as a humble, eternal student of the universe.