Documenting a couple of cues that have helped me lately with my mental practice – receive and expansive.

Starting with receive. Some common mindfulness cues I have played with are let go, let it be, do nothing, release, notice without judgement. While I comprehend the intention of these cues and sometimes find them effective, my mind often associates these with trying. I feel I have to do something to do nothing. Focusing on these cues can become an anxiety inducing loop when you just can’t let everything go. Receive feels different. The mind and body naturally shift out of trying mode, and into awareness. The first step in receiving any sensation is awareness. It feels impossible to fail at this cue, as long as you are simply noticing and feeling what is present. Instead of trying to stop trying, this cue naturally shifts my mind into awareness. Especially in the second half of the day where my mind becomes exhausted after a day of to-do’s, a few seconds of receiving can initiate a mental reset.

Now for expansive. Until recently, it felt that it was very difficult to deal with negative emotions. I could perhaps dull them with letting go or just simply noticing. However the emotion felt stagnant in my body, and these negative sensations became stuck. Recently when reading Original Love by Henry Shukman – he described positive sensations as warmth, expansive, spaciousness. The expansive cue broke me open. When commanding my mind and body to expand, it felt like my emotions were instantly released from a trap. They no longer had to be bottled up in my chest, stomach, arms, or head. Expanding is the opposite of tension. You no longer fight the emotion. Sometimes a cue will work only temporarily, but this cue has been effective now for a long period of time. It feels all the emotional energy that arises is free to grow as big as it wants, even outside of my body. There is no body barrier for my emotions. They do not have to stay trapped in me. they can flow in, out, and through me. Expanding my mind and body makes them feel uncontained, and without resistance. Negative emotions just become interesting because they do not have to be wrestled with. I am not sure why this cue has been so powerful, but it has.