Befriending the Mind is befriending our experience. It is a journey into oneness. However, in the beginning and even within the practiced journey can at times feel like an incredibly difficult task. Our mind can seem to be the most insidious creature around. It hooks us with its repetition of fear and doubt. We try to ignore it, but it lingers. What if we decided to actually befriend this compulsive being within us? What if we actually took the time to understand what it was trying to "save" us from? 

Inquiry within the realm of our perceived losses, pain, struggles and hardship is a much needed practice when it comes to healing and transcendence from the illusion. If you go deep enough, there you will find the threads of ancestral story, an archetypal struggle that is the tapestry of the planetary mind, and all of our perceived poverty.  These energies swirl all around us and exist within our own experience, showing us our humanity of attachment and aversion. Every moment of struggle whether it be in the experience of life or within the constructs of the mind is a lesson, a nudge, a push, or possibly a giant car wreck into a greater awakening if you allow it. 

In our mindful awareness, whether it be in meditation or in the doing of the day, we can clearly see the part of our mind that is in poverty. In this witness state, when you notice the stuck nature of your mind on a particular thought there are things we can do to shift and quiet this lower animalistic nature, rather than get caught in its tendrils of drudgery. 

In order to befriend the mind, we are required to stay within a witness state, noticing the flux and play of the mind.  Allowing the energetic cringes to surface while there is a surrender into its existence. Not distancing, but allowing it to simply be. Within these moments of tension and awareness, there are slow releases of the mind and body reactions. 

Inquire within, ask who is this that feels worried, fearful, abandoned, etc? 

What do you hear or notice? Who is this voice? Are you taken back to a moment? Witness. Follow your intuition. If a story comes up. Let the mind know that you appreciate its concern.  Perhaps there is a warning and it is trying to protect you and guide you into action. Or is this a voice from the past, that is hurt and fearful of it happening again? If so, send love to this part of your being. Let it know that there is no need to worry about this anymore, that it already happened. If it happens again, then so be it. All experience is impermanent. All in all you will need to drop the story, then go back to the feeling. Sit in the center of whatever body feeling arises. Do you see a color, a symbol, a vision? Go into the middle of the tension. Continue following the feeling, surrendering the body, until you find yourself calm without a disturbance in the mind. 

In that stillness and relaxation of the mind, breath love into all the cells of your body. Watching the breath fill every portion of your temple from crown to toe. Send compassion, admiration and love to your body, mind, soul, Great Spirit, your ancestors and all that is around you. Center into every moment feeding your being with the prosperity of breath, love, and gratitude. A call into the center of all divine essence and being.  A growing surrender into ecstasy and a higher vibrating soul. 

If you are dealing with unhealed trauma this may be difficult to do alone, and it is best to seek someone who can hold tender space for you to unfold and reclaim. In these states of mind tension, we are shown places within that need to be cleansed and brought into a neutral state.  The goal is to watch and surrender, not get caught into the kinks of the mind to the point it causes anxiety and more mayhem, allowing it to spin you out energetically. Know that within your healing journey the intense threads of the mind can be a teacher, pointing you into the way of renewal and compassion. 

So I leave you with these questions that I received in meditation this morning. 

What is the depths of your perceived poverty? 

Better yet what is the center of all your prosperity?