Shift Your Self-Perception

(screen clicking) (gentle ringing music) (whispering) Headspace Studios. (gentle ringing music) (gentle music) Hi, welcome back to Radio Headspace, to Thursday, and this moment. It's Dora here. So, the opportunity presented itself to be a guest on someone's podcast. She was curious about meditation and mindfulness, so naturally I said yes. Usually when people are curious, to me, that means that they're open and wanting to learn more about the practice so they can implement it into their lives. But halfway through the show, as I was answering questions I noticed that the interviewer kept on saying, "For those of us who can't sit still, who can't focus for too long, or who can't clear their mind." She also kept on mentioning that she wasn't the type of person to be calm, grounded or centered, all the things people usually associate meditation with. (soft gentle music) But as I was reflecting on this conversation afterwards, I couldn't help but think about how constricting and limiting our beliefs and prescribed identities can be. For this person, it was the identity of I'm not a calm person, as if being one thing is all that we are in this life. If there's something I've learned in my own meditation practice, it's how our ideas of who we are or our identities can keep us stuck. Oftentimes in meditation, you'll hear a teacher say, "Experiencing the emotion. Letting go of the thought. Noticing the body." This is done to create separation between what we experience and who we are. We aren't only the emotion, the thought, or the sensation in the body. It also helps us to be less identified with a certain state and supports us in letting go. This is why the practice of meditation can be so humbling at times, because the nature of the mind is to clinging to things, to find a sense of resolve or comfort in certainty. When we can define ourselves as something or someone, the mind is at ease. Think about how unnerving it can be to let go of all those things. Then who remains? This reminds me of the time I was teaching my eight week MBSR program, and one of the students was from New York and worked in Times Square. One of the practices that's shared in the program is walking meditation. It is what it sounds like. You're bringing full awareness to the body as it moves and to each and every step. I encourage the students to bring this into their everyday lives and try walking mindfully because it's something that we do so habitually. Rarely are we aware of the present moment when we walk. So the next week, I checked in with the group, and my student from New York said, "I can't do this. I'm from New York. I don't walk slow or mindfully. It's just not a thing here." Again, there it was. This attachment to an identity was present and on full display,...