Five Minute Mindfulness - No Pizza! - Positive Wellbein...

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Five Minute Mindfulness - No Pizza!

โ€ข6 Replies

Here's a lovely little lesson from one of my favourite meditation teachers, Buddhist monk Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche which explains that you don't have to try to empty your mind of thoughts to practice mindfulness.

Sitting in a comfortable position, close your eyes to focus, and there's only one rule. You are not allowed to think of anything that's related to pizza. Not size, not toppings, not where you buy it from, not when you plan to eat one again.

Sit quietly for five minutes, and at the end of that time, ask yourself whether you actually thought about pizza at all. Chances are it's going to be what you mostly thought about, because you couldn't get it out of your mind, once it had been planted there.

But it doesn't matter. It's just to remind yourself to come back to the current moment, over and over again if you need to when meditating. It's just not possible to stop the chatter of the mind, but many would-be mindfulness meditators give this as the excuse for 'not being able to meditate.' Just remember that whenever you find your thoughts wandering, come back to the current moment. The pizza is just a representation of our daily problems which we tend to obsess about, as our minds search for solutions and outcomes.

Give it a try and see if Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche isn't right.

And if you'd like to watch the actual video, here it is!

youtu.be/uW7p0USmqiA

Photo: Jordan Nix Unsplash

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6 Replies
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springcross profile image
springcross

How can one not think about pizza after you've shown that photo, it's looks delicious, my mouth is watering and I can't get the image out of my head. ๐Ÿ˜€

โ€ข in reply tospringcross

Haha, I rest my case! ๐Ÿ•๐Ÿ•๐Ÿ•๐Ÿ˜œ๐Ÿ˜œ

springcross profile image
springcrossโ€ข in reply to

๐Ÿ˜๐Ÿ˜

He's one hundred per cent right Sue. I'll sit on the edge of my bed, close my eyes and my mind is sometimes jumping all over the place thinking of different things.

As for pizza, it's a no from me๐Ÿ˜‰๐Ÿคฃ.

Hope you've had a good day.

Alicia ๐Ÿง˜โ€โ™€๏ธ๐Ÿ•

โ€ข in reply to

It's interesting to learn how we do that, isn't it? One of my other meditator mentors said that if you walk down a busy street full of businesses and you are hungry, you won't even notice the shoe shops or any business other than those which are selling food!

โ€ข in reply to

Yes it really is. A good way for me to totally switch off is having a massage but that's incredibly rare. I do like listening to the waves crashing on the shoreline and the birds singing, I find both so relaxing.

That I can well imagine, as if hungry you are looking for food and it's constantly on your mind.๐Ÿค”๐ŸŒˆ๐ŸŒž๐Ÿ™๐Ÿง˜โ€โ™€๏ธ

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