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I’ve been tryna stay marveling. Seeing things with new eyes. It feeds gratitude, which is good for your skin and blood pressure and inflammation (purportedly). It also keeps me clear of pre-conceptions and limits external noise, as wonder allows me to process my experiences in a way that is present and contextualized by my own perspective. I feel like it was sooooo cooool for so long to romanticize cynicism but apathy is so passé and minimizing the magic available to us is wasteful, and wastefulness is tacky. Shoshin in Zen Buddhism, that openness and perpetual student* type approach. *I never went to college but I follow Depths Of Wikipedia on Instagram.
Jul 7, 2022
Related Recs
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This is (I think?) a form of meditation, but it's what I use to calm my mind, especially when I've woken up in the night and need to get back to sleep. I learned it from my favorite dance teacher who starts every class with this exercise. What you do is just tell yourself things, in sentence form, that are true about wherever you are right now. Majority of them should be sensory things. Like, "I feel my sweat pants on my leg." "I feel the heater blowing my hair." "I hear a car passing outside." "I see a gray sky." "I taste the apple pie I had for dessert." Just statements about what is true right now -- and this is the important part: WITHOUT COMMENTARY. Of course, because you have a human brain and this is what it is hard-wired to do, your will start supplying commentary anyway. So when that happens you just notice it, and absolutely don't judge it or anything, it's just another "fact of the moment" -- "that was commentary." You acknowledge the commentary and then go back to stating other (non-commentary) facts until the next bout of commentary, which you then acknowledge and move on from -- or until you fall asleep, which happens shockingly fast for me once I notice and move on from my first bout of commentary. Eventually you might feel like you've run out of facts so you can start saying the sentences over to yourself, with more space in them to take up more time, and somewhere in there, a sense of peace develops? A place where, just for a moment, thoughts get lulled into taking a break? I find that as soon as I notice that I'm in that peace, huge thoughts come FLOODING IN, and then I have to calmly and gently be like, "this is commentary. back to the facts." It's refreshing and it takes a very passive form of discipline, like, you should be as relaxed as possible -- lying on the floor or on a couch, not holding a single part of your body up, maybe eyes closed, total release, but not *total* because the thoughts do need to be guided -- not controlled, not judged, not even stopped. Just guided, like re-routing a little rivulet of water that's rolling down a hill.
Feb 11, 2024
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There are so many guided meditations out there (I have hundreds of my own out there on YT and Insight Timer) but when you’re just beginning the process, simply listen.
Sit outside in a comfy place and really focus on your ears and listening.
notice all the layers of sounds around you.
Then you can start noticing what you are seeing, even with eyes closed.
Then smell, taste, and simply feel.
And BREATHE. feel your lungs breathing and watch your breath the same way you watch waves. witness your own nature the same way you witness any other thing in nature.
Open all the senses to your unique perception of the world at this moment, which will always be unique and noteworthy.
There will be much noise in your mind saying lots of stuff maybe like “this is pointless” and the such, but each time you hear a judgey thought, flip it to curiosity-
“could there be a point to sitting here and opening all my senses”
There is a GREAT power in experiencing the world and your life as it is.
We aren’t meant to change everything or fix every problem with “love and light” through meditation.
We are just meant to remember, acknowledge, and accept that deep sense of awe and love that is beneath everything.
Beneath allllll the noise. that’s all there is.
We are meant to simply experience the wonder of whatever this wild wacky wonderful world is. it has been created in a marvelous way and we can join in the dance however we can 🪩
Mar 22, 2024
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And this will be where I sound batshit crazy, but here I go. There’s a silly documentary on Youtube that really affected me, it’s about Anna Breytenbach and her ability to communicate with animals. I know it sounds like bullshit but there’s something about her that makes me believe that she can. I’ve looked at other animal psychics and a lot of them feel like verbose scammers but I don’t have that feeling with Anna. Either way, it isn’t even about actually communicating (with words) but more about becoming quietly attuned to animals, which I do believe is possible and I try to do in my day to day. It’s my favorite little luxury, to be able to spend hours in silence chilling with my cats and understanding all their meows and subtle movements. To contemplate. This is connected to my religious practice of slowmaxxxxxxing, which is a very stupid new word for something I’ve done all my life and my mother would call “parsimonia”, which is to transform regular tasks into delicate, precious rituals, doing everything very slowly and paying attention to detail, to silence. There’s something very humbling about learning to do things the way animals want and not the way it feels good to me. I enjoy experiencing different planes of perception and this is a very good way to do it.
Oct 25, 2022
Top Recs from @debby-ryan
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anytime I’m feeling especially good, I’ve been walking. All day long I’m just going for a walk
Jan 24, 2024
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Listen to the ones you usually skip. They’ve been hitting
Jan 24, 2024
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~So I’ve gotten into taking baths. I can’t explain it but it feels more analog. I used to think of it as a more time consuming option but now I feel it’s actually more efficient. The pressure of designating time for it to be both functional and experiential leads to letting myself get bored, which brings about a clear but gentle conclusion. Boredom is a luxury. I used to think new thoughts so often out of boredom, but now it feels like I’m trying to be productive or I’ve left my body entirely, so I’ve been leaning in to get back to active boredom. There are plenty of ways to make it an experience. The only time I’ll drink ice in a drink is in a bath, because effectively you’re already a soup. So drinking la croix or gatorade on ice in the bath is a crazy experience to feel your guts being all cold and your skin being warm. A good way to get back into my body is to make it the intersection of polarizing temperatures. I also love the idea of robes but I can’t figure out when I’m meant to wear one, and the best I can tell is around bathtime. I love putting the Dr Teals Lavender salts right under the faucet because it either dissolves them or disperses them from jump as it’s filling, and then the Almond Cleansing Oil from Trader Joes is a moisturizing option for your cleansing tasks that take place as you’re brining your body in salt.
Jul 7, 2022