40
may/june 2017yogajournal.com.auJust as wilderness training prepares
you for a possible mountain lion
encounter, meditation readies you to
deal with your thoughts. It teaches you
how to stay calm when your initial
thoughts and reactions are intense and
potentially negative; it can help you face
your thoughts by teaching you to observe
before responding. By working with
your breath and sitting with your
thoughts and emotions, meditation
allows you to see each thought as a
messenger with information on how to
respond in a way that helps you feel in
harmony with yourself and the world
around you. For instance, negative
thoughts like “I’m not enough” or “I’m
helpless” can be perceived instead as
signals that you should stop and refl ect
on what you can do to feel suffi cient and
capable.
To that end, next time you catch
yourself thinking something like “I’m
unlovable” slow down and send loving-
kindness and compassion to yourself for
doing the best job you can. When you
truly hear and respond to the underlying
messages your thoughts are conveying,
negative notions will start to fade,
having served their purpose, instead of
chasing you and wearing you down. I
call this practice Welcoming Opposite
Thoughts, and it’s a surefi re way to help
you avoid bogging down in a quagmire
of negative ideas. It will also help you
grow your capacity for experiencing both
negative and positive thoughts, images,
and memories as messengers here to
help you fi nd an unfl appable peace
within.PRACCCCTTTICCCEEE::
WelcommmmiinngggOOOpppppooossiteeeTThhoughts
Recall that every thought gives rise to
physical sensations. When you believe
“I’m broken” or its opposite, “I’m OK as
I am,” you feel a certain way in your
body. Your heart contracts or opens.
Your gut tightens or relaxes. You feel sad
and defl ated, or happy and energetic.
The meditative practice of Welcoming
Opposite Thoughts invites you to tune in
to the sensations associated with each
of your thoughts, enabling you to
think about a broader spectrum of
possibilities. You can use the practiceany time you catch yourself in a negative
thinking pattern, whether that’s during
your meditation practice or in everyday
life. During the following exercise, take
time to welcome a particular thought,
image, or memory, and notice where
and how it impacts your mind and body.
With your eyes gently open or closed,
welcome the environment and the sounds
around you: the touch of air on your skin,
the feeling of your body breathing, the
thoughts that are present in your mind
and their accompanying sensations within
your body.
Locate a particular thought that you
sometimes take to be true about yourself,
such as “I’m not enough”, “I should have
done it differently”, “I’m broken” or “I’m
powerless.”
Where and how do you feel in your
body when you take this thought to be your
sole reality? Do you feel it in your gut,
heart, or throat? Do you feel relaxed,
tense, open or closed?
Now welcome an opposite thought.
“I’m not enough” becomes “I’m OK just as
I am.” “I should have done it differently”
becomes “I’m always doing the best I know
how.” “I’m broken” becomes “I’m whole.”
And “I’m powerless” becomes “I’m
capable.”
Affi rm this opposite thought as your
sole reality. Where and how do you feel
it in your body? Do you feel it in your gut,
heart or throat? Do you feel relaxed, tense,
open, or closed?
Take your time, experiencing each
opposite in turn, and then both opposites
at the same time, all the while observing
how and where this practice impacts your
body and mind. (A hint: Don’t stress if you
can’t affi rm opposites with your thinking
mind – it’s not possible. Instead, feel and
experience opposing thoughts at the same
time, along with the impact they have in
your body, allowing whatever happens to
happen.) Holding opposites at the same
time takes you beyond either opposite into
a world of creative insight.
Now, consider intentions and actions
that you wish to manifest in your daily
life as a result of this practice. For
example, here’s what Julie, a meditation
student and cancer patient, discovered
when she meditated on opposite
thoughts.Julie meditated on her beliefs – “I’m
unlovable”, “I’m a failure” and “I’m
unable to affect the course of my cancer
treatment” – with the intention of
fi nding relief from the racing thoughts
she was experiencing. She felt sad,
fearful, and stuck in these negative
beliefs. But then refl ecting upon their
opposites – “I’m lovable,” “I’m OK as I
am” and “I’m capable” – helped her to feel
uplifted, even as she remained fearful.
When Julie experienced two opposing
beliefs at the same time – being uplifted
yet fearful – she glowed with her insight:
“I’m love itself! I’m always doing the best
I know how!” She realised that as “love
itself” she could tolerate being unloved
and loved, and failing and succeeding at
different times. These insights had a
lasting effect on her life. She experienced
an ever-increasing intimacy with others
and herself, as she was no longer
looking to others for love and wholeness,
having found both things within.MOVVIIINNNGGG FFOOORRRWWWWAAARD
The challenge of Welcoming Opposite
Thoughts is that your mind is engineered
to separate the negative from the
positive, and this is where suffering
arises. When your mind perceives things
to be separate, such as being focused on
half a pair of opposite beliefs or thinking
of yourself as separate from the world
around you, you can feel detached and
alone. During meditation, you learn to
welcome every thought as one expression
of your innate wholeness. Your mind
may resist this understanding by
thinking, “How could this thought be an
expression of my wholeness?” But every
thought arises with its opposite within a
unifi ed fi eld of wholeness. When you
welcome opposites at the same time, you
can have a glimpse, as Julie did, of the
truth that you don’t have to change your
circumstances to experience real health,
peace and love.Richard Miller, PhD, is the founding president
of the Integrative Restoration Institute
(irest.us) and co-founder of the International
Association of Yoga Therapists. This is his
seventh in a series of 10 columns designed
to help you create a lasting and impactful
meditation practice.