The Mountain Is You

STOP MEDITATING TO FEEL CALM; START MEDITATION TO 
JUST FEEL. 
I know that this goes against everything you’ve ever heard 
about meditation. But it is actually the point of medita-
tion. If you sit down for a 10-minute session and try to 
force yourself to be relaxed and light, you are effectively 
doing the exact same type of suppression that likely gave 
you the need to meditate in the first place.
Instead, the point of meditation is to sit idly as you expe-
rience all of those feelings come up: the rage, the fear, the 
sadness, the overwhelming mind chatter…and in spite of 
how alluring or triggering it may be, you learn to stay still 
and not respond to it. You learn to allow these thoughts 
and feelings to come up and then pass by virtue of you not 
reacting to them.
This takes practice.

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THE MOUNTAIN IS YOU
162
BRIANNA WIEST
USE BREATH SCANS TO FIND RESIDUAL TENSION IN THE BODY.
It usually doesn’t take too much extra effort to figure out 
where in your body you are storing pain. You feel it. It’s 
in your chest, your stomach, your shoulders, whatever is 
bothering you.
However, if you aren’t sure, or if you want to zero in 
specifically on where that pain is, do something called a 
breath scan. In this, you will breathe in and out slowly, and 
without taking a break between breaths. When you do 
this, you will begin to notice that you might hit a “snag” 
or hiccup somewhere, that in the process of taking your 
breath, you will start to feel precisely where in your body 
you are storing tension.
Once you know, you can start to go into that feeling more, 
visualizing what it is, where it came from, and what it 
needs you to know. Often in this scenario, we are brought 
back to specific memories or past versions of ourselves 
that need assistance or guidance. Use a journal to write 
down what you experience and see, and remember that 
the body often speaks in metaphors, so don’t necessarily 
take everything literally.