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 meditation. 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 experience 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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162
BRIANNA WIEST
THE MOUNTAIN IS YOU
163
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.