Attention on the Uncomfortable

 Energy flows where attention goes.

Not sure who said that first lol

I was meditating today and was initially distracted by a piece of hair on my cheek and chin...it was tickling me.  My first inclination was to take my hand and brush it away but something stopped me. ...another intention to remain still. I took a deep breath, in hope that focus on my breath would draw my attention ( and the energy) away from my tickling skin.  It didn't.  The tickling turned to a prickling sensation and it seemed all consuming. I could feel my resistance to it in almost every cell of my body. It seemed the more I tried to resist, the worse it got.  You would think by my reaction to it, it was the sharp talons of a lion about to eat me...not a tiny, light piece of hair! I really, really wanted to lift up my hand and brush the hair away from my face. Still that intention to remain still was powerful enough to keep me from doing so.  The tickly, prickly sensation was becoming stronger and stronger. It turned into what I labelled as "pain".  

Instead of leaning away from the sensation, I decided to lean into it.  ...which was easy to do because it was a sensation that was taking over my attention.  I just breathed into it and let go of my resistance...I 'allowed' all my attention to go there.  I had judged it as "unpleasant" from the beginning but when I initially focused all my attention on it...I found myself wanting to judge it as "awful, painful, even excruciatingly uncomfortable."  It was just a piece of hair digging into my skin but it was sooo overwhelming. I watched myself judging and stopped resisting the judgement...took a mental step back and observed how I was mentally reacting to the sensation.  Took another slow, deep breath and let go of the judgement.  It was simply a sensation.  I reminded myself how all things come into our experience and how all things go...as long as we do not cling or attempt to resist.  So I made this feeling the focus of my meditation. I  watched as it increased in intensity.  I took another breath and on the exhale...the sensation's intensity began to diminish. I watched it as it slowly left.  It was the most amazing thing.

Such a silly thing, I suppose, to write about but every time we confront and reduce our tendency to react to external stimuli is really something to celebrate.  This little thing showed me...that it isn't external stimuli that overwhelms us but our mind's reaction to it that does.  If we let go of resistance and lean a little into the uncomfortable experiences of life we will see that they will pass through us without any damage done.  Hmmm! 

I just thought that was cool. 

All is well