https://www.mindfulnessassociation.net/team-blogs/the-seven-minute-itch/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-seven-minute-itch Being Present | Responding with Compassion | Seeing Deeply Tue, 30 Apr 2024 12:35:03 +0000 hourly 1 https://www.mindfulnessassociation.net/team-blogs/the-seven-minute-itch/#comment-28 Thu, 06 Nov 2014 16:24:00 +0000 http://mindfulnessassociation.wordpress.com/?p=97#comment-28 Christie…I have not tried it with pain, but have with the ‘itch’ and have had similar experiences to you. Once I even had the experience of forgetting about the itch that I had been using as a support–until I realized that I was scratching it! Doh’… such is the condition of the mind… I am actually feeling quite itchy right now… maybe I should go meditate and ‘practice’… 😉

]]> https://www.mindfulnessassociation.net/team-blogs/the-seven-minute-itch/#comment-27 Thu, 06 Nov 2014 15:49:42 +0000 http://mindfulnessassociation.wordpress.com/?p=97#comment-27 I had been particularly struck by this chapter which I was reading last week. In my practice on Friday I realised that I was itching and caught my hand in the process of automatically moving towards the itch to scratch it. Instead I thought if Larry Rosenberg could sit for an hour with a mosquito bite then I could surely manage 30 minutes with a minor itch. What an experience! Once I let go of identification with the itch, I could become interested in it rather than aggravated by it. I watched the sensation ebb and flow, now a tickle, now an exquisite pain, felt the heat radiate from the site of the itch and the subsequent chill round about. It became my mindfulness support. I have tried to do something similar with pain but with less success – I can manage to remain unidentified with and interested in the pain in my knees for about 10 minutes but then it very definitely becomes MY pain and I have to shift position. Have you tried this?

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