Intention, Motivation and Purpose [Audio]

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Intention, Motivation and Purpose by Andrea Fella:

A familiar with just how much the mind and body influence each other. We certainly see this when we start to meditate, but I think many of us even who before we meditated, we’re kind of aware that, you know, when a strong emotion arose, like anger or something, that it impacts the body, and when, you know, calm or happiness comes up, it also gives this different sense to the body.

So, there’s a connection between the mind and the body. We’re very familiar with the way our emotions kind of impact our body. But also our body impacts our mind as well. When, for instance, we – our toe, which I did just yesterday. You know, that painful sensation that comes can create stuff in the mind. It can create reactivity, frustration or self-criticism.

So, the body also. So, this is, it’s a two-way ___. The mind influences the body. The body influences the mind.

And not just emotions influence the body. I mean, like, even thoughts, even the simplicity of the thought can impact the body. Sometimes, you just think about, as an example, maybe in your meditation, a thought came up about something you were doing last week, or, you know, something came up in your mind. And all that was, was an arising of a thought about something you remembered.

But sometimes, and I’m sure you’re familiar with this experience, sometimes, when thoughts come up in the mind, they come along with the emotional terrain or content that was present when that experience happened. So, the memory arose just as a thought in the mind, and that memory kind of brings with it a whole emotional embodily interaction.

So, this two street between body and mind. There’s so much connection between the two. And then the teachings of the Buddha, he particularly highlighted a quality of mind that, that works just like point of connection between body and mind happen. It’s a factor in the mind that he called intention or delusion.

Delusion, intention is just a little urge in a mental urge. It’s a mental urge that impels us to act. Every single action that we do- of body, of speech, even of our minds has this impulse that precedes it. In the guided meditation, I suggested that you see if you could remain still not with the sense of holding yourself still, but just to have that sense of relaxing ___. And notice if you might noticed an urge to move.

You might have felt an itch, or just a little bit of discomfort in the body and a little bit of an urge to move. So, did any of you noticed that urge before you move? Did any of you noticed that? A couple of you.

So, this urge that happens if possible to see it in this kind of exercise can highlight it. If you’re interested in playing this with home, you can explore in your sitting meditation one time. When you have a time that you don’t have a particular constraint on the end of the sitting to sit until there’s a strong impulse to get up. So, don’t set a timer for the sitting. So, sit until the strong impulse to finish the sitting comes up.

But then, don’t get up. Sit through it. Watch the urge. What it feels like to have that urge to move, and you will pass. It won’t actually take that long.

You know, probably within a minute. Less than a minute, even. Might even take 15 seconds. So, watch that urge pass.

And then, the second time it happens, do it again, watch that urge arise and pass. The third time it happens, get up. (people laughs)

So, that gives you a little bit of flavor of this impulse. It might give you a taste of what I’m talking about. This impulse to move before we move. So, it’s possible to see this impulse.

It’s possible to recognize it. It’s possible to know we’re going to move our body before we move it. It’s possible when we’re going to speak before we speak. It’s possible even before when we’re going to think before we think. That one is more subtle, not easy to see, but it is possible to see that.

It’s possible to see the mind kind of headed towards an emotion before that emotions comes up. So, this place of intention itself is just a little like impulse. Sense of about to. When you have a sense of, what that is, about to get up, about to move, about to speak.

So, that kind of little urge in the mind pointing us to or having us to recognize that something is about to happen. That can be seen. That can be known.

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Find more exercises related to mindfulness at work here. 

Find more mindfulness exercises related to self-discovery and purpose here.