"Your Skeleton" exercise.
 

I am only on day 9 of abstinence from alcohol. Life has it's stresses as you all well know. I have been employing this exercise from time to time to ride the waves, so to speak. It is taken from Mel Ash's "Shaving the Inside of Your Skull". Some of you may already be familiar. Mr. Ash refers to Zen Buddhism as a base for his writing and exercises. I hope you will try it and benefit from it.

"Your Skeleton"

" Lie on a bed or on a mat or on the grass in a position in which you are comfortable. Don't use a pillow. Begin to take hold of your breath. Imagine all that is left of your body is a white skeleton lying on the face of the earth. Maintain the half smile and continue to follow your breath. Imagine that all your flesh has decomposed and is gone, that your skeleton is now lying in the earth eighty years after burial. See clearly the bones of your head, back, your ribs, your hip bones, leg and arm bones, finger bones... See that the skeleton is not you: Your bodily form is not you. Be at one with life. Live eternally in the trees and grass, in other people, in the birds and beasts, in the ocean waves. Your skeleton is only part of you. You are present everywhere and in every moment. You are not only a bodily form, or even feelings, thoughts, actions and knowledge. "

thanks sleepie, looks like a really interesting book, has lots of + reviews on amazon, just ordered a used copy

It's unusual, I'm just barely touching on mindfulness, haven't got too far on that yet, once I master it maybe I'll try the skeleton idea. I'll also have to get over the idea that a skeleton is something out of a horror movie. All these preconceived ideas I have are not good.

I think it's a good idea to jump in and try something without expectations as far as this goes, I never saw these kinds of things as something to be "mastered"- just things to do. You just do it, and keep doing it and forget the idea of "mastering", and competition. It's not a contest to see who's the best or most mindful.

Thanks sleepie for posting this. I'll try it. I could feel some affect just by thinking of my skeleton as I sit here. I like it a lot.

I hope this has helped some of you, it sounds like it has :) My experience is this: When I envision the skeleton I am, and it's disintegration into the earth- it reminds me that I am so small, my life is so small- in the great realm of the earth and cosmos. It is comforting to know that all my pain, what I feel- will be reduced to a pile of dirt- just like everyone else. No one escapes this, and all the noise between birth and death ultimately amounts to nothing. And that reminds me to be as happy as possible at every given moment. I, like many- struggle with sadness and loneliness. This exercise has been helpful.