Malcolm Ocean's roamblog

"nothing to do" meditation

created 2020-05-19 · edited 2020-05-19 · open in Roam
  • This is something that I spontaneously fell into, that I think is also cultivateable on purpose. At some point I may record it as a guided audio meditation.
  • This is roughly a script of what I imagine saying in such a meditation.
    • Welcome to this meditation space.
    • You've been busy.
    • At some point in the future, you will probably be busy again.
    • But right now, by the act of showing up to this meditation, you've decided to set aside the idea that there's anything you need to be busy with right now.
    • So for the next n minutes, you're free.
      • There's nothing you need to do.
      • Nothing to figure out.
      • Nothing to fix.
      • Nothing to make happen.
    • Now, of course, it's not always very easy to let go, but see if you can allow yourself to set the burden down.
      • Maybe take a specific situation in your life, and just feel how you don't need to do anything about it right now. There may be something you need to do about it, but it'll be there later, when you're finished with the meditation.
      • Let's take something simple: at some point, you're going to need to charge your phone.
        • If you're listening to this on your phone and it needs charging so desperately that you can't make it to the end of this recording without plugging it in, then it actually probably would be good to break for that.
        • But if not, even if you need to plug it in right after to be ready for your trip, don't worry about that right now.
        • I'll remind you at the end.
      • So for now, there's nothing to do.
        • < something maybe about how even if I didn't remind you, and you forgot, and your phone was dead, and you missed an important meeting, and so on, you would find a way to deal with that situation somehow >
          • (but this is probably too much of that preface haha)
      • "in god's hands"
    • < somewhere, probably earlier on, do some things to encourage embodied relaxation, before talking about the busyness >
    • < something about how sometimes you set things in motion and don't need to do more >
    • < something about trusting future you to take care of whatever comes >
    • < something about embodying non-busying during action >
    • Oh, and if you need to, this is your reminder to charge your phone.
  • Related:
  • Here's the context of the experience I had:
    • < the walk, the May 2 night after the "what is blame" convo >
    • relates to experience of
      • I sat in the circle as the rules were explained, and I grounded myself in simultaneously:
        • finite game: genuinely trying to pursue winning, whatever that would mean
          • (I didn't yet know whether I would play as Werewolf or Villager)
        • infinite game: holding that I could have a fantastic time sitting there and breathing and observing and just taking in everything that happened
          • even if "everything that happened" was just "I get eliminated first, like in 2009"

6 linked references

February 6th, 2023

playing in the roamblog › let me just relax for a minute

December 10th, 2022

@ 13:44 - trying to figure out what I'm doing with my wri… › hmm... choosing to do, vs choosing to allow

March 7th, 2021

  • "last breath meditation" seems related to "nothing to do" meditation
    • everything you're caring about doesn't matter any more because it's your last breath
    • you may have to do it a few times
      • M > "last few breaths"

February 11th, 2021

intentionality is seeming increasingly important to me › Mark Lippmann has stuff in his protocol about starting & …

August 8th, 2020

Meditations