#198 Observing - instead of scratching - that tickle

     A tickle at the tip of my nose during my first sitting meditation was a full-scale alarm call for action - I MUST IMMEDIATELY SCRATCH! Yet the instructions were not to move, but sit still, and simply observe this phenomenon, with curiosity. Henry Ford's "Whether you think you can, or think you can't, you're right" motto is spot on. My hand probably flew to my nose reflexively a few times before I learned enough just to be able to make a conscious choice!  
     These itches became less and less powerful summons to action the more often I simply observed their arising, abiding, and passing away, in stillness.
     The surprising power of this simple, but (at first) not easy practice, and its effects on our daily life, is for each of us to discover.
     What happens if I do this with a mosquito bite? How about increasingly more challenging thoughts, events and people who (maybe only potentially) "push my button"?

The dying star called Helix Nebula - by NASA/JPL-Caltech