Interrupt the narrative

On retreat, I’ve been reading Living Beautifully by Pema Chödrön. I’d already been inspired by several of her books, and David Chapman’s review pushed me to read this one.

The title feels almost entirely irrelevant to the content. In it, Chödrön talks about interrupting our internal narratives and returning to present-moment awareness. She chooses the word interrupt carefully—we’re neither trying to suppress the thought nor buying into its message wholesale. It’s something in between; a little nudge to bring you back to yourself.

This is another of those practices that sounds too simple. Mindfulness 101, right? Return to the present moment? Everyone knows that’s a good idea and that it’s pretty hard. Add to that the perception of Pema Chödrön as a luke-warm, feel-good Buddhist teacher, and it’s too easy to find a more “exciting” practice. Something where we can get lost in the details.

But my experience is that these small interruptions make a big difference. Each time you notice yourself narrating—what you like, what you don’t like, how you’ll explain this to someone else—interrupt it by tuning into the body and senses.

Before I came on retreat, I wrote a piece called Widen the view. I didn’t realise I’d be practising something so similar on retreat.

The internal narration literally narrows your perception. Parts of you disappear, and the world recedes. But when you interrupt, it regains its breadth and depth. After a while, I found that I would notice the narrowing before the narrative itself. As soon as I felt the constriction, there would be a recognition and release.

But who cares about whether things are narrow or wide? Well, it turns out your natural state has an openness and spaciousness inherent to it. And each time we’re able to release and widen the view, we come into contact with that. It feels good, like you’re less cramped into existence. Things flow more easily. But it’s also easy to miss because we’re so used to locking down on objects.

Each time you get lost in rumination, you literally narrate and narrow yourself out of this natural state. In other words, it’s one of the primary things pulling you away from what you most deeply desire. And you’re doing it hundreds of times each day.

This is a complete practice. Notice the narrowing, release & return home. Repeat. Each time you consciously taste the wider view, you’re more likely to want to retain that perspective.