“Learning how to think really means learning how to exercise some control over how and what you think. It means being conscious and aware enough to choose what you pay attention to and to choose how you construct meaning from experience.”
–David Foster Wallace

Just sit. Still. Sitting still is doing. Doing often relieves the stress of not doing. Cats sit with perfect posture. It is not in a cat’s nature to sit other than how they sit. Cats don’t think about how to sit, they just sit. A cat’s mind doesn’t bother with how to sit. We humans however do bother with how to sit. Not only do we think about how and where to sit but we sometimes put ourselves into an unnatural position that creates discomfort.

A cat exists within its environment. We exist mostly apart from our environment. When we are a part of our environment we are more at peace with ourselves and one with our surroundings. We are in it and it is in us. There is no demarcation between the outer limit of our body and the layer of clothing or air that touches us. Only our minds suggest that we have a boundary and we accept this concept instead of waiting for our mind to suggest a better alternative.

While the cat sits with proper posture our minds fill us with thoughts about the uncomfortable position we sit in. Our minds bend our bodies to the thoughts we choose to pay attention to. One thing we can control is choosing what thoughts we listen to. By doing this, we can relieve ourselves of our discomfort and sit with better posture like a cat.

Bottom Line: Practice sitting like a cat.