Human Beings. We are flesh, blood, and bone.We are emotions and physical strength. We have abilities and desires. At the center of us though is our breath. The breath is ever present. And a good anchor for us in our physical bodies. We (at least in this country) rarely if ever pay any attention to that- we are too inclined to be busy, to move our bodies to think and do stuff.
These days, given the current world situation, we are more apt to begin contemplating more internally simply because we are forced to slow down. Slowing down our external activities forces us to be more introspective. And this is uncomfortable for most of us. Perhaps it is time to change that. Little by little when we decide to allow this slow down, this introspection, we begin to become more familiar with ourselves. We never realized before that we have been operating generally on autopilot. We never realized that inquiry into who we really are was never a “thing”. Now it is. So who are we really? What are we all about? Is there more to us than our jobs, our family responsibilities, our activity? OH YES. And is there something we can do for ourselves to help us navigate these turbulent waters more effectively, soundly, and peacefully? a resounding YES!
Now don’t get scared this is going to go off in some woo-woo direction. This is about being in conscious contact with our bodies, and what makes our bodies run so magnificently (or not). And how to make our bodies and our mind more efficient and effective when we are under stress. And we are ALL under stress right now.
What if under all this stress we decided to try something new to help relieve the intensity of what we feel all around us today? Committing to 10-15 minutes per day- first thing in the morning, and perhaps when the anxiety starts amping up? It’s super simple, but you have to DO it. My recommendation is to sit down and just consciously breathe. Sit, get still, no distractions, silence, and stillness, and focus on the breath. Not so easy to begin with because the mind goes ballistic. Don’t care about that. When you realize the mind has gone ballistic, take a breath (no judgment) and bring your attention back to the breath- over and over and over again. I am not asking you to make this a marathon. Start with 10 minutes. If you make it 2 minutes on the first day- awesome! Try for 3 minutes tomorrow. Commit to doing it every day, say for a month- and see what happens. See how your mood stabilizes. See how little things don’t ruffle your feathers or ruin your day. Notice how your activities become more relaxed, more accomplished. Realize that you feel better.
What happens next? This becomes habit, this becomes something you look forward to, this becomes something you do every day before you even think of leaving the house!
And guess what? It’s called MEDITATION
Meditation is the single most important tool for living a happy, stable, effective life. Now more than ever, we need this tool!
Please feel free to contact me with questions or if you need help with this- more to come!
~Peace~
Penny
