I'm feeling the squeeze on my formal meditation practice this half term break, and reminding myself that everything I do (walking, cooking, eating, interacting...) is an opportunity to practice mindfulness - to come into the present moment and open to experience just as it is (whatever is here, frustration, sadness, anxiety, joy, contentedness... everything changing).
There is also a story (see photo) in our teacher manual that I find really helpful - about a busy nurse who began to find 'little spaces even in the most hectic times', spaces that transformed her day.
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We read 'Dear You', a favourite poem by Kaveri Patel, at a recent practice day, and this week I discovered her website with more poems and 'musings' (link in comments). These particular wise words struck a chord - they speak to me of a lighter touch, a gentle opening to and allowing of difficulty or challenge, in place of striving, fighting, entangling. Try softer...
With the winds of anxiety, loss and grief blowing through us, we may become entangled in these strong emotions so that we are paralysed to act, or we may block them out in despair.
There is a middle way - of naming them, allowing them, and holding them with compassion. Then turning these powerful emotions into positive energy for action becomes possible. In this Guardian article on climate change, Rob Law writes 'my intellectual and rational understanding of it has shifted to much more of an emotional and personal one' My heart also trembles and I have felt something break in it over the last few months. But getting entangled and stuck, or falling back into a bubble of denial are not options. https://www.theguardian.com/…/i-have-felt-hopelessness-over… This evening I have been listening to the beautiful words of Jaya Rudgard speaking about equanimity...
"The 'near enemy' of equanimity is indifference or disconnectedness. This is not equanimity. Equanimity is a responsive quality, inseparable from the capacity to feel joy and compassion. Balance brings power not inertia. You have to be balanced before you can move forward." Jaya Rudgard, 'The golden thread of equanimity' |
AuthorI'm Claire - and I (re)learn something every day from practising and teaching mindfulness... Archives
March 2022
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