…if you wanna cope with COVID /life / yourself!🤪
If I had to choose the biggest thing that makes the biggest difference to my day-to-day experience of life? Meditation without a doubt.
I remember back when I first did yoga in the sports hall at university with a lovely middle aged lady – who BTW if you had met her would confound all your expectations about what a yoga body ‘should’ look like!
At the end of the postures we’d lie down on our mats and close out eyes: ‘feel the ground beneath us’. I think that’s the first time I really noticed the weight of my body against the floor, and experienced bringing my full attention to the points of contact with it.
I also seem tor recall back then I fell asleep a lot.😂
It wasn’t until a decade or so later that I started up the journey again.
Over the years I’ve tried Mindfulness. A friend and I worked through Danny Penman’s handbook together.
I’ve even created and led my own short mediations at women’s circles and at the start of coaching sessions: simple breath work to help leave behind the immediate and give yourself permission to be in the immediate session.
Then when I was struggling on my journey to create a family, I started doing a daily walking meditation.
A dear friend had gifted me Nguyen Anh-Huong’s Walking Meditation CD set a number of years prior and one day it jumped out at me while browsing my bookshelf.
At the time we lived in a house which backed on to woodland. I’d stick in my earphones and head out for a fifteen minute slow shuffle.
I became so well acquainted with that bit of land. I noticed trees, fungi, fallen branches, the way the light coming through changes with the seasons, the bracken which springs up and dies back.
I’m sure I’ve walked every path there is in it. I can still go there now and instantly feel like I’m meeting up with a dear friend. One who you can say anything to and they’ll listen.❤️
Then three years ago I did a weekend Transcendental Meditation (TM) training. The upshot is that you get given your own personal mantra and shown how to bring your attention back to it over and over again. The instruction is to practice it twice a day for 20 minutes.
The timing coincided with my daughter starting school. So I started meditating in the morning before the rest of the house wakes up and again just before school pick up.
And you know what, when I do, I’m able to navigate life more easily. Funny that?!
Stuff still happens in the world which upsets me, I still get annoyed by others, but I find it easier to catch myself.
The days when I don’t practice? Well, let’s just say my daughter tells me I’m doing that volcano thing again!
TBH since COVID at the start of the year Ive found it hard to do the full TM practice.
I’ve reverted to simply sitting still for 5 minutes and concentrating on my breath.
I’m going out for morning walks again and plugging in to inspiring podcasts.
I wonder what daily practice you have to help centre yourself?
However it looks like, may you find comfort in it, dear friend.
Let’s flourish together!
Love,
Arlene x
arlenefl.com 