Hi Everyone -
How are you doing?
How are you getting along with all the challenges we’re facing?
Challenges of working from home, or working “out there” with other people?
Challenges of parenting children at home or “out there” in the schools?
Challenges of studying on-line, alone with your computer. Your ideas of college and university life didn’t quite resemble the four walls of your bedroom, day in and day out.
The longing to be with family and friends blunted by concerns for their, or your, safety!
How odd, how strange all of this is!
Yet, we have to pat ourselves on the back! We’re doing it! We’re rising to all those challenges! Give yourself another pat on the back! We’re doing it and it ain’t easy!
I’m hoping that Mindfulness can give you some reprieve, some additional support. I’m hoping it can help - to realize that you can STOP - on a regular basis. Just let go of it all, and STOP.
Whether it's for 5 minutes or 10, at different points in your day - or even for a minute or two, every hour or so - just let go, be still, re-charge and possibly re-direct yourself.
It’s helpful to ask - HOW do I want to live this? How do I want to approach it, How do I want to feel? Maybe it’s to go about the very same task, but with more calm, being more centered?
You actually can choose - by Stopping, coming to a state of Stillness, Making A Choice and Proceeding from there.
We’re often caught by the thought and feeling patterns of our conditioned mind. The part of our mind that seems to take charge - generating non-stop thinking, emotional reactions, worries, judgements - incessantly! The Hamster Wheel - exhausting!
These are the times Mindfulness can really help!
We Stop, we connect with Stillness, and now we become AWARE. Now we see it - rather than being caught up, absorbed and even driven by it!
We see, we recognize, each thought as it arises, then the corresponding feelings as they follow along, then the beliefs and judgements that seem to automatically arise in their wake.
We see each of them, as it arises.
We see it as it has its moment,
And see it as it disappears, evaporates - only to be replaced by another cycle of thoughts, emotions, beliefs and judgements.
Now we see it. Now we can choose. Does this serve me? Is this where I want to go? Who I want to be?
We return to Reality. - to the here and now. It’s wide open. It’s spacious. It’s brand new. This moment has never happened before. It’s open to how we choose to use it!
Isn’t that wonderful?
We can let go of our busy, often “over-heated” mind. We can be still. We can connect with our heart, with our warmth, and find a totally different, more loving, more effective, more understanding and creative response. We have just moved the unfolding of life, the trajectory, in a different direction!
I love the analogy of an ocean liner leaving New York harbour bound for Ireland. It makes one change in its direction, and it ends up in Portugal! The power came in making the change of direction. The rest unfolded naturally.
Our default position doesn’t have to be a non-stop preoccupied mind. Our default position can be warmth and kindness - understanding that everyone is living some degree of challenge.
Andrew Cuomo said at the beginning of the pandemic, “This shut-down is hard for some people because they are alone. For others, because they are with people. I just live with my dog - and boy, does he get on my nerves!”
Whatever our context, we are all living with less social engagement and activity. We can live it as a situation of restriction and confinement, or - we could experience it as a sanctuary - a time for greater reflection, for cultivating the relationships we usually don’t have sufficient time for. We can use our time more intentionally.
We can also begin by connecting with Peace - the stillness inside us. It’s there, always accessible - but we’re usually so preoccupied that it’s drowned out and we don’t even realize all the beautiful qualities and strengths we have!
These qualities are actually named in Mindfulness, as The Divine Abodes. Equivalent to living in Heaven!!! They are states of mind which are part of our nature as human beings - that can be accessed, developed and can become a big part of who we are and how we live our life - day in & day out.
They are:
- Love, warmth
- Joy, a state of brightness, happiness
- Equanimity, a state of strength, stability, even-mindedness
- Compassion, a state of caring for others, for our world.
It fosters understanding, insight, patience and a wish to help in any way we can. If we can’t physically do anything, we can always radiate warmth and blessings from our heart.
How wonderful our life can be!
I will be holding a Mindfulness Evening on Zoom, on Wednesday, February 10th from 7 to 9 p.m. Please feel free to join us, to further our understanding and development of these topics and our Mindfulness.
If you wish to attend, please register by Thursday, February 9th, at 6 p.m.
To register, an e-transfer of $35. may be sent to:
[email protected]
Security question: what are we studying?
Answer: Mindfulness
A receipt will be sent to you for insurance purposes.
Everyone is Welcome!
Hope to meet you there!
Keep well and happy!
Lynda
How are you doing?
How are you getting along with all the challenges we’re facing?
Challenges of working from home, or working “out there” with other people?
Challenges of parenting children at home or “out there” in the schools?
Challenges of studying on-line, alone with your computer. Your ideas of college and university life didn’t quite resemble the four walls of your bedroom, day in and day out.
The longing to be with family and friends blunted by concerns for their, or your, safety!
How odd, how strange all of this is!
Yet, we have to pat ourselves on the back! We’re doing it! We’re rising to all those challenges! Give yourself another pat on the back! We’re doing it and it ain’t easy!
I’m hoping that Mindfulness can give you some reprieve, some additional support. I’m hoping it can help - to realize that you can STOP - on a regular basis. Just let go of it all, and STOP.
Whether it's for 5 minutes or 10, at different points in your day - or even for a minute or two, every hour or so - just let go, be still, re-charge and possibly re-direct yourself.
It’s helpful to ask - HOW do I want to live this? How do I want to approach it, How do I want to feel? Maybe it’s to go about the very same task, but with more calm, being more centered?
You actually can choose - by Stopping, coming to a state of Stillness, Making A Choice and Proceeding from there.
We’re often caught by the thought and feeling patterns of our conditioned mind. The part of our mind that seems to take charge - generating non-stop thinking, emotional reactions, worries, judgements - incessantly! The Hamster Wheel - exhausting!
These are the times Mindfulness can really help!
We Stop, we connect with Stillness, and now we become AWARE. Now we see it - rather than being caught up, absorbed and even driven by it!
We see, we recognize, each thought as it arises, then the corresponding feelings as they follow along, then the beliefs and judgements that seem to automatically arise in their wake.
We see each of them, as it arises.
We see it as it has its moment,
And see it as it disappears, evaporates - only to be replaced by another cycle of thoughts, emotions, beliefs and judgements.
Now we see it. Now we can choose. Does this serve me? Is this where I want to go? Who I want to be?
We return to Reality. - to the here and now. It’s wide open. It’s spacious. It’s brand new. This moment has never happened before. It’s open to how we choose to use it!
Isn’t that wonderful?
We can let go of our busy, often “over-heated” mind. We can be still. We can connect with our heart, with our warmth, and find a totally different, more loving, more effective, more understanding and creative response. We have just moved the unfolding of life, the trajectory, in a different direction!
I love the analogy of an ocean liner leaving New York harbour bound for Ireland. It makes one change in its direction, and it ends up in Portugal! The power came in making the change of direction. The rest unfolded naturally.
Our default position doesn’t have to be a non-stop preoccupied mind. Our default position can be warmth and kindness - understanding that everyone is living some degree of challenge.
Andrew Cuomo said at the beginning of the pandemic, “This shut-down is hard for some people because they are alone. For others, because they are with people. I just live with my dog - and boy, does he get on my nerves!”
Whatever our context, we are all living with less social engagement and activity. We can live it as a situation of restriction and confinement, or - we could experience it as a sanctuary - a time for greater reflection, for cultivating the relationships we usually don’t have sufficient time for. We can use our time more intentionally.
We can also begin by connecting with Peace - the stillness inside us. It’s there, always accessible - but we’re usually so preoccupied that it’s drowned out and we don’t even realize all the beautiful qualities and strengths we have!
These qualities are actually named in Mindfulness, as The Divine Abodes. Equivalent to living in Heaven!!! They are states of mind which are part of our nature as human beings - that can be accessed, developed and can become a big part of who we are and how we live our life - day in & day out.
They are:
- Love, warmth
- Joy, a state of brightness, happiness
- Equanimity, a state of strength, stability, even-mindedness
- Compassion, a state of caring for others, for our world.
It fosters understanding, insight, patience and a wish to help in any way we can. If we can’t physically do anything, we can always radiate warmth and blessings from our heart.
How wonderful our life can be!
I will be holding a Mindfulness Evening on Zoom, on Wednesday, February 10th from 7 to 9 p.m. Please feel free to join us, to further our understanding and development of these topics and our Mindfulness.
If you wish to attend, please register by Thursday, February 9th, at 6 p.m.
To register, an e-transfer of $35. may be sent to:
[email protected]
Security question: what are we studying?
Answer: Mindfulness
A receipt will be sent to you for insurance purposes.
Everyone is Welcome!
Hope to meet you there!
Keep well and happy!
Lynda
