Choosing health - meditation edition

 

Just breathe - 

Take a moment, feel the breath moving through your body.  Feel your feet firmly planted on the floor.  Let your shoulders relax away from your ears, allow the muscles in your back to release. (also try playing this music in the background while you are reading this post)

Breath in slowly through your nose for the count of 5 

Hold your breath for the count of 5

Let the air out of your lungs, through your mouth, for the count of 10.

Do this 3 more times.

Notice your body and mind relaxing into this present moment.

Give yourself permission to let go of everything for the next 10 minutes.  That's it, just 10 minutes.  You can pause for 10 minutes.

All of this simple practice gives footing to begin to go deeper with a meditation practice.  But, we first need to have a place to stand.

Most of us (including me) think that meditating should be so easy.  It's just sitting.  It's just letting go.  But in our fast paced culture, we have a hard time setting aside just 10 minutes to sit in silence.  Do you notice your body crying out for this pause.  Unless we learn to listen, unless we learn to be quiet long enough to listen, we won't hear what our bodies, or the Spirit of God, or our neighbors, or our minds are trying to tell us.

Meditation is, of course, more than just being quiet.  Is it actively listening to the world around you and inside of you.  It is being attentive to more than words.  It is also being attentive to how our bodies and minds resonate with all of the information that we take in.

Create some time in adding meditation into your schedule.  It does not need to be an hour - but start somewhere.

You can sit in silence

You can listen to calming music (choose something with no "rhythm section" instead try something like this from youtube with pictures (whether you just listen or watch and listen)

You can listen to guided meditation (these are like choosing a good book, but a few that I really like are from Chopra or Calm

Blessings to you in your journey as you choose health for yourself.  And watch how healing yourself makes in impact in the world around you.

Peace

Wisdom

I have been thinking a lot about wisdom lately.

The thought

Be Wise

sometimes it seems like an imperative - like the fate of the world is riding on my shoulders

sometimes it seems like a quiet whisper, a prayer - a call of hope to move forward

a soft nudge or a strong pull -

however it moves or sounds the one thing I have discovered is most certainly consistent about wisdom

 it does not rush.

Those thoughts bother me.  I believe them to be true - but lately I have felt very rushed - pulled in many directions.  It is no wonder to me that people have been talking more about ways to live simply...our world pulls and tugs at us - calling us to do more and at faster speeds.

Did you know that the 40 hour work week was not even a thing until 1926 when Henry Ford started giving his workers more leisure time.  And instead of having less production there was more!  Less than a century later the hours of a "productive" work week have creeped back into our lives.  And then to try to keep up with the offerings of recreation activities, and yoga, and meditation, and eating well, and  . . . no wonder we  feel rushed.

But wisdom moves slow - and maybe it would be wise for us to do the same, without shame.