You are the sky-Everything else, it’s just the weather.
~Pema Chodrun
You are the sky-Everything else, it’s just the weather.
~Pema Chodrun
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/on-being-with-krista-tippett/id150892556?i=1000657324707
Great overview of the neuroscience of self-regulation, nervous system responses, and how to resource ourselves in experiences or periods of high stress.
So much is trembling around us these days. Love is the anchor and the rope.
Around me the trees stir in their leaves
and call out, “Stay awhile.”
The light flows from their branches.And they call again, “It’s simple,” they say,
“and you too have come
into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled
with light, and to shine.”~Mary Oliver
(Excerpt from: When I Am Among the Trees)
“Each of us must confront our own fears, must come face to face with them. How we handle our fears will determine where we go with the rest of our lives. To experience adventure or to be limited by the fear of it.”
~ Judy Blume, Tiger Eyes
“So, how can you live in love rather than in fear? The first step, I’m sorry to say, is to love your fear. There’s a way in which you actually have to bow to the fear and say, ‘I know you. You too are part of this humanity.’” –
~Jack Kornfield
as blooming.
Pair your breath cycle with the meditative phrases/instructions and then drop to the individual word. You can choose how much time you stay with each instruction depending upon how long you wish to practice. You can also utilize this as a recitation, pairing each instruction and singular word with your breath cycle for one round.
Breathing in, I know I am breathing in
Breathing out, I know I am breathing out.
(Inhale) In
(Exhale) Out
Breathing in, I see myself as a flower.
Breathing out, I feel fresh.
(Inhale) Flower
(Exhale) Fresh
Breathing in, I see myself as still water.
Breathing out, I feel clear.
(Inhale) Still water
(Exhale) Clear
Breathing in, I see myself as space.
Breathing out, I feel free.
(Inhale) Space
(Exhale) Free
~From the book: The Blooming of a Lotus, by Thich Nhat Hanh
The mind flits; the body anchors; the breath bridges.
From where I sit, the wind is turning the sunlight on the ocean into rippling, silver streamers. Waves closer to the shore lap lightly, while the streamers flicker and swish. The evergreen and rock of Mouse Island on the horizon is an anchor, a landing, in this moving sea of light. All the ingredients are here for contentment, joy, even bliss. There is nowhere else to be, nothing else to do.
Rachael Naomi Remen, the pediatrician-turned-therapist and author wrote: “Our bodies hold us to our integrity.” She knew this personally, as someone who was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease as a teenager and still completed the rigorous demands of medical school, including sleep-deprived residencies. Over subsequent decades, Remen navigated multiple surgeries and medications that often resulted in further complications as she aged. Thankfully, her overall experience with Crohn’s appeared to become more manageable.
As a teacher of general and therapeutic yoga, I have experienced professionally and personally how our bodies, our somatic experiences, hold us to our integrity. We know on a sensory level things it can take minutes or years to acknowledge, repair, or integrate on a cognitive or rational level. Some of what we know lives deep in our bones and/or tissues, below or beyond words. It is an embodied wisdom, a wholeness, that is always accessible to us.
Yoga, as a mindfulness practice, helps us to listen deeply to the nuance and the obvious; it connects us to our physical narratives. The consistent practice of mindfulness, of returning to body, breath, and the present moment, aids us in becoming evermore attuned to the experiences arising in our whole being, enhancing our capacities for self-soothing, self-awareness, and compassion. The deepening of these skills will also serve us off the yoga mat or meditation cushion, whether we are meeting adversity, nurturing relationships, or connecting with the simple joy and beauty of the natural world. This is the integrity, the homecoming, the freedom of embodied presence.