Spirit In Gear

Meditation in a Moment

 

What is life?  It is the flash of a firefly in the night.  It is a breath of a buffalo in the wintertime.  It is the little shadow that runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset.

- Crowfoot, a Leader of the Blackfoot Nation

In middle age I discover that the only place I can live my life is in the moment.  In the here and now.  Kind of a radical notion of stillness for people, like you and me, constantly on the go.

So you will understand when I tell you that my eyes did a double take when I saw a book entitled One Moment Meditation (author Martin Boroson) a few weeks ago.  My husband and I had taken Friday afternoon off to wander around downtown Hendersonville, NC, and we ended up in a cool bookstore called Zen,etc!

Two hours prior to our trip I had received word that the buyer for a home we just rehabbed and listed has backed out of the purchase contract he signed with us several days prior. I'm feeling stressed and harried from this news.  It is in this frame of mind that I step into the bookstore. 

I feel a powerful sense of synchronicity and guidance when my eyes light upon the above mentioned book.  I pick it up and glance inside for a quick scan.  I put it back down.  I wander to another pile of books.  I return to the first book.  Again, I pick it up.  And I carry it around with me as a talisman of sorts, as I look at other items of interest.  Then I purchase it.

In the book I learn the 1-minute meditation.  I've been practicing it since mid-March. During the first 30 days, it is mandatory to use a timer to do the one-minute meditation.  I purchased a battery-run electronic timer for $4.95 at Walmart.  It's small and compact, and easy to pack. 

No matter what my schedule is like, or whether I am at home or out of town, I find this practice portable and doable.  After all, you can find 1 minute in your day, I hope! (and if you cannot spare one minute, please have a loved one commit you to a hospital asap!).

The author debunks myths around meditation.  He makes the distinction between becoming peaceful, and being peaceful.  The former involves striving and adds stress.  The idea of peace always being available is intriguing, isn't it?

I've progressed to the second level in the book, and that is practicing the 1-minute meditation without a timer, which involves counting breaths.  As I continue with this practice, I will eventually learn how to experience the benefits of meditation in less than a minute.

In the meantime, I notice that, as a result of this practice, I am simply more conscious.  I notice what is around me.  I don't speed as much (either in the car, or outside of it).  When my mind races ahead, I tug it back into the here and now.  Maybe, just maybe, I will generate less stress by the way I move and respond to life.  It is an hypothesis worth testing!

If you'd like to practice the one-minute meditation, visit the author's site, where he spells  out the steps for you. 

Wouldn't it be cool if our health insurance premiums could go down if we practiced the one-minute meditation?

[Photo Credit:  Miguel Saavedra]

Making Room to Hear Wisdom

Sometimes I think of the connection to spirit as being like a phone line.  The connection is always open:  It's our half of the relationship to stay available for incoming calls . . . the problem is not in the sending, but in the receiving.

- Christina Baldwin, The Seven Whispers

Wisdom waits for me, stuck behind the doors of my continuous distraction, and cluttered mind.  Gradually, and almost outside of my awareness, my spiritual practices have become superficial and arid.  I spend the bulk of my awake time in my mind.  Good things still happen in my life, but the sense of joy is diminished by mental tedium. 

You can imagine, then, how grateful I feel for Spirit's guidance last week in the bookstore, when I found and purchased a copy of The Seven Whispers.  I'll address the first whisper in this post, "Maintain Peace
of Mind."

It's hard for me to feel peaceful when the characters within my mind harp at me incessantly- the critic, the doubter, the scaredy cat, the champion, and the little kid, among many voices I hear.  Author Christina Baldwin describes in the book how she shifts her sense of self.  She does this most often by shifting to her inner observer, who can act as mediator among the many voices to see which one can serve her best.

When we can do that, Baldwin says we can shift our emotional state, our thought processes, and our assumptions.  This allows other internal characters to emerge - integrated child, integrated self-parent, observer mind etc.  This helps me to remember that I am more than the totality of voices in my head.  When I recognize who's talking, I can choose to turn the volume up or down, whatever it takes to restore a sense of calm.

Here's an easy-to-remember practice that Baldwin describes to create peace of mind.  She advises starting out your day first thing in the morning with this:

Practice conscious breathing (slow, long breaths through the belly) that can be done anywhere.  Take 3 breaths (Thich Nhat Hanh's teaching):

1) One breath to LET GO 
In my case, I let go of constant list making; of racing into the future with "what ifs;" of focus on inadequacies rather than strengths.  Deep breathing replaces the adrenaline with oxygen.  Yesterday I felt besieged with volumes of "to do's."  After this exercise, I took a legal yellow pad, drew nine sections on it with a ruler, and placed my "to do's" in the boxes.  For example, one section held my list for a house we just put up for sale; another my list for a current marketing campaign; another for personal  financial items etc.  Having everything down and laid out in an organized manner de-cluttered my mind and brought a sense of relief.

2) One breath to BE HERE
I bring myself back to the present and "be" in the world through my five senses.  What do I notice through my eyes, hear through my ears, smell through my nose, feel with my skin, and taste with my tongue?  I discover that when I do this, I ground myself into the here and now.  I find my way back into my body, and out of my head.  It gives me a chance to interrupt unhelpful mental thoughts.  It allows me to pay attention of what is in front of me.

3) One breath to ask NOW WHAT?
Baldwin asks:  "Now what might Spirit say, if I say nothing more and just for a moment, listen?"  What I like about asking this question is that it invites Spirit (God, Higher Self etc) into my life.  I get the sense that I'm partnering with Spirit in my life and that I'm not alone.  The answer to my question may come later in the day, or week, or at some future time.  And sometimes Spirit will answer a question I haven't even asked, as when I was guided to buy the above named book.

I've been at this 3 breath practice for a few days now, during an unusually hectic work week.  For example, I left home at 7 am Wednesday, and didn't return home til after 7:00 p.m.  Friday I spent several hours looking at properties to buy, and then spent several hours in my office til 6:00 p.m., not my typical Friday schedule!

I intend to keep practicing the deep breathing, and to ask the questions, in order to make it a natural part of my day.  I'm still a "peace of mind rookie," but I find that knowing about these 3 breaths/questions pulls me back from mental racing by increasing my awareness. 

There is so much I cannot control in my life, even though I expend a lot energy trying to do that.  What I do have control over is breathing deeply to cultivate peace of mind.  Then I can make room for Wisdom to help me. 

I like the notion that God/Spirit not only resides above us (Western tradition), but that God/Spirit resides within us, in our heart (Eastern tradition), as Baldwin describes in the book.  As I/we connect with the Divinity  within us, we experience a richness in life beyond the material.

There are any number of ways to invite peace of mind.  What way have you found that works for you? 

[Photo Credit:  Gokhan Okur]

  

Being the Light

 

One of the most calming and powerful actions you can do to intervene in a stormy world is to stand up and show your soul.  Struggling souls catch light from other souls who are fully lit and willing to show it.

- Clarissa Pinkola Estes

Photo Credit:  Vladimir Boudko

Follow-Up to Gibberish Meditation

Following my post on Taming Worry Through Gibberish, I received an email from Dana, an Aussie now living in Japan.  She shared that she began doing the gibberish meditation in 1991, when introduced to it through a group practicing Osho meditations.  She sends a link to the gibberish meditation, taught in a similar way to what I experienced. 

The Osho website discusses a number of "active" meditations, and includes streaming audio and video demonstrations.  These meditations are designed to help one experience, express, and clear out emotional baggage to make it easier to access what they term the "inner powerhouse."

Funny thing . . .I completed a 21-day program of gibberish recently, clearing out a lot of emotional junk.  A few days ago I began clearing out junk on the physical plane - especially in my office, kitchen, and in financial areas.  I just started without "thinking" about it, and have made amazing progress.  It's getting almost addictive to see the order and clarity I'm bringing to the physical places I spend a lot of time in.  I hadn't put 2 and 2 together until I wrote this post!