Stop. Stop it. Stop what you are doing. Right. Now. Take a deep breath, in your nose. Hold the breath to the count of five. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Exhale through your mouth to the count of five. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Repeat this two more times. How do you feel? How do you really feel?
Living in a busy city, compacted with people, provides a challenge for us to be still and be in silence. Silence can be scary. When we are alone with ourselves and in silence our thoughts come to the center of our minds. Some people drown out their thoughts with a noise, any noise. Others push away their thoughts with busy work, over-involvement, drugs, alcohol, sex or any other activity in excess.
Why can’t we sit still? Why can’t we be alone? What demon or skeleton are we hiding from ourselves or others? Like the boogeyman or monsters under our bed when we were young, we give the skeletons in our closet way too much power and energy than they deserve.
I told the teens last weekend that it is important to “shed light on the darkest parts of our hearts and the darkest moments of our lives. So that we can take back our power from those moments and take back our power from the moments when we felt powerless.”
The teens did it, I did it last year and continue to do it and so can you? Everything I suggest in this blog comes from my own personal inner work and self realizations. Meditation is awesome. Breath work is awesome. Listening to your emotions and body is also awesome. While all of those can help us step into the present moment, to go further into the practice, the present demands your full attention. To do this you must:
- Let go of the weight from negative memories, hurts and past experiences. They are doing nothing for you and hold you back.
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Let go of the anxiety, doubt or worry that you have with your future. The future can not be predicted. Even if you believe in tarot cards, palm readings, rune readings those are based on the moment and the outcomes can change based on your free will.
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Forgive. Forgiveness is huge. I have no problem forgiving others, but I realized last year the importance of forgiving yourself. Sometimes we can’t let go of a past experience because the way we acted or didn’t act went against how we felt we should have acted. We hold ourselves to that thought, which continues to hurt and punish our self, without giving any compassion to our humanness. We never consider the thought that we did the best we could in that particular moment and we can act differently next time.
I’m in a weird moment in my life as I write this post. This moment parallels this past fall 2014 and last spring 2014. Yet, each moment has it’s own energy and own set of circumstances. Everything is different. My life is different. I am different. My energy is different. So many wonderful people and opportunities have come into my life. Being mindful and paying attention to myself, my heart, emotions, body and the present has brought me to a place of peace. Real peace. I feel like a light bulb that will never die because of all the work I have done and all that I released from my past hurts.
Peace can be hard to come by, but when you find it, it is a beautiful thing.
What are you waiting for?
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