I love share the amazing effects of living an intentional life striving for inner peace and tranquility. Yoga and meditation are huge parts of this endeavor. I am such a beginning student of both, really, but the benefits are simply amazing even now.
This morning I awoke with a vague underlying feeling of restlessness, irritation, and, not surprisingly fear. The more I study, the more I believe fear is the root cause for most of our negative emotions. Both rational and irrational fear can quickly pump up our blood pressure and send our mind reeling with anxiety and trepidation. So this morning, fear popped up and wanted to hang out.
Now here is the super cool part, because of my journey to finding inner peace and balance my problem was immediately apparent. I don't know how to describe it. Think of all of your calm, peaceful thoughts are a beautiful pattern of soft muted colors intertwining and overlapping with one another. Fear, anger, jealous, all the emotions leading to disharmony stand out in stark relief as if they are glaring bright red. This enables me to sieve them off the top and deal with them.
But how do you do that? That is the question, right?
Knowing that all was not right with my world I took care of my morning routine and settled the kids to a slightly longer television program. Then I sat and breathed. I begin my yoga routine stretching my mind and my body. Then when I was warm and limber in both places, I quietly settled down into a half lotus pose. I returned to my breathing. (You will find in yoga and mediation you ALWAYS return to the breath.) Then I allowed my mind to gentle open and began to examine my mind that was trying to whirl itself into turmoil.
So what was going on? Well, this marathon training is just breaking me down mentally and physically. I don't feel good in either place. My energy is constantly zapped and I find it harder to be fully present for the joy in my life. It is almost here and then I am going to indulge in some delicious healing of mind, body, and spirit. But what else? Well, I have not been eating my optimal diet. I am only eating about 50% of what I should be. This affects my overall health in so many ways. Eating a clean, healthy diet is a huge emphasis in my life and priority for me. Finally, we have a couple of trips and Christmas coming up. Expending money brings up an irrational fear of insecurity for me. Then I just finished dealing with a long drawn out dispute with one of our utility companies that will probably never be resolved to my satisfaction.
As I slowly turned each one over in my mind, I was able to look it is head on and it made it much easier to let it go. I could see instantly ways to make it better. The marathon is at the cusp of being over. I can easily improve my diet, etc. I opened my eyes and I find the turmoil of my mind quietly leaving and the calmness returning. Equanimity prevailed.
Now it isn't always this easy. That lovely muted color picture has some challenges not so readily apparent. There are fears so deeply woven into my psyche it will take a great deal of introspection and personal work to bring them fully to the surface. Only then can the be faced and released. But those parts of the path will happen when they happen. There is no way to hurry it along. It is a journey, a journey I am so grateful to be on.
No comments:
Post a Comment