11 Nov Minutes a Day Keeps Anxiety Away
Practice.
Not always something we like to deal with.
Discipline.
It sounds so harsh, and rigid, and confining. For many of us adding a practice into our lives feels like one more thing we just can’t do. Instead we bemoan our fates, argue that we just can’t change this thing, that nothing can really change.
So we stay “stuck” when the quick fixes we take on won’t change anything.
It’s amazing, isn’t it, how much more comfortable the familiar pattern in our lives is – even when we don’t like that pattern. It’s easier to stay in that pattern that to change.
What is true is that we can change.
We don’t have to stay stuck.
It takes time and it takes perseverance. Dedication. Commitment
Sometimes a lot of time. Sometimes a lot of dedication – in small – yet regular – doses.
90 and still doing stomach crunches
My 90 year old dad has been an example of this for me. All my life he’s been a dedicated fitness buff, doing stomach crunches, weights, running, swimming. Still to this day – even though he can’t walk far because of spinal stenosis which numbs his feet – he does his stomach crunches every day, twice a day. The PT gave him a regime of core exercises that he does, consistently, steadily twice a day.
There’s hope
I met with a friend of mine, Colleen Brynes, for coffee yesterday. Colleen has always been plugged into God / Love / Source Energy in a big way, repeatedly inspiring me throughout the time I’ve known her.
Not because Colleen always has erudite insights to share. It is her life that inspires me. Her commitment to becoming herself, to listening deeply and emerging out of the struggles of her life into who she is meant to be.
I hadn’t seen Colleen for a long while and there was a lot to catch up on when we finally met. In the past few years her life had radically changed for the better. She’s happy now, in a way she didn’t know before. She described the doors of her life being blown open.
The phrase she used was, she’s living a new life.
Wow. (I’m thinking. Wow? That’s really possible? Yes, it seems so. She’s a living manifestation of it.)
She described that it felt like she had completed the past years of her life and entered into a new life. Everything was different. Most importantly, she was different inside herself.
As always, I left our meeting inspired, uplifted, encouraged. There’s more to this inspiring conversation but I’ll leave that for another day. Don’t worry. I’ll let you know!
What made the difference, fundamentally for her? What set up the conditions so these changes could take place?
It’s the laying down of moment to moment awarenesses. Small changes made on a daily basis so that the conditions are ripe for a larger shift to take place.
We all long, some place in our hearts for a Magical Cure, The Silver Bullet of Transformation, that one person who will descend from on high and make it all better for us.
Our task is to set up the conditions on a daily basis so that when that instance of Transformation arises we’re ready for it. We need to prepare the ground so that when all the pieces fit together we can take advantage of the offer, the hand being extended and have the life we’ve been wanting.
Practice in action
I’m getting to see the ground being cultivated for the many people who are participating in the Embodied Practices Course. I’m hearing from individuals who are finding the practices simple, easy, and more importantly, having an effect in their lives.
“I just completed the first audio. I noticed my normal depth of breathing goes just below my breastbone. I noticed when breathing deeper I felt an internal shakiness and the breath felt comforting to that sensation. I believe this would be good for me to practice, if feels the breath is like a pure clear water and cleanses these difficult places.”
“I have practised the first of the four exercises quite a lot, quite often today even when doing something else altogether at such times when I became triggered by my own thoughts. It seems to be helping me to be more aware of the connection between such thoughts and what happens to me physiologically. Sometimes I don’t get much beyond this awareness but I’m fairly sure it helped me to calm down. I really like this exercise and think it will be of value. Thank you.”
I’m hearing from therapists whose clients have been in emotional distress for years finding glimmers of hope, moments of quiet.
“My client has been unable to calm her body constantly filled with anxiety and thoughts of negative thinking. The practices are giving her step-by-step ways to focus on her own which has been really helpful to her.”
Although many people find writing on the Embodied Practices Blog still a little too exposing, it’s been fascinating to reading people’s comments to each other. I feel the wisdom emerging from inside their hearts and their experience of taking the steps to practice. They learn from each other, from each small step taken toward the life they want to live.
“….sometimes I get a glimpse – a whisper that is reassuring. It’s heartening to hear of your experience. Thanks for telling us about it.”
It’s not as though these practices, or any practices are the magic cure.
It’s that any practice done with consistent attention and perseverance will set up the conditions so that your intention will take root and flourish.