It can be hard to do. When I sit still in the mornings to meditate, I have to remind myself to let go sometimes. Living in crisis mode can challenge you whether crises are external or self-generated. Be more productive, take time to meditate, get clear, and enjoy life more.
When I sit still in the mornings to meditate, I have to remind myself to relax. When I do, I can feel my shoulders sink a little more. I can feel the muscles in my neck release a little bit. I can feel a letting go in my hips, my legs, my eyes. I have been on the move and striving so much in my life that it takes a specific reminder to enter that state. I don’t look at my phone, computer, or television in the morning when I wake up. Our world survived for thousands of years without them and mine will survive an early morning without them as well. No, I prefer to start my day with a focused time of gratitude, appreciation, and love that those devices do not provide. They can inspire me with some of the images, quotes, and stories they bring me, but they cannot surpass the peace I can feel as I enter a time of relaxation and stillness.
Often times there is a flood of thoughts that fight for recognition. They call my attention here and there and cry out for me to focus on them. It’s a moment where I have to decide to let them go and focus on being present and still before this amazing experience of life. It can be a struggle as they can fill my mind’s eye and block the world from my vision. I’m not as good at being still and relaxed as those who have practiced it for some time, so I have to walk myself back to stillness time and time again. It has become a slight habit that I look forward to setting aside when I am able to relax without coaxing myself into it. But it’s where I am right now and I’m happy to have that awareness. That is progress. To be able to recognize that my mind is distracted and slightly uncooperative at this time. It is comforting to have this awareness. It means I am becoming more aware as a whole and I can enter into the stillness that I seek when I see those things that are hindering me.
The distractions are not all bad. Many are good things. Things that I will need to address. I just don’t need to address them now. I don’t need to live at the demands of my own thoughts any more than I need to live at the demands of a phone or email. Most of the activities we deem as urgent are because our lives are too crowded to start with. They have become so crowded that momentum builds and life begins to take on a crisis mode. We run from one to another and wonder why we feel so exhausted. Part of this lifestyle is because we know deep down that we are missing something. We can’t often articulate it without reflection but the idea of being still to discover it frightens us. It shouldn’t. If we are dissatisfied, we should know why shouldn’t we? We often try to fill this uneasiness with more things, more activity but we find it hard to sit still. To discover the cause.
We are frightened because we don’t want to acknowledge that we aren’t as in control as we think. We know part of our purpose is to create and part of that design it to bring about order in our lives so we can fulfill that creative purpose. But we often leave the creation behind as we busy ourselves with creating some order out of the chaos of our lives and find ourselves trapped in a life that we have created that doesn’t leave much room for creation. Creation bubbles up from our stillness. Our awareness of the present and the beauty of the gift of life. The more we can set aside our fears. The more we can allow ourselves to be still The more we will find the beauty, the more we will share the love, the more we will fulfil our purpose.
