Today's meditative reading is taken from Dr. Susan Jeffers, author of Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway.
“The biggest pitfall as you make your way through life is impatience. Remember that being impatient is simply a way of punishing yourself. It creates stress, dissatisfaction, and fear.”
How can we have patience in these uncertain times? Remember time is how we construct our day? Time has been more fluid as we isolate in our homes. By slowing down our thoughts and cultivating our silence we live in the now.
Every day we have a choice to let our thoughts move into fear or direct our thoughts into places that support and nourish us. The choice is ours. Each time we make this choice, we learn we have the power to be in the moment. It’s important to feel our emotions and allow them to pass through us. It’s important to respect our feelings and emotions.
The operating word is to move through the feelings and emotions and not pitch a tent and camp out whittling away our thoughts in a wild way that turns into a frenzy. It’s like a walk in the woods. We keep walking, not sitting down in the poison ivy patch we observe. Keep walking, keep moving forward.
Allow yourselves to pause at the beautiful vistas, glorious sunrises or sunsets, pause at the pain and struggle, breathe and keep moving forward. You are not alone. You have the ability to comfort yourselves, assure yourselves and refocus yourselves. You are in charge of where your eyes focus. Honor yourself in every waking moment in this practice of presence.
Reflections by participants: • Acceptance of my voice. I know I can rely on it • Balance. Life & abundance and death card. Life is “erosion and rebirth” Matt Kahn • Ocean is wild today, I am calm. Mother earth is
cleansing us • Reminder to jot down names of people or positions and hold them in silence • I used the mantra “Be still” and felt the calmness • Where do we focus – on the Insanity outside? Or the calmness inside • If having trouble being gentle with yourself, envision a child in front of you. How would you treat that child? They need comfort and patience. Treat yourself the way you would treat that child. • I exist in a reverie state during this time • My insides are churning with my emotions and when I sit in silent meditation and feel gratitude for all the good things in my life, I immediately picture a beautiful sunrise just peeking over the horizon. The beauty gives me goosebumps. I hold that feeling and the 15 minutes of silence just speeds by.