The most important part of my day is a simple pause. I have a habit of pausing the mornings and I feel it in my day if I miss it. My day is always different when I start out in stillness – not caught up in activity.
So what I do is just sit, I sometimes breathe a bit in the beginning. Longer exhales and a few deeper inhales. What has been especially useful are one or two breath-holds. That just means after an inhale holding the breath for 20 seconds or so and then again really concentrating on the feeling and experience of the exhale. Noticing how the nervous system responds to deliberate focus on the breath. Then I let the breath go again and just come back to the experience of sitting with myself. Pure and simple as I am, resisting the temptation to change anything. I just sit and see -a kind of witnessing of myself that gives permission for things to be as they are.
For me, that’s when the work starts. I exercise the muscle of allowing and being present to the good, bad and ugly in me. Its a practice and a commitment in a way, to continually meeting myself and make friends with what is stressful and uncomfortable, disease-full inside. In essence, catching up with myself on a regular basis. What I notice when I don’t do this is that I tend to be more in automatic [and unconscious] behaviors that lead to distractions. I get distracted usually because I am avoiding something uncomfortable inside so a I reach out for something will give some relief from experiencing what ever this something inside is. But what always amazes me is the experience of it is not the same as my thinking about it. Experiencing it means an allowing of something to complete even if it doesn’t feel good. The completion is what brings more calm to the nervous system.
Why make a habit of this? I feel the rewards are limitless as we can keep discovering more of what we are and take that of that out to life. The firs pause in the morning is invaluable because it gives a reminder of whats with us and space to let some of it go. The result is less of a load and a connection with stillness as we go about the day. The more connected to life, the more constructive and fulfilling experiences we are likely to have.
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