SunAgape's Spot: spirit

Sunday, March 30, 2014

Deeply Peaceful and Relaxed

Take a moment, and pull in a nice, deep, slow breath. Now let it out, slowly. Go inside and notice where you might be holding a little tension, and let it go. Breathe into it if you can. Soft, relaxed.

Notice your feelings, your emotions. Breathe in peaceful, breathe out worry, breathe in peaceful, breathe out fear, continue breathing in peaceful, breathing out stress until you feel soft and relaxed.

Notice your spirit. Breathe in engaged, breathe out isolated. Breathe in self-curiosity, breathe out self-ignorance. Breathe in infinite, breathe out small.

I love that exercise. Relaxing my body, mind, and spirit. Peaceful at my core, engaged, curious, light.

Why do I choose peaceful? How can I choose relaxed? What makes me serene?

I used to think that being calm meant being slow; dum..dum...dum..... with nothing much going on. How boring would that be.

How wrong was I.

When I feel serene at my core, I am my best me. I am sharp-witted, compassionate, fluid. I can do any task and enjoy it. I feel strong and beautiful and competent. Everything is fun.

I practice this a lot on the little stuff; my frustration when my computer pointer is jumping around; the fuel pump’s inability to read my card; the store being out of what I went there for; the driver in front of me going too slow. I got a lot of practice yesterday. And then I made the flip, and life is good.

Why can I choose peaceful? What makes me relax? How do I feel when I am serene?

I have to admit, I hadn’t considered the idea that I could relax my feelings until recently. I mean, I knew how to calm down, but I hadn’t made the connection about relaxing all the way through all my systems.

If you work on nothing else for the next while, work on this. When I am relaxed all the way through, I am less likely to go to my bad habits for comfort, because I am already comfortable. I will sleep better because my body and mind are relaxed. I will find bliss more easily because my spirit is relaxed.

Now I will let you in on a secret, because I love to tell my secrets. I get a lot of practice in because I use odd moments. I stopped listening to the radio in the car, and now use it to practice feeling peaceful because I have many opportunities to leave peaceful. I practice in the restroom at work, or in the elevator, or running an errand down the hall. Waiting for the bus is another nice place to run my Creative Questions, to soften my tense muscles, to breathe in deep, slow, and to breathe out slowly. In, slowly, deeply. Out, slowly, fully. Soften, relax.

How have I changed from feeling tight and clenched to choosing peaceful all the way through?

Are you feeling a bit more relaxed now? Please consider either a + or a share. It makes a big difference. How do you know you are important?

Saturday, February 22, 2014

Declenchifying

We are so good at so many things. Each of us has our own set of skills, talents, gifts, and blessings. Is relaxation on your list? Is that one of your skills?

There is so much more to relaxing than flopping down on the couch to watch TV.

When we relax our bodies, we let our muscles soften. Sometimes we may find that relaxing our muscles lets our joints self-adjust. Relaxing our bodies allows all of our body-systems to flow freely.

Why do I relax?

When we relax our minds, our thoughts flow past our awareness, like floating down a river. We aren’t thinking, but observing thought. And when we catch ourselves thinking a thought, we bring ourselves back to the river. This is meditation, like a reset for our minds.

Why am I centered?

When we relax our spirit, we stop striving for holiness, or enlightenment, or whatever our preferred spiritual pinnacle, and are able to be fully present. We experience bliss and joy. We see the beauty of the world. We feel compassion, generosity, peace. Gratitude and appreciation flow.

Why am I serene?

When we let our emotions relax, anger relaxes, fear relaxes. Anger takes resentments with it. We may find that we are more tolerant, kinder. Fear takes worry with it. And as we continue to relax, we find that we feel vulnerable, but we also find that we trust we will be okay. We are safe to acknowledge our feelings, we recognize the feelings we have that can make trouble for us, own them, let them go. We recognize the feelings that support us, own them, and nurture them.

Why am I calm?

I used to have the idea that if I was going to nurture my passions, I would have to sacrifice peace. I was used to seeing people I thought were passionate all churned up, temperamental, moody and self-absorbed. That part of following one’s passion was very unappealing to me. Turned out it wasn’t about following their passion, but about their not having chosen to grow up yet.

Why do I choose to choose?

When we decide to let life flow, everything relaxes. When change happens, which it always does, we can reacquire our equilibrium more readily when we choose to let life flow. When we choose to say “yes” to life, to relinquish our imagined control, our grip on the status quo, everything gets easier. I don’t know about you, but I sure like easier. This allows me another crazy freedom, namely, I get to be more fully me, expand my personality, so to speak. I am more flexible, so my world can expand, too. I have more options, I have more resources, and because I am relaxed, I have a lot more energy. I sure like that, too.

How have I changed from being good at clenched to being good at relaxed?

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