Our Walking Companions

Tags

solitude, spirituality, spring, stillness, stream of thought, walking

A female goose floats in the huge lake as the rain gently falls on this last Friday of April.

A female mallard sits in stillness on the inclined lakeshore as the male stands guard. I wonder if she is sitting on eggs, and if so, what defense do they really have against any attackers? Is it perhaps why they hang out by the bigger geese, who at least have some means, however limited, to ward off folks who may come near them with their beaks and demeanor? The ducks literally have no defense, other than that of the community which they reside in.

The goose has now come near the shore where I stand. Her peace is remarkable as she sits still in the rain. The father has now joined in the swim, even though he is about thirty feet away from her, which is about the same distance that she stands from me. We form an isosceles triangle whose base is the sixty foot distance between me and the father, who is slowly turning away and lengthening the gap between me and him.

The mother is now floating in the smallest of circles, virtually in place, in the clear portion of the water surrounded by heavy layers of algae. I am writing as I watch, a few feet from the water on the third of four steps, where the next step I take will put me right next to the water. I take that final fourth step and I must have crossed her line because she instantly sets off an alarm call. I step back and she is immediately silenced, as if I must have stepped back from her circle of perceived danger.

The rain keeps falling, even picks up pace for a while, and I am still standing still as I write, right next to an apple tree with the softest of white petals in full bloom on my right and a crab-apple tree in the distance on the far shore where the sun rises on my left. She has moved away from me a bit – the two sides of the isosceles are about forty feet now.

Oh wait. The father has returned to the far side of the lake to the shore by the windmill, to check on the three babies that have hatched over the past week or so. She gets a bit more trusting of me in my stillness, as she is now only twenty feet away, eyes towards where her babies are on the far side.

The rain is really starting to pick up now, but the tree that is literally growing leaves as I write is providing enough of an umbrella that I can keep writing. I am also in the company of the birdsongs coming from the tall trees lining the shore where the mallard couple is still parked. I can see that the goslings are now playing in the rain in the distance.

The mother has apparently decided that it is time to head back to the newborns, as the male of an incoming couple of geese tries to go after her and chases her out of the lake. The alarm calls go out from amid the trees that two intruders have arrived to claim the waters. Serenity turns to stress in a few seconds, and the mallard couple decides to take off. Such can be the cadence of life during a morning walk on the lake with friends.

The smallest of the newborns has now ventured almost to the middle of the lake. The rain is filling my phone’s screen with raindrops and I can barely write any more. It’s time to perhaps head back to dryness.

As I head back to where my car is parked, I’m glad, as I always am, that I decided to ignore the mind’s rationalizations and walked anyway today. On the final stretch, I remember to express gratitude to the new parents and their goslings, the mallards in their stillness, the resplendent apple blossoms, the birdsongs, the rain, and even the intruding geese who eventually disrupted the reverie.

Every walk, even around the same lake and on the same trails, is different. It is perhaps because my heart and its receptivity is a bit different in every walk. I am particularly reminded today that even though I start every walk by myself, I never really end up walking alone – companions inevitably join in.

How about you – why do you walk? What are your favorite walking paths? Who are your frequent traveling companions?

Kumud

P.S. Do join the friends of #SpiritChat as we gather in twitter in our weekly walk on Sunday April 30 at 9amET / 1pmGMT / 630pm India. We will walk, rain or shine, with some conversation and questions. Namaste – AjmaniK

Apple blossoms in the rain – my walking companions on a spring morning…

The Art of Slowing Down

Tags

celebration, heart matters, slowing down, stillness

The river is a bit higher than I would have expected it to be today… but there was still just enough space by the shore for me to walk down to the water, find a fallen tree trunk, and simply sit in the silence embellished by the lightly gurgling flow…

As I look around, I notice that the far side of the tree trunk I am sitting on has grown an entire ecosystem of its own… vegetation that looks like ground cover, with the tiniest of white flowers sprinkled amid the green… hundreds of them like stars on a clear night sky… except some of them are overflowing the trunk and making their way to the shale stones that are being lapped by the gentlest of ripples coming ashore from the center of the river…

The sound of falling pebbles from the other shore interrupts the mind’s wanderings, as part of the rock face sends its evening offering to the water below…

I look up to the top of the small cliff face and notice tall trees, young and old, hanging on the edge, many of them with their roots clearly exposed, entangled with the trees next to them as if in an eternal bonding until they are called to immerse themselves into the river below…

In the distance, the road bridge and the walking bridge downstream have not much activity except for the wind bringing them messages from the upstream side as it plays with the leaves of the overhanging trees on its way to them…

I notice that not a single insect bothers me as I sit today, in a location where usually the mosquitoes will find me in less than thirty seconds…

The meeting of the elements without invites the calm created by the meeting of the elements within…

My ‘walk’ today has been a trickle, and that is perhaps by design or maybe a mirror of the flow of the water. I am grateful for what is given today, for if not for my slowing down and sitting at length, I would have missed seeing the play of the water with the shale, the fallen tree trunk’s ecosystems, the trees hanging in suspended animation across the other shore, and so much more.

If I hadn’t slowed down to sit and spend as much time as it took me to write this post ‘in the moment’, I would have surely recorded more ‘steps’, but what of that? Distance traveled is often a poor indicator of what has been accomplished within. My heart rate is down by 10 points in the 10 or more minutes of sitting. I spend the next few minutes breathing at a few breaths a minute. I open my eyes and it is as if the river has stilled to take another look at me and joined me in the slowing down.

I look around and it’s perhaps time to go explore a bit, check out some backlighting on the trees in the forest, and then head home. Thanks for visiting, the river, the tree trunk, the shale stones, the chickweeds and sunflowers seem to say. Do slow down more often. We enjoy sitting with you.

I had figured I would spend twenty minutes or so slowing down today after the work day. The ‘walk’ took exactly sixty minutes – 534 to 634pm. I didn’t time or plan it that way, but that’s how long it sometimes takes to truly slow down. And who am I to argue with that? You can’t rush Art and its creation within, can you?

All the pieces of art that are still cherished after centuries — were they not created in intervals of time and space where the artist was working at their own pace? If so, then why would one imagine that our heart’s work can be accomplished without learning the art of slowing down?

Let the world go on on its own pace. If you know what you want, then the beat of that ‘unstruck music of eternity’ will set your heart’s pace. May we make friends with our own beat, and may we find bliss in all the moments of slowing down and listening to the heart.

Kumud

P.S. Join us for our weekly gathering and twitter chat, Sunday July 31 2022 at 9amET / 1pmGMT / 630pm India with the #SpiritChat community. We will enjoy a bit of slowing down in each other’s company, and mark another year of walking together. Namaste. – @AjmaniK

Taking a moment to enjoy the art of slowing down… in the middle of Rocky River, Ohio

On Spiritual Practices

Tags

calmness, clarity, Earth Day, mental peace, spirituality, stillness

This week’s blog post consists of some ‘live’ musings and observations on spiritual practices, derived from my walk on Earth Day, written while on my favorite trail. Hope you enjoy!

Friday, April 22 was Earth Day. So, rain or not over the past three days, there was no question that I was going to walk the trail that I walk every Friday. Thinking that my regular route would be really wet, I decided to go clockwise instead of my usual anti-clockwise route. This led to perhaps my slowest walk around the trail ever… partly because of the wetness of the earth, to the extent that much of the trail seems almost impassable. I had to walk the edges, sinking in mud on occasions, but I kept going. Practice? You may need to slow down on occasion , particularly on unfamiliar routes, but keep walking.

I almost turned around in retreat, until I saw a small bridge in the distance – this meant that I could go to slightly higher ground and then double back over the bridge, back onto the path, about a quarter mile downstream. My walk could continue, instead of me having to retreat. As I walked, I was grateful for the person who had the foresight to put the two disparate pieces of wood together to create the makeshift bridge. Practice? Be a bridge-builder when you can. You never know who will benefit from it.

Some beautiful blues and greens came into view, which made me pause, even kneel on one knee at times… to watch, and gently touch the new leaves emerging from buds. Yes, I am welcomed by the tiniest of thorns too, as I gently hold the edge of a soft branch swaying in the wind in order to still it – so that I can take a better portrait! Practice? With new growth will come thorns too – there are blessings in them all.

The pond is gorgeously clear after all the rain of the past few days… and the Sun rising above the tall trees scatters through some of the clouds, spraying whiteness everywhere, as I marvel at the next bridge that is going to take me across… Practice? Look in all directions as you walk, and occasionally upwards too.

And as I pause on the other side of the second bridge, looking at the sun, I am right upfront with a tree that is already flowering. The faintest scent of the flowers awakens me yet again to a different sensation – a reminder that truth, awareness and bliss are everywhere to be found – that is the reality that we need faith in, along with faith in our path and faith in our guide(s) – when we have all three, then there isn’t any energy in the universe that can stop us from rising. Practice? Be ready for surprises. They will often come when you are in alignment with faith.

The lake is amazingly still and full of light. A bench by the lake invites me to sit. I accept, and sit, and wait for any geese or ducks to show up and swim in the empty lake. After a while, a single goose walks up to the shore in the distance, enters the water, and takes ownership of the lake. His swimming sends ripples through the stillness of the surface, changing the nature of the reflections within it. And then, a little bit later, perhaps encouraged by the goose, a pair of mallard ducks leaves their refuge along the shore and decide to take a swim too… safety in numbers? When one decides to be brave, others get courage… Practice? Watch the ripples and disturbances of the mind – stillness and clarity go together.

And now, as I’m ready to finish the walk, it’s time for two tiny swallows to practice skimming, and even dive the lake’s surface… more ripples, more spreading of joy, more emergence of sunlight from beyond the solitary cloud as the breeze warms up a bit as it picks up speed… but the windmill by the lake barely moves – it is still largely unimpressed. Practice? Keep your heart open and you fill find joy rush in through the smallest of things.

As I was finally leaving, another tree and her blooms invited me closer – and I literally walked up to her and laid my face ever so gently into the arms of the flowers – it felt so soft, loving and gentle – a beautiful reminder that the Earth and her love for us knows no bounds. All we need to do is pause, embrace and remember.

As I returned home to a book that I had received as a gift on my recent India trip, this message about spiritual practices came from my post-walk reading…

“The real spiritual training is which makes our mind disciplined and regulated, restores moderation in senses and faculties, and creates lightness of spirit. Then alone internal peace and calmness is ensured and a higher approach is possible.” – Babuji in Reality at Dawn

I wish you all the best in your spiritual practices. I hope that they bring you internal peace and calmness as you move higher. Namaste.

Kumud

P.S. join us for our weekly twitter chat with the #SpiritChat community on twitter, Sunday April 24 at 9amET / 630pm India. We will discuss spiritual practices – old and new, simple and complex over tea, cookies and questions. Namaste – @AjmaniK

Some of my new friends – from Earth Day

The bridge – that kept me going…

The Sun sprays cloud-light upwards…

I sit with the stillness… before the goose and the ducks arrive…

The Magic of Slowing Down

Tags

serenity, silence, slowing down, stillness

I have always been a fan of the number nine. I was delighted when I first found out that if you added the number nine to any number, and you sum up the resulting digits, you got back the sum of the digits that you started with. Nine is preservative in addition. So, let’s say we begin with 25. Two plus five is seven. Now, add nine, and we get 34. Three plus four is seven. Let’s add ninety-nine. 34 plus 99 is 133. One plus three plus three is seven. Try adding 999. 1132. Still seven.

Now try multiplication with nine. Nine becomes transformative. The resulting sum of the digits will always be nine. 25 times 9 is 225. Two plus two plus five is nine. 25 times 99 is 2,475. Two plus four plus seven plus five is 18. One plus eight is 9. Yes, we can play with nines like this all day long. Magical when we slow down to contemplate, isn’t it?

In human life, when nine is engaged in multiplication, it becomes an agent for transformation. For example, it takes nine months for a human baby to be born. Is there any greater act of transformation than two cells becoming a baby? Can you think of an example in our daily lives where addition by nine represents preservation? I will give you a personal example. 

Nine years ago to the day, give or take a few days, a few folks gathered on twitter on a Sunday morning at 11am ET and had a conversation about spirituality. The topic was, “On Slowing Down”. There was no agenda or expectation that there would even be a second conversation the following Sunday. It was simply an experiment inspired by a question posed by me to one of my good friends – why isn’t there any chat on twitter about spirituality? Wayne’s response was —  so what if there isn’t one? Why don’t you start one? 

Answer a question with a question. That’s the classic way in which a teacher and mentor can nudge us to do something that takes us out of our comfort zone. I remember thinking back then — what will I even talk about? So, I asked Wayne again. What should the topic be? His response was — what do you love doing most? Talk about that. Hmm. What do I love doing most? I love slowing down, sitting and doing “nothing”. I learnt that from my Dad.

He could sit and read the newspaper for hours. He could sit in absolute stillness and silence with a cup of tea at peace for what seemed the longest time. He could stand in the kitchen patiently and tend to the assembly of his seven-layered, seven-colored rice dish for what seemed like forever. You simply couldn’t rush him for anything.

So, in the last week of July, which happens to be his birthday week (he would have been eight six this year), on a Sunday morning in 2011, a few friends of mine gathered and chatted about “slowing down”. There were only three questions. I did not ask the first question until twenty minutes into the hour. We had no idea what we were doing except that we were all simply happy to be there, enjoying each other’s company as we held our cups of tea or coffee and wondered about the merits of “slowing down”. 

That was then. Nine years ago. It seems like a life-time or more in online years. And yet, not much has changed in some ways since 2011, has it? If anything, the need for us to experience the magic of slowing down is all the more greater, isn’t it? How else is one to engage in remembrance and gratitude, if not through the active process of slowing down? How else, if not by slowing down, am I to thank all of those who have sent hundreds of thousands of words of hope and inspiration to the #SpiritChat community over the years?

How about slowing down offline? It is in slowing down that I can watch and deeply feel the sun rise slowly at the eastern end of the street at dawn or feel the silvery glow of the sliver of the moon’s rising at dusk. Slowing down allows me to contemplate the beauty of the flower that was separated overnight and fell to the ground in homage to the earth. It allows me to touch the dew fallen in the grass with light feet, and inhale the air of the cool morning breeze before the heat rises and melts it away. And yes – how is one to engage in meditation, if not by first slowing down physically and remembering to bring myself to a state of rest?

So yes, slowing down allows us to return to remembrance. Regularly slowing down within allows us to be in constant remembrance.  What kind of remembrance? The external world will be relentless in its demands on us, and yet That stillness will remain in our hearts forever. It shall be patiently waiting for us to accept its invitation to visit with it, to let the outer world be, and to choose to be immersed in the world within. Will we make that choice? How much can we slow ourselves down? Will we observe the observer and remember that there is That permanent, indestructible, all-loving, all-joyous, all-truthful One within All off us?

That remains the great question, the great challenge.

Nature has some pointers for us. As fast as a hummingbird flies or a bee buzzes or a butterfly flaps her wings, they all have to slow down, to come to a moment of stillness, so that they can experience the magical taste of the nectar of life. What can we learn from their behavior? Even the new puppy, who can go a hundred miles an hour, has to pause for a drink of water, a nibble at her food bowl, before she can take off again like an express train towards her next station of play.

Like the piano virtuoso Wayne Mcevilly, who inspired me to start the weekly chat nine years ago said — the greatest classical music compositions are so because the composers put as much care into putting the pauses into the right place, as they did into assigning the notes that each instrument is to play.

Let us condense nine years into nine minutes. That is my invitation to you. Take nine minutes and be still. Watch your breath or the light in your heart or the sunrise or the sunset or a single flower dancing in the stillness. Absolute stillness. There is magic in all of That. Thou art That. That is all there Is. 

We all can experience all of That, if we were to embrace the act of slowing down. No magic necessary. 

Kumud

P.S. Join me and the #SpiritChat community on Sunday, July 26 at 9amET as we slow down to create some magic. I look forward to hearing from you about your experiments with pure stillness. I will bring tea and maybe even some cake – you bring your open hearts and we will chat. Namaste – @AjmaniK

A bee slows down to visit a butterfly bush in the front yard

 

On Creating Clarity

Tags

awareness, clarity, spiritual practice, stillness

Over the past twenty four hours or so, a warm front sitting over the state has removed all the signs of winter from the landscape. Fierce winds and rain have lashed the west-facing windows and sidings as a reminder of the transition. The “wind tunnel” effect that pulls the wind off of the lake and guides it in the space between the back of the house and the forest, has created a continuous roar for two straight nights.

The unseasonal weather has resulted in seemingly erratic behavior among many birds and animals, if not some humans. Unanticipated transitions tend to remove clarity from our minds and replace it with doubt. When our outer environment is greatly disturbed or disrupted, the antennas that monitor our inner space try to recalibrate and reorient themselves.

Our spiritual practices — those that help us build reservoirs of resilience, patience, calmness, jurisprudence open-minded acceptance, and discernment — are often tested during ‘unseasonal’ weather. It is in these seasons of great disruption that the heart draws on our reservoirs of intuition to restore clarity. When we evoke the heart’s trust, it helps ensure that we remember to operate from a state of calmness in the midst of confusion.

Clarity of the heart helps us see the temporary for what it is, and remember the permanent for what It is.

The forecast is for a bit of snow to return over the next day or so. The heart awaits in the knowing that every season brings its own clarity.

Kumud

P.S. Join us for our weekly twitter gathering Sunday Jan 12 at 9amET in #SpiritChat. Bring your heart’s weather with you – I will bring some tea and we shall chat. Namaste – @AjmaniK

Finding Zen in a Noisy Social World

Tags

healing, silence, spirituality, stillness, zen

In an age of speed, I began to think, nothing could be more invigorating than going slow. In an age of distraction, nothing can feel more luxurious than paying attention. And in an age of constant movement, nothing is more urgent than sitting still.” ― Pico Iyer, The Art of Stillness

We are living in an era where the online and offline worlds are deeply intertwined. “Going online” happens faster than the blink of an eye, and five minutes to check an email or a Facebook message stretches far beyond the time that most don’t even feel they have to begin with.

Welcome to the digital era. A powerful resource for exchanging information and ideas, for creating impact, for creating change. Over the last decade, social influence has snowballed into a fast-paced, never-ending stream of data that most consume by default. Consequently, many are experiencing frustration, anxiety, stress, identity crisis and, sadly, even death as a result of the “noise” that constantly permeates our global and individual psyche, day in and day out.

You can only make sense of the online world by going offline and by getting the wisdom and emotional clarity to know how to make the best use of the Internet. — Pico Iyer

Investing time offline, on a consistent basis, is a practice that provides the inner peace, clarity, and wisdom we need to not only survive in this noisy world, but to thrive. Those who choose to integrate mindful practices into their daily lives are the ones who will be the true change agents, creating a more conscious, connected and creative world.

How conscious are we being with the use of the Internet and our devices? Is the media governing our time and our thoughts? How can we take a more conscious approach to the online space? In doing so, could we create more impact, gain greater fulfillment, make more meaningful connections?

You’re cordially invited to join us for a global conversation to discuss the topic “Finding Zen in a Noisy Social World.” This is a #SpiritChat community event taking place on the Twitter platform this Sunday October 28 at 9am ET. For a distraction free experience, join us in the chat room @ tweetchat.com/room/spiritchat.

We look forward to having you join us!

Christine L Bowen (CLB)

———

Finding Zen in a Noisy Social World

A Global #SpiritChat Community Event

Sunday, October 28 @ 9a ET

tweetchat.com/room/spiritchat

Christine L Bowen (CLB) is a creative, outgoing, and authentic person whose core values are Absolute Faith & The Golden Rule. She lives presently, loves wholeheartedly, laughs regularly, and she’s extremely passionate about living life at its highest potential and inspiring others to do the same.

With over 30 years of combined experience in the areas of visual communication, professional networking, and mass media, Christine passionately serves as a Creative Consultant to heart-centered entrepreneurs who desire to achieve a higher level of excellence with their brand identity & social presence.

Her unique approach inspires them to infuse consciousness, connection, and creativity into their TOTAL presence, empowering them to intuitively attract and align with the ideal people and opportunities; creating more sustainable, thriving, and fulfilling businesses… and lives!

www.christinelbowen.com

———

I am delighted that Christine will be hosting our weekly #SpiritChat for us on Sunday, October 28th. This is part of our new initiative to bring new voices to host the weekly chat. Thank you, Christine! – Kumud @AjmaniK

Fruits of Solitude

Tags

silence, solitude, spirituality, stillness

The month of March was unique for me in many ways. As one who has naturally tended towards silence, and lately towards stillness, it surely was a month filled with a lot of activity, including change and travel. Two of the #SpiritChat conversations in March were about silence and stillness (with Janet Nestor). There was also the beautiful conversation on serendipity (with Elisa Balabram).

We filled three of the four S-quadrants in March – in April, we return to color in the fourth S-quadrant – Solitude. On the face of it, solitude could pass for the fraternal twin of silence, and a close cousing of stillness. In the context of spiritual practice, solitude bears sweet fruit when it is a choice made with a sense of freedom. When imposed upon us, solitude can be a form of bullying, of punishment, of retribution. Solitary confinement was (and still is) often used as one of the most effective forms of “breaking the spirit” of prisoners.

Solitude as imposition, often bears bitter fruit, which creates an energy of insecurity, fear, anger and more. One other undesirable fruit of forced solitude is that of loneliness. When we feel isolated, a sense of loneliness invades our heart and weakens our light. After the basic necessities of life are met, one of our greatest needs is perhaps the need to belong. It takes great inner (spiritual) strength to be in a state where we can feel absolutely content in being, and staying alone, without a sense of loneliness eventually creeping in.

Even though we may occasionally, by choice, turn away from the world, deep, prolonged solitude is a tough mountain to climb…

I asked the boy beneath the pines.
He said, “The master’s gone alone
Herb-picking somewhere on the mount,
Cloud-hidden, whereabouts unknown.”
— Chia Tao in My Country and My People

Yes. It takes a certain Mastery of our own self to be at peace, even joyful, in our choice of solitude. And yet, it is often unnerving to be alone with this stranger that we often only know in the context of our relationships, our jobs, our accomplishments. We are often at see when left with our own selves, aren’t we? The regular practice of silence and stillness do help us along the way. Serendipitious discoveries on the path – an unexpected burst of spring blooms as we turn the bend, an unfamiliar yet welcoming bird call, a flash of sunlight through the trees – reinforce our choice and our practice.

And then, spring comes, and we learn to bloom, to thrive with the stranger whose silent, still company once made us uncomfortable. Solitude begins to produce that sweet fruit which we feel comfortable to share with the strangers around us. In embracing solitude, we truly embrace Oneness. In embracing Oneness, we become the masters who look forward to traveling alone, to a destination unknown…

Kumud

P.S. I invite you to join us on Sunday, April 8th at 9amET on twitter, as we gather to talk about solitude… in the community that is #SpiritChat. Namaste 🙂

Fruits of Solitude – Passionfruit and Pomegranate (on farm in Brazil)

Stillness – by @JanetNestor

Tags

silence, stillness

“When there is silence one finds the anchor of the universe within oneself” ― Lao Tzu

When I think of stillness, I instantly thought of the Taoist philosophy lectures during my Chi Healing classes many years ago. I remember the foundational teachings of Tai Chi and feel of the Qi Gong form that I practice regularly. Stillness is part of the human journey.

Using ancient thought from Chinese Medicine, energy is often categorized as yin or yang. Yang energy is sunshine, masculine, and movement oriented. Yang energy likes to get things done quickly and push to the finish line – it is direct, logical, and rational. Yin energy is feminine energy, moonbeams, soft and passive. Yin energy will stop, listen to a bird’s song and enjoy the moment – it is relaxed, imaginative, intuitive and will “sleep on” a decision rather than rush to the finish line. Each of us, male and female, young or old, is a mix of these two energies.

Stillness, yin energy, is by its nature rooted and grounded. Grounded energy is solidly connected to life and the earth. This sense of flow, permanence, and moment to moment connection creates a life lived in the present moment, de-emphasizing the past and the future. A present moment lifestyle tends to center you, meaning that you are fully aligned and allow the flow of spiritual energy and earth energy into your body and energy field. A now-centered life tends to become one that is energetically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually balanced.

Yin energy is built into each of us – a part of our humanness – a part of our body structure through our yin and yang meridian system (vessels used in acupuncture) and our yin and yang organs. For example, your central nervous system is made up of yin and yang meridians, and your body is made up of yin and yang organs. Your yin organs are your heart, lungs, kidneys, and spleen and they primarily produce and regulate your blood and bodily fluids. Your yang organs are gallbladder, urinary bladder, stomach, small and large intestines and one of the meridian vessels called the triple warmer, the meridian that takes you into fight or flight in times of danger. The yang organs mainly digest food and transmit nutrients to your body. As you can see, there is communication and cooperation between your meridians and organs keeping you mentally and physically vital and alive.

Because each of us has yin energy woven into our very existence, each of us can choose to embrace the yin within us and allow the growth of our inner-stillness. We can claim the gift that is woven into the fabric of our being. I have a favorite phrase I always share with anyone having difficulties claiming their inner-stillness – Why would the Creator allow you to be born without the ability to “phone home”? Your yin energy is your GPS and your telephone line to home – to the world of spirit – to the strength of Creation – from which you came.

I’ve chosen to share two very easy ways to use your phone line and your GPS system home to the stillness within.

• Close your eyes, breathe consciously, bringing your in-breath from your belly and fully inflating your lungs. On the out-breath, exhale slowly and thoroughly. Continue breathing in this way for a minute or two. Ask your body and spirit this question: Will you show me how to quiet my mind and find the inner silence and stillness that is within me? Continue to breathe, trusting that gradually one breath and one day at a time you will be shown the way.
• Gap Breathing: Breathe using the directions above. After a few breaths, on the next in-breath, inhale deeply and hold the breath. Listen closely. There is not one sound in that gap between your in-breath and out-breath. There is total stillness. Exhale and hold the breath again. You will once again find that same stillness. You learn to trust this silence and stillness and extend it from one or two seconds into minutes. Eventually, experiencing the silence and stillness will feel normal and natural, and you will be able to tap into it anytime you choose.

– Janet Nestor

Contact Information

• Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/JanetNestor http://www.facebook.com/JanetGNestor
• Facebook group co/admin – http://www.facebook.com/groups/IAMChoosingLove/
• Twitter: @JanetNestor
• Website and blog: http://www.mindfulpathways.com

Please join @JanetNestor as she steps up to host #Spiritchat (twitter chat) on Sunday, March 18th at 9amEDT. This will be Janet’s debut at hosting the chat (although I have co-hosted her a few times before…). Janet is a wonderful friend and long-term member and participant in the #Spiritchat community. Thank you, Janet, for stepping up to host the live chat as I travel… Namaste. – Kumud

On Practicing Silence

Tags

silence, solitude, stillness

The practice of silence is perhaps one of the tougher practices in this age of so much noise and chatter. To experience external silence, one has to make a concentrated effort to filter out the inputs that are clamoring for our attention. Even during sleep, noise surrounds us, even though some of us sound sleepers are fortunate to be blissfully unaware of it. Have you ever noticed that you wake up on some days feeling completely rested, while on others, you are still tired? Why is that?

One reason for the difference between a ‘sound’ sleep and an ‘unsound’ one is perhaps the amount of ‘internal noise’ that we may have experienced during the night. When we get ready to go to sleep after a particularly hectic, busy, noise-filled day, our brain has not had enough time during our waking state to fully process all the inputs that it received during the day. Our central processing unit, the brain, has only so much processing power. So, when overloaded, it tends to enqueue the unprocessed inputs. It is these excess, unprocessed inputs that the brain then processes during the night – in the very hours that we are physically at rest, but mentally wide awake!

And so we begin the next day, often to the sound of a jarring, noisy sounding alarm, which literally sets the tone for the day to come. And the cycle repeats itself, until the weekend, when we can (hopefully) take some time off from the treadmill of external chatter and noise. But the weekend is often not enough time to rest our body and mind, never mind the spirit. And so we look forward to the next vacation, or at least a three- or four-day weekend, to play catch-up, to truly feel physically, mentally, and spiritually rested again. I have a proposition.

What if we could vacate our mind-brain on a regular basis, every single day? Let us develop a practice, so that we actively immerse ourselves in silence at the beginning and end of every day. The moment that we wake up, we dive into silence. We may start with fifteen minutes, grow to thirty minutes, and then progress to an hour of morning silence. If we can be physically silent, then we have a better chance to be mentally silent. At the end of every day, laying in bed, what if we were to take a few minutes to be physically, and then mentally silent? How would the quality of sleep improve with this practice?

Once we can develop a practice to be mentally quiet when physically still at the beginning and end of every day, we can invoke that quiet state any time during the day. We can even invoke silence while in motion, even amidst the great noise of the world. And when we can be internally silent on demand, we have taken one giant step towards invoking peace, joy and lightness, no matter our external state of stimulus.

In the true depth of our inner silence, we discover our connectedness to the infinite. In silence, we discover that our heart has the capacity to be like the ocean that refuses no river. For it is in silence, that we can hear the message, the purpose, of the seed that was planted in us at birth.

Kumud @AjmaniK

P.S. Join us for our weekly conversation on twitter – Sunday, March 11th at 9amET/1pmUTC/6:30pmIndia. Please note that we shift to daylight savings time in my time zone this Sunday. The live hour of #SpiritChat will arrive an hour early for those not observing the one hour time-shift. Namaste!

Practicing Silence…

Be Still and Focus on Love of Self – by @llake

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love, self-care, stillness

Welcome to #31daysofselfcare2018 This morning was one rough morning. It followed a rough day that was yesterday. It’s really hard to deal with a series of problems that you can’t control, especially when the outcomes are tied to decisions that other people are making. It’s really hard to control anger and frustration. I struggle with…

via Be Still and Focus on Love of Self — Lillian Lake

It is with great pleasure and excitement that I will welcome our good friend, Lillian Lake (@llake on twitter) to be our guest for our weekly #SpiritChat conversation – Sunday, January 21st 2018 at 9amET on twitter. Our topic will be “Be Still and Focus on Love of Self“. Please read Lillian’s post on the topic (linked above) , and make sure to subscribe to her wonderful blog. Thank you, Lillian, for writing about this topic, and your entire #31daysofselfcare2018 series to get us started well in 2018  – Kumud @AjmaniK

In her own words, “Lillian is a focused, compassionate speaker, fostering meaningful life connections.” You can connect with Lillian, and find out more about her and her work through the following ways:

mobile: 207-557-5196

lillianlake.com

Franklin Journal columnist

twitter.com/llake

https://www.facebook.com/humantraffickingeducation/

https://www.facebook.com/lillianlake1111/