Barbara, I just left you a comment at the end of yesterday's thread. I hope you're continuing to persevere, gently.
It's a little past midnight here in New Hampshire, and I'm inexplicably awake after having zonked out on the couch earlier. (One thing about having a dog is you will never accidentally sleep the whole night on the couch: Reggie nudged me to bed wanting to reclaim the couch as his own!) :-)
Anyhow, I'm going to sit a bit before "really" retiring: I'm in bed & about ready to shut off my laptop. Even on days when I don't make it to my cushion, I find rest in those mindful moments before sleep: resting, breathing, returning.
Good night or good morning, wherever you might be.
Barbara, sometimes it's just like that. When we started the 2.5 hour chants in my house years ago ('95-'00) the woman whose idea it was, who'd been a practicing Tibetan Buddhist for 20 years, got migraines during each session, and still thinks the chronic fatigue that developed was triggered by the chanting. And she laughs about it! And says she knew she had to continue, there was stuff to work through, and probably in the second year everything had lifted.
Letting go of the dense, tangled, muddling things, emotions, memories, thoughts. Over the years that we did that chant I went through a process of releasing, first like dark heavy clouds, acrid smoke, then gradually lightening until it was radiant sun.
The third woman in our core group was grieving the death of her parents, her mother, her father by suicide some years earlier, the devastation on her family, and for a whole year chanted a bit, and then lay flat on the carpet with a blanket over her and let our voices wash over her like angels.
She still says those chants saved her that year.
I'd say persist. It's an important challenge. See how to allow those difficult, negative thoughts and then let them go. Feel the tension and its release. It's a process of clarifying. There are always moments of bliss and clarity, but they become larger, longer.
The bliss and the clarity are no guarantee of anything, but boyancy. The ability to handle what life throws at you, and to respond lovingly and with grace.
We each have our own wisdom.
I agree with everyone's responses, and have added my own.
We're here, struggling too, Barbara, and supporting each other.
Thank goodness for the small miracles called "baby steps." This morning in an attempt to get back on track with both bowing & sitting, I did 27 bows & 15 minutes of meditation. Slowly, slowly I'm trying to get back into shape so I can do 108 bows each day, and back into shape in general.
Beth, here in NH we seem to have the same bright weather you do in Vermont. What cheer!
Thanks all for your responses - it is giving me a lot to think, to feel about .. more later I hope when I have processed some of the thoughts you have given me - I feel I might have more to say!!
Beth and Lorianne - the weather here in Scotland is the anithesis of what you are getting - here it is mild and wet, wet, wet ...unbelievable amounts of rain! In fact I don't mind too much - after so many weeks of raw, uncrisp bitter cold any kind of mildness feels like a blessing! I enjoy your sunny crisp weather vicariously ..and Lorianne I am glad you are feeling on the road to recovery ...
hi everyone, glad you are feeling better lorraine. I always love your presence here.
Today, I got so little time for my creative projects (which I consider meditation) - with crazy bank and insurance shit and a visit to the comptable...anyway, I almost didn't go to yoga but so glad I did...really released into the present physically, mentallya and spiritually....
7 Comments:
Barbara, I just left you a comment at the end of yesterday's thread. I hope you're continuing to persevere, gently.
It's a little past midnight here in New Hampshire, and I'm inexplicably awake after having zonked out on the couch earlier. (One thing about having a dog is you will never accidentally sleep the whole night on the couch: Reggie nudged me to bed wanting to reclaim the couch as his own!) :-)
Anyhow, I'm going to sit a bit before "really" retiring: I'm in bed & about ready to shut off my laptop. Even on days when I don't make it to my cushion, I find rest in those mindful moments before sleep: resting, breathing, returning.
Good night or good morning, wherever you might be.
Good morning, Lorianne and everyone. Welcome to a new week. We have bright skies here in Vermont and the promise, at least, of spring.
Barbara, sometimes it's just like that. When we started the 2.5 hour chants in my house years ago ('95-'00) the woman whose idea it was, who'd been a practicing Tibetan Buddhist for 20 years, got migraines during each session, and still thinks the chronic fatigue that developed was triggered by the chanting. And she laughs about it! And says she knew she had to continue, there was stuff to work through, and probably in the second year everything had lifted.
Letting go of the dense, tangled, muddling things, emotions, memories, thoughts. Over the years that we did that chant I went through a process of releasing, first like dark heavy clouds, acrid smoke, then gradually lightening until it was radiant sun.
The third woman in our core group was grieving the death of her parents, her mother, her father by suicide some years earlier, the devastation on her family, and for a whole year chanted a bit, and then lay flat on the carpet with a blanket over her and let our voices wash over her like angels.
She still says those chants saved her that year.
I'd say persist. It's an important challenge. See how to allow those difficult, negative thoughts and then let them go. Feel the tension and its release. It's a process of clarifying. There are always moments of bliss and clarity, but they become larger, longer.
The bliss and the clarity are no guarantee of anything, but boyancy. The ability to handle what life throws at you, and to respond lovingly and with grace.
We each have our own wisdom.
I agree with everyone's responses, and have added my own.
We're here, struggling too, Barbara, and supporting each other.
*hugs xo
Thank goodness for the small miracles called "baby steps." This morning in an attempt to get back on track with both bowing & sitting, I did 27 bows & 15 minutes of meditation. Slowly, slowly I'm trying to get back into shape so I can do 108 bows each day, and back into shape in general.
Beth, here in NH we seem to have the same bright weather you do in Vermont. What cheer!
word verification: juvgoar
A juvenile jaguar??
So glad you're feeling better, Lorianne!
Thanks all for your responses - it is giving me a lot to think, to feel about .. more later I hope when I have processed some of the thoughts you have given me - I feel I might have more to say!!
Beth and Lorianne - the weather here in Scotland is the anithesis of what you are getting - here it is mild and wet, wet, wet ...unbelievable amounts of rain! In fact I don't mind too much - after so many weeks of raw, uncrisp bitter cold any kind of mildness feels like a blessing! I enjoy your sunny crisp weather vicariously ..and Lorianne I am glad you are feeling on the road to recovery ...
hi everyone, glad you are feeling better lorraine. I always love your presence here.
Today, I got so little time for my creative projects (which I consider meditation) - with crazy bank and insurance shit and a visit to the comptable...anyway, I almost didn't go to yoga but so glad I did...really released into the present physically, mentallya and spiritually....
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