Relax, Breathe, Everything is OK

Relax, Breathe, Everything is OK
(even though some things really aren’t)

Feeling lost, confused, depressed or discouraged is not a sign of failure or back-sliding, regardless of how long it has been there or how quickly it popped up.
Feel your body and your breath.
Know that the Earth – and Love – are holding you.
Allow yourself to feel comfort from your own touch.
Gently tell yourself that both your pain and your joy are welcome.
Do your essential tasks and do your practices, while listening to your body with curiosity.

Relax, Breathe, Everything is OK

Relax, Breathe, Everything is OK
(even though some things really aren’t)

We are better equipped to deal with all of the things that are not ok when we can rest into the deeper place where everything is ok.

We hold both:
There are things that need
very real attention
~and~
Everything is OK.

Breathe.

In the Moment and Alive

I pause.

I let gravity hold my body so I can let go.

Can gravity even take my thoughts?

I feel my legs and my arms and my breath.

In this moment I am allowing myself
to just be, and there is a little Pac-Man
eating my thoughts.

In this moment
I am alive.
I am alive,
That is enough.

Mapping the Trails Inside Ourselves

It feels like there is something wrong.
So I look for what I did wrong
Or what I missed
Or how I am falling short.
But it’s just a feeling, a remnant from some distant and terrible past.
I am not falling short.
I am going at my pace.
When I believe this feeling that says I am failing, that is exactly what slows me down.
Years ago someone told me, “if you just stop thinking there is something wrong with you, then you will be fine.”
Turns out he was right. And wrong. Because the thought, belief and feeling that something is wrong comes from a deep place and can’t be removed just by saying so. We need to learn to recognize it and skillfully navigate around it.

It’s a New Day and I am Alive!

Practice 26: It’s a New Day and I am Alive!

I honor my dread, sadness, fear, and hurt.
With no disrespect to any of my pain, I actively reach for joy and aliveness in myself.
The intention of my joy is not to deny the difficulties, it’s not to pretend to myself or anyone else that things are just easy and chill.

Instead, my intention is to claim life in the midst of all of the struggles that are there inside me, outside of me and around me.
Holding pain in one hand and joy in the other
I embrace the fact that I am alive