4 Healing Practices: my gift to you
My journal has many entries, written year after year showing how these small practices gently shifted many ingrained beliefs and habits that have haunted me most of my life. Anytime we feel anxious, worried, angry, fearful, frustrated, or overwhelmed we can remind ourselves to stop and try these healing practices.
These practices may seem simplistic but see if something doesn’t shift a bit when you attempt them. Now, let go of thinking you are too busy to read these four steps. Come with me, dear reader.
1. Stop. Breathe. Ground.
Stop the doing. Take a seat. Feel the ground beneath your feet. Feel the chair beneath your legs, hips and back - effortlessly supporting you. Breath in through your nose, raising your shoulders to your ears and let shoulders drop on the exhale.
Continue to place your attention on this one breath coming in… and going out.
Feel your feet & your body… Grounded... Supported… Settled… Safe.
I begin and end each day (and whenever stressed) with this practice.
I ground, settle, and breathe before writing in my journal.
After a few minutes practice notice if you feel a difference… a little more settled… grounded?
You have moved yourself from the realm of the busy-mind and connected with your being or seat of self.
The Seat of Self is pure awareness, our true Self, the spark of the divine within each of us. From here arises our true guidance, authenticity, and creativity. We are separated from this inner knowing and guidance when the mind wanders, ruminates, and makes up stories.
2. Let Go of the Story Line
Buddhist monk, Pema Chodron says we all have a story line we tell ourselves when we are squeezed by life’s events. When forced to close my two woman’s retail stores I’d owned for ten years due to high interest rates - I lost my income, both businesses, my house on the lake, $100,000., my marriage and self-esteem. I was certain I had to resign from the executive positions I held back then as I thought no one wanted a failure to sit upon the board of directors.
We may not be able to change anything in the outer world in this one moment; however, we have a choice over what we tell ourselves. And, paradoxically, what we repetitively tell ourselves shapes the trajectory of our lives. If I had not repeatedly practiced letting go of my “I am a failure/loser” story, likely I would not have career changed to instruct at a local college for 28 years or be working as a writer sharing my wisdom with you today.
Through gentle inquiry into my story line of “I am a failure/loser” I was able to see that statement was NOT true. Letting go of this thought countless times led to a loosening of that old hurt and false belief. It led to an opening for something new.
Now I know “losing” my stores was divine intervention. I was clinging to the image of “I am a success” trying hide my deep insecurity. When my outer world and image collapsed, I was called to grown down into myself and find the truth of who I am. After losing the stores I reconnected with my true love of speaking and writing. Had I stayed in the fashion business or refused to observe and let go of my failure/loser thoughts (over and over) I may have missed this personal transformation… the chance to fully express myself in the world.
As we practice stopping, sitting, grounding, breathing, letting go a few times a day we notice that feelings shift. They come and go. We notice thinking that our life, work, kids, spouse, finances, the world, even our self-doubt is supposed to be different - causes us to suffer. With compassion for our human suffering, we remind our self: “It is just a thought,” let go, breathe, and ground.
This does not mean we avoid working to change what might need changing. It means we let go of resisting things as they are now. We stop fighting “what is.” How?
3. Acceptance and Trust is the Answer
To stop fighting what is - we let go of our story line and practice acceptance and trust. Acceptance is not a passive dismissal or denial of life’s hurtful events. It is an active effort of accepting life on life’s terms. (During tough moments, sometimes the best I can do is accept I cannot accept this right now and surrender.)
Can we practice acceptance in our own life by saying: “This is who I am. I am doing the best I can - right now.” (And too, “I did the best I could back then.”) Can we rest and trust that things have a way of working out even when we don’t know how? Can we trust that at a deep level we have the answers we seek? Can we trust in something larger than ourselves (God of your understanding, Great Spirit, Creator) weaving a grand tapestry that needs the dark as well as the light threads?
When we cease fighting what is and practice acceptance and trust we make room for guidance and grace always offered to us in the present moment.
4. Your Work is Sacred
Lastly, whatever your work, can you find peace and worth in it - right now?
Whether writing in our journal, at home with children, working in an office, on a front line, or unemployed - can we find honor and worth in what we do and who we are now? After losing my stores, income, money, and home I was forced to find worth, honor and peace within me that was beyond what the world could give or remove.
We enter this world as a divine spark that no earthly event can tarnish or take away. We forget the truth of this when separated from our true Self with painful thinking.
Of course, seeing the honor and worth in our work, our journal writing, ourselves and our lives is not always an easy task. When I had grown weary of facilitating the same career search program for nine years, I sat and asked my soul – and you can try this too - “What work am I really doing here every day?” My small, still voice within whispered the truth, "You are bringing light and hope to people."
My work was not about self-assessment tools or job search but about bringing light and hope to people. From that day onward the program was no longer repetitive for me. As I brought more depth and meaning to my work, so too, did the program deepen.
Each of us is called to share our light and hope with the world – a world in dire need more than ever.
Seeing our daily tasks as sacred work and every moment as a holy moment – transforms our labor, our being, and our world.
4 Healing Practices
1. Stop. Breathe. Ground.
2. Let go of your story line and thoughts, over and over, with compassion.
3. Accept and trust in God’s (of your understanding) perfect unfoldment.
4. Your work is sacred. You are a bringer of light and hope to a world in dire need.
