Monday, May 11, 2015

Relief, Arrival, Awe

Image compliments of by Dr. William C. Welch, Extension Horticulturist, Texas Cooperative Extension
I had a wonderful Mother's Day.  After a leisurely morning including an extended yoga practice and ceremony for the Divine Mother, I went to The Spa at Stoweflake, which is my happy place.  I got the Shirodhara treatment, which involves warmed oil flowing over the forehead.  The utter relaxation this causes in me is so dreamy and wonderful.  I was fully "under," or passed out, but not in a sleep state - in a state of deep relaxation that I find so tonic for the nervous system.  (For more on stress and the autonomic nervous system, check this out.)

I then soaked, lounged, napped, and enjoyed a spinach tofu salad.  After lunch I listened to my man, Reverend Michael Bernard Beckwith, for some spiritual nourishment.


In his sermon, he shared council he had given someone yesterday who was struggling.  Practice this every hour, on the hour.  It was a three-pronged approach that I will share with you.  It will, just like a deeply relaxing spa treatment, contribute to resetting the nervous system.  If you've got a chronically zapped out and fried up nervous system like I do, it needs a good deal of help to not see every moment as some kind of crisis.



1) Relief:  Take a breath to feel a sense of relief at being through the stressful time.
2) Arrival:  I have arrived!  I am here!  I am in the space of knowing I am enough.
3) Awe: Take a look around from this non-stressed vantage point, feeling enough.  Isn't it beautiful? 
Well I can just say that I've had a smile plastered on my face for like 24 hours straight with this!  And it's funny the way the first instruction strikes me - Whew!  I am through that stressful time.  That stressful time?  It's the last 36 years of my life!

I have arrived in a more deep sense of knowing that my spiritual nature exists, is pure, is love, is Divine.  This is great news for me.

And taking a moment to look around, it's all that same Divinity, everywhere I look.  I am surrounded by so much beauty.  And there is pain in the world too, but it is bittersweet.  And the heart-rending sensation of viewing Maya as she is (the material world) is the stuff of true awakening.


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