Albert Einstein said:
I’m preparing my teaching notes for the ‘I LOVE ME’ retreat on the Isle of Wight next week and came across this quote, which stopped me in my tracks and made me smile, Einstein articulates exactly what I believe we all think or at least suspect.
Your empowered self-care is going to be supported by finding the serenity of that still place within. A place where you can hear the whispers of the Wise One Within (WOW). A place to rediscover that Sacred Gift and lovingly put that rational Servant back where she/he belongs. Just stepping off the ‘merry-go-round’ for five minutes will impact positively on how you feel.
Make the time, you won’t be sorry.
So how do you find that serene, tranquil, still place within?
I want to share one of my favourite ways.
I call it ……..
COMING TO YOUR SENSES
This is a simple but profoundly effective way of developing your ‘higher senses’ – if we work out our everyday senses, they become stronger and more able to sense energy, we will each favour a particular sense and then pull in that 6th sense ‘knowing’. That Intuitive Mind.
Prepare some props to make it even more effective:
SMELL - a sprig of rosemary, mint or lavender or anything that smells natural and nice. A drop of essential oil on a piece of cotton wool – take time to explore the levels of the fragrance and how they make you feel. Smell connects immediately to our Limbic Brain and can stir ancestral memories. Next time you are in the green grocers – stand and smell
TASTE - something tasty to pop in your mouth and enjoy the sensation of taste. In daily life do not allow MINDLESS MUNCHING, give the food your full attention, explore the subtleties of taste. Try this: take a raspberry, grape, any ‘portable’ food. Put it on your hand, touch it, smell it, really explore it with your vision before popping it into your mouth and giving all your attention to how the taste explodes as you chew S L O W L Y
TOUCH - something you can touch – a piece of fabric, a stone, a leaf and also something to touch you, so a feather to gently glide against your skin. In this way you experience touching and being touched. If you wear a blindfold – or simply close your eyes – you will experience a definite increase in the sensitivity of your touch. Go from touching the material to touching the aura of plants and pets or get to know your crystals and essential oils in a whole new dimension.
HEAR – I just listen to the sound of silence, birds singing etc., but you might like to have something like a chime, Tibetan bell, bowl, beautiful piece of music etc., to focus on. In your daily life develop the skill of truly being present and listening to the sounds around you and the conversations you are involved in. Cultivate comprehension. Hear the murmurings of your heart and the whispers of the WOW
SIGHT – a flower, beautiful statue, painting – something that uplifts your spirit. In your daily life become an active observer, start noticing things, be aware of what you see
YOU'VE GOT THE PROPS, HERE'S WHAT YOU DO ...
Find a quiet corner in your home/garden or go for a walk in Nature and pick a safe, peaceful place to sit.
Ideally sit in the Lotus pose, but if this is not possible for you or your knees, find a comfortable position where your spine is straight. A straight spine is vital so that energy can more freely flow up and down the spinal column and therefore out to the entire body.
Once you are comfortable, take a few deep breaths and do the Teddy Boy Sweep[1] or any of the grounding exercises.
Now close your eyes and just focus on what you can HEAR
· keep your breathing natural.
· Peel back the layers of what is going on around you and you will be astonished at what you start to hear.
· Remain with this for 2 minutes and if distracting thoughts come into your head don’t worry, just gently guide yourself back to the sense of ‘hearing’.
Keeping your eyes closed, focus on what you can SMELL[2] x 2 minutes, or as long as you wish.
Still with eyes closed, TOUCH[3] something. Again, 2 minutes.
Open your eyes. Focus, for a couple of minutes, on something in front of you and really SEE it. Make it something beautiful, heart-warming and uplifting.
If you are outdoors, ‘FEEL’ how the environment touches you: feel the breeze in your hair, the sun on your skin, or the rain on your face…. Bring ALL your attention to the sensations.
BODY SENSE SCAN: Bring your focus to your body, mentally run up it from your toes to the crown of your head and FEEL each and every part of it. This is not easy and sometimes when I do it I can’t ‘feel’ a thing, if this happens to you, just remain with it, sooner or later you will begin to ‘feel’, begin to reconnect with every cell in your body.
To whatever degree, you will find yourself, every time you do this, more able to connect to that deep serenity that we all have inside and from THAT point the Sacred Gift blossoms.
[1] Smoothing backwards on the beginning part of Triple Warmer. Like James Dean and the D.A.
[2] You might like to prepare some items to touch or smell. For example, a flower, an essential oil, a herb, a sprig of mint
[3] You can simply touch your hair, nail, skin, grass, sand or whatever is around you OR be prepared and take along a tumbled crystal, a feather, a leaf – something deliciously tactile, a piece of lavender to smell.