Sunday, September 4, 2011

Spring

special note today's class is in the Garden room!



A few well, years ago, a friend and I talked about having to live life 'on life's terms'.  As much as we strive towards ideals there are other things that come up and challenge us on our way.

Tell you what there's nothing like google to remind us we're not alone in having these epiphanies!  On life's terms is an addiction recovery program, a song, someone else's blog, and a multitude of other things.

Count to ten...  take a deep breath...    steady...  these things people say universally when you come up against a challenge in life.    There is a value in taking things slowly, and surely, and as a reprieve for a society that is addicted to speed we do need to learn to slow down.  But who is going to slow down first?  Like a crowd collecting their baggage at a train station everyone wants to jostle closer and closer so nobody can see the baggage at all! Funny isn't it.

Let me admit right here, that I find slow very tricky.  I feel a mounting pressure to go fast in order to achieve the things I need to achieve and I'm not in anyway a perfect example of slow calm and achievement.. I am a scholar of these things, with a tendency to drink a bit much coffee and take on too many projects and sometimes I get a bit strung out.  Well what can I say I'm honest!

Counting to ten, is a great strategy it distracts the mind and calms the heart makes you oxygenate and can steer you away from the incident that you need to steer away from.  If you've ever left a situation thinking "I shouldn't have said that I shouldn't have said that", or "I should've said that I should've said that!" Then you know what I mean.

Part of a gradual process of forming new patterns around voice and stress is a layering of awareness of voice body and language..   so while the first time you shout, the next time you bite your tongue, the next time you count to ten, the time after that you count and relax, the time after that you relax and listen, and the time after that you listen and respond well.

This is a simplified explanation, obviously some situations require that you leave them altogether and some patterns can take us years to 'listen to' in ourselves.  But the beginning - "take a deep breath" is the key.  Shifting your focus is the hard part and the powerful part and gradually without having to think about it we can use these tools to repeat the new pattern.

If you can develop a 'body memory' of that shift in focus then it will establish a strong support for the intuitive change.

It's officially spring now, so it's a time to wake the body up as it gets warmer, and a time of rejuvenation and a focus on the new.  So whether you come along to today's class or another one, take a deep breath, count to ten, and start again. . .

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