It was some years ago when I first heard Cheri suggest making a very long recording saying “I choose peace and calm” and keeping it running in one earbud at all times. I thought the long recording was a great idea, but why “peace and calm”? So I made long recordings in which I repeated in a loop things like “I choose Love”, “I love you”, “You are not alone” or “You did nothing wrong.” To choose peace and calm didn’t mean anything to me. On countless occasions the words “peace and clam” flew through my brain without making any impression, like autumn leaves in the wind, until a couple of days ago….
It was 11:00 a.m., time for the Yearlong Retreat radio show, and I was desperately mapping a process around work that is causing me so much suffering that it’s crippling. The content was more or less this: I had too much work and clients were calling me at all times and I felt like they were driving me nuts.
So, as I worked on the process map, the show started, the first caller went on and started talking about “taking care of her nervous system” and… time stopped.
My reaction was “WOW one can do THAT?” I had no idea I could do it -- and here the light bulb went on – choose peace and calm! Or, to be more specific I had no idea that I could constantly train to choose peace and calm. After years of autumn leaves swirling around in my brain, now I know that I want this training to be my Practice focus for the foreseeable future!
So, as a first step in that direction, I now have made a long “I choose peace and calm” recording. And, since after some more days of looking at this whole thing I realized I was holding my breath most of the time when I worked (and even when writing this article), I also made another very long recording reminding me to breathe. Listening to it right now. Will report back.
Gassho
Isotta