Recently in the current yearlong retreat, our monthly practice focus was “fitness.” I chose to be curious about balance and flexibility in my body. I started playing with standing on one foot, walking barefoot over different textures, stretching to touch the bark of a tree or something else in nature. I even practiced rolling from side to side or frontwards and backwards at random times in the day. So I am trying new things without any expectation or judgment. I surprise myself often and laugh a lot more. Waking up can be fun!
For me, waking up begins with letting go of egocentric karmic conditioning/self-hate’s limiting voices when I feel them or see them arise. Conditioning often drops in as tension in some part of the body or as a pull toward a familiar distraction. In that noticing, I am in awareness and I am available and present for Life, being right here. When I give up being right or wrong I can just be in THISHERENOW.
I feel like a kid again when I enjoy my body more freely like this. I have a sense of more ease and I notice there are more smiles on my face. (It seems to me that others around me smile more too or feel the ease, but I’ll own that projection!) Recording and listening about my joy and ease reinforces my own smiles!
Just showing up in the world in this body, trusting Life and continuing to practice, suffering seems to end.
I vow to be fully alive in this human experience. And here is what I am seeing. It doesn’t matter what I select, just that I show up. The process of Life will unfold and I will be given the opportunities in each moment to see, choose and be with whatever comes up in presence.
In Gasshō
Janice