Easier said than done.
What exactly is that? When do you feel it? And what’s needed to get there?
We have a natural tendency to be busy. To choose activity over rest.
We run from meeting to meeting. Take another look at our phone to make sure we haven’t missed a call, text message or e-mail. And what’s happening on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or LinkedIn?
Sometimes, even a birthday celebration on a Friday eve feels like an obligation.
Just relaxing for a few hours or turning off all devices during the weekend, often seems too far-flung. Even if you desperately want it, it’s still more challenging to give in to peace, than to keep running your track.
Why is that?
Our mind likes to keep us up and running. The more distraction, the better.
Buddhists call it the ‘Monkey Mind’. Our mind is like a monkey that wants to be entertained. By continuously giving in to the craving for activity, we disconnect from what we experience. From what we really feel and really need.
That nagging pain in your body, that harsh comment by your partner, that anger towards a tourists who suddenly jumps in front of your bike… You keep on denying a deep need of the soul. The need to be touched, to be heard. By yourself, that is.
It’s not something you need to ventilate by complaining or yelling to another human being. It demands for something very pure and attainable: finding the silence in yourself. Coming home to yourself.
Creating space for you – come home to yourself – is essential to feel flow. It’s not even dependant on a relaxing environment or quiet home. It’s creating the peace to be in touch with yourself. To be allowed to hear yourself, experience your emotions, take notice of the pain in your body. Seek refuge with yourself. And do you know what the best part is? That pain softens right there. Solely because you allow it to be. That’s where your core is and that’s where you experience that it can flow again.
It’s a life lesson, a constant training. Coming home again and again.
To feel the solid ground anew. Your core. Your centre.
Or, like Thich Nhat Hanh puts it eloquently:
‘To touch life is to come home to yourself.’
How will you come home to yourself this week? Five tips:
1. Meditation
Begin your day with a morning meditation. It’s the perfect start of the day ahead. Don’t lose your focus to the outside, but quietly sit and look inside.
2. Yoga
In touch with your breath and body, you can experience silence in movement and inaction. Yoga creates space and awareness for body, mind and soul.
3. Mindful tea
Just how often do you sip that cuppa, sitting at your desk and not paying attention to the action at all? Drinking tea consciously is a perfect 5-minute training that helps you to find peace. Slowly and with attention feel, taste and experience your tea. What a bliss!
4. Silent weekend
‘A whole weekend of silence, isn’t that super confronting?’ I hear you think it. And yes, it is. But above all it’s wonderful to experience what it’s like to not be distracted. You’ll find several silent retreats online.
5. Massage
On the massage table you don’t have to interact with your surroundings. Often, we’re so used to doing or saying something in return that our mind in constant state of alertness. On the table, you don’t have to and you can completely give in to receiving. To feeling. To completely being. Coming home guaranteed!