Not on your laptop or your smartphone... on your soul. I pried myself away from my to-do list this morning with a crowbar and hit the dog beach. Sometimes I need dogs on a beach or kids in a park to remind me how to relax, have fun and REFRESH. I know when I've hit my 'refresh' button, because I feel a shift and realize my priorities were all out-of-whack. We're human beings, not human doings.
I also walked out to what I like to think of as Peace Point, a sweet spot on the lakefront that's always looked perfect for meditating. Today I finally gave it a try out there. It was nicer and easier than trying to meditate inside. I say 'trying' because I stink at meditation. I'm working on that, reframing the idea. Meditation isn't really painfully boring, the gateway to Napville. It's actually instantaneous simplification, isn't it? I'm going to start thinking of it as instant minimalism!
Hi Sheri. Any of those doggies in the pics belong to you? Looks like a pretty spot. Anywhere you can really be in Mother Nature can be a great place to let your mind “relaxify.”
ReplyDeleteI find riding my bike (as in bicycle, though I may yet get a Harley) to be my “Moment of Zen” sometimes. Head-clearing, calming.
I actually went to a Shambhala Meditation seminar once (in Chicago), years ago, per a Buddhist friend of mine’s recommendation. It was really intriguing, but very hard for me to shut down the thinking factory. It’s just not in my nature to actively seek an “absence of thinking.”
At one point in the weekend, you’re sent in to chat with the head guy.
I go into this little office, sit down across from him, and he stares at me, saying nothing, his piercing eyes burning into my jaded little soul for what seems like minutes but was probably seconds. I blurt out how I’m having a hard time with this quiet non-thinking thing and he says, “I see you are intelligent and you have a broken heart.”
It was an interesting weekend.
Sorry to pontificate in your comments section but, you know well enough, I can’t help it.
Also, started a new blog at therevolvingblog dot com. Check it out when you get a moment. For some reason, couldn't comment with that identity.
See you,
Jim W
Lol, I must confess none of the dogs in the picture are mine. Kylee's part blue heeler, so the pics I have of her really having fun at the beach are a blur... unless she's just standing in the water, which makes her look a bit like the beach nerd. She's come a long way. Her first trip to the beach she was pretty overwhelmed... baby steps.
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad you pontificated AND shared your very sweet and funny experience. It makes me feel better about my lack of enthusiasm in the meditation department. I was more open to it when we learned to do self-hypnosis as hypnotherapy school, I guess because I could focus on something instead of nothing, but it's basically the same thing. I still like it better. I always have this nagging doubt that I'm not meditating right. Lol, ridiculous, I know.