In the summer I set an intention for a week to follow a budhist practice of mindfulness of the impermanene. At the risk of sounding overly dramatic, it definitely changed things for me, and how I perceive things in my life. Here is the practice should you want to incorporate it into you life.
Morning Reflection: start the day with a few moments of comtemplation on the impermanent nature of life. Remember all things, including our plans, comforts, are transient.
Midful Living: Throughout the day, be presetn in the each moment and notice when you are not and bring yourself back to the her and now. Notice the changes in and around you, everything from the weather to your emotions.
Letting Go: when you find yourself getting attached to the pleasantness or avoiding the unpleasantness of a moment, smile and let go to what is.
Gratitude: Reflect on the fleeting moments of each day that are precious and be grateful without clinging.
That's great Erin, you are thinking but what's your point. Well this was put to the test this week. We recently bought the place where we think we will retire. We spent 8 weeks out here this summer, Ian had to go back to work for a week or two but I stayed. My husband got a taste of retirement. He has bumped up the deate. What we were thinking was 5-8 years is now down to 1-3. Not only that it is all he talks about.
The place at the lake is a small community of maybe 20 houses and two streets. If I walk the entire thing from one end to the other it is about 2 km. I walk 4 to 8 km a day at home. There is no store or anything here. Closest place about 30 minutes away. Which is okay. But Erin's brain started to panic about being here full time and how I thought that would mean giving up all my independence. I had a rough day or two.
Then in meditation it came to me. Impermanence and attachment. I was clinging to the idea that being independent is important and what that independence had to look like. I had flashes of what could have been after my brain hemorrhage and how I could be much worse off than I am. And how enetually all of us end up dependent on others. Ians offer of buying a kayak for me popped in my head and felt comfort in knowing that perhaps my really long walks alone might have a new alternative.
So I put the story of "Independence" up on my bookself and returned to the intention I set for myself so many years ago when I was adapting to the new version of me:
I am open to all possibilities .
Calm returned. We are out at the lake for the weekend. I am content. I can feel what I life here might be like. I told Ian that I would want to go into a yoga class once a week and maybe the gym another time. He said "of course". Maybe I'll get him to a yoga class. But I am not holding on to that dream very tightly at all.
Comentarios