Do you live on the edge balancing a busy schedule and home life?
Most of us live on the edge without realizing it!
We respond automatically to the demands presented to us, feeling stressed without really thinking do I need to do this now?
Applying a mindful practice can ease the stress of juggling the workload and emotional baggage which we carry with us every minute of every day. You know how exhausting it can be.
Your body adapts to the constant changes it encounters as best it can because it’s always seeking homeostasis – balance.
All living systems are unstable and will take the path of least resistance to get to the most stable form of healing by seeking balance. The mind is a function of the body and strives to seek balance.
Think of the body as a weathervane that keeps switching directions every time the wind/mind blows testing it to keep adapting. When moving too fast, it bends and may snap off becoming broken yet continually adapting to stay afloat. Perhaps being too rigid/aggressive or flexible/passive and not acting assertively such as responding honestly, directing in helpful ways, listening and being respectful for supporting others and yourself.
What do you need to live in balance?
One way is considering the Five Hindrances in meditation which can often distract you from your goal:
1) Sensual desire or greed
2) Ill-will or aversion
3) Sloth and torpor
4) Restlessness, anxiety or worry
5) Doubt.
Hindrances are the major forces in the mind that hinder our ability to see clearly or become concentrated. They are universal and we all experience them.
Try applying The RAIN Formula: When a hindrance is present, it helps to investigate it:
R: Recognize it.
A: Accept it.
I: Investigate it, be curious. What is it like?
- Physically (How does it feel in the body? Is it pleasant? Unpleasant? Does it change?)
- Emotionally
- Energetically (such as feelings of rushing, sinking or lifting)
- Cognitively (What beliefs or stories do we tell ourselves?)
- Motivationally (is there an urge to act or cling?)
N: Nurture, a state of being with compassion for self and others.
(Source: Radical Compassion by Tara Brach)
It’s helpful to first explore the hindrance and investigate it. Often just recognizing a hindrance is not enough for it to fall away. But at other times, it’s helpful to use a mindfulness or meditation practice to counterbalance the hindrance.
A meditation practice can change the way you engage with the world and people. Stepping back and observing with non-judgement, compassion and curiosity shifts the mind to respond differently with less living on the edge. It widens the path with ease, choice and contentment.
PRACTICE TOGETHER drop in meditation and movement session runs Thursdays from 5 to 6pm. Find out more here.
In my program Heal To Health: A Mindful Practice For Coping With Stress, you will learn about the application of the five hindrances and discover the process to ease your mind and body. This program is based on the mindfulness-based stress reduction program developed by Jon-Kabat Zinn.
Heal To Health begins November 3rd and runs for weight weeks. Sign up now!
FEED THE BRAIN: A Mindful Eating Approach begins Saturday, October 29th from 10 am to noon. Discover your best relationship with food and how the body has its own internal diet system that tells you when you are hunger or full. How to eat and appreciate the most frequent experience you have daily, eating food by using the senses. Sign up here.
Check out the Event page with ongoing events and the weekly Practice Together drop-in.
My Best In Health,
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