Rushing, Releasing and Reverence

By Elaine Hoem

Elaine Hoem

REMEMBERING WHO WE ARE
September2023
Mystic Living Today

RUSHING, RELEASING, AND REVERENCE

Dear One,

Last month, I suggested that we all practice living the beautiful mystical ways of pure love and soul by using the Greek word, Meraki, as a reminder to turn within. I posted little Meraki notes in various places in my home. These reminders helped – I slowed down, remembered the definitions, and then reentered soul space, even if just for a short time. These little notes to myself remain.

In this column, we will practice this inward return by focusing in slightly different ways yet always coming back home to our highest Selves in reverence to all that is. Let’s begin with the ancient Indian Greeting as a reminder of our vast interconnections with one another and with all the amazement of what is all around us.

NAMASTE

I honor the place in you in which the entire universe dwells.
It is a place of love, of light, of truth, and of peace.
When you are in that place in you,
and I am in that place in me,
we are one.

In reflecting on how I lived most of my adult life, one constant was rushing around most days and most of the day to ‘get things done’. How competent I could be in multitasking became a guiding principle for how I lived my life at home and at work. My belief was that if I didn’t do everything, nothing would happen, then something dire would result and it would be all my fault. Being the ‘doer’ puts incredible pressure on me and all others and it can become debilitating. A spiritual teacher once talked about the members of the “Try Hard Club”. I was one of them. She, however, was asking us to step away from this group due to the tensions, irritabilities, and lack of spiritual grounding that are the effects of such trying.

Fortunately, I also discovered yoga and conscious breathing and the resultant openings of a more balanced and awakened lifestyle. Today these ways are readily available to all of us. Such support allows us to take the time to breathe, release, reflect, and reorient to return home to our true Selves.

Take a moment to reflect upon your ways of living each day. Are you a member of the Try Hard Club? Or do you have other ways to cope with the stressors of ordinary life? Are you satisfied with such living? Or are you becoming aware of desiring a more balanced, soulful lifestyle? Perhaps you are already practicing such ways so that these words remind you to turn within once again. One way to assess this is to ask yourself: On a scale of 1 – 10, with 1 being no stress and 10 being over-the-top stress, where would your ways fall? Are you satisfied or dissatisfied with the balance in how you are living your life over any ordinary week?

Let’s talk about bringing these questions into greater consciousness.
Once we admit to ourselves that we are too caught up in all the demands of our lives, we can do several things to initiate change.
               First, breathe deeply and slowly and imagine releasing all stress down through your body and out into the earth through your sacrum. Please breathe in this way several times until you feel your whole body relax. Notice how vital and delicious this relaxation feels.
               Then take a few moments to reflect upon this state that is free of stress – a state in which your mind is clear, and you are giving yourself permission to be in this moment free of all the worry and sense of anxiety.
               In this place of spaciousness and emptiness, set your intentions for how you would like your life to be. I like to think of doing all we need to do in our ordinary lives but from a place of relaxation, focus, and flow. Imagine that it all gets done, or that you decide to give up some activities that do not add to your life such as spending too much time obsessively watching the news and then feeling irritated afterward. Spend some time with these new ways to honor yourself. Write them down in a journal and/or put them in places around your home where you will see them frequently. Refresh your intentions daily with resolve, purposefulness, and power.
               A second step that supports this newness is to imagine releasing all the old ways down from your mind, through your body, and out into the earth just as you did with your breath. This is a conscious emptying of all that is old and constricting and that which is no longer adaptive. Let it all go.

               And now, in your greater clarity and with a more spacious mind, start visualizing how you will be in the future, near and far as you establish yourself in conscious and self-loving ways. Create possible visions about your transformed self and all that life has to offer you now. Also, see how much more you have to offer life! When you imagine, make your imagery rich, expansive, scintillating, and BOLD with as much detail as possible. You can change your imagery as often as you want to spice up the possibilities. All this can happen in a few minutes each day.

Now, we are more open, more open-hearted, more spacious, soft, and available to do what needs to be done while also realizing that all is right with our world, that we are where we need to be, and that we are relaxed enough to experience all the magic, beauty, and surprises and awe that are all around us no matter what we are doing. When we commune with everything all around us or within us that sparkles, brings feelings of awe, or deepens our loving and gratitude, we are living our Soul ways. Our heart is open to the wonders of All That Is. How many such moments are you aware of this day? How many surprises become you? How reverent do you become? Each time this happens, you are living your ordinary life replete with sacredness, and you come home to your most essential Sacred Self.

Dear One, I hope you enjoy these practices. They are simple and they are powerful. If you have comments, feel free to write to me at everydaysouldances@gmail.com
Until next time….

Namaste,

Elaine

https://everydaysouldances.com

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