When we practice being present, and when we create space in our being by releasing our past traumas, we become more and more alive, spontaneous and connected with life all around us; happening in the only moment that exists – now.
We go searching for ways to be someone or something in the world.
We layer ourselves with costumes and roles and images and ideas; forming an identity; who we think we are.
Then, at a certain point, we find this requires such exhausting hard work to keep living up to, to protect and defend.
This is where life wants us to look within. To lean into the journey of releasing our ego identity. To face our fears that block us from coming home to our heart. To let go.
We forget that simply to be who we truely essentially already are is to give the world the most precious gift.
With guidance we can start to peel back the layers of outgrown costumes and find our Self, already there; ever present and ever perfect.
We can bang our head against the brick wall of someone else’s denial for far too long with the hope of getting through.
The longing to be connected and understood never leaves, however we can come to a place of acceptance that the connection we need is not going to be met through someone unable to hear us.
We can learn to make conscious boundaries; saying no to that vicious cycle, and instead make choices that will nourish us by being with others that are available.
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When we lose a dear one we can feel as though a part of us is lost. We can feel a wrenching tearing aching and a helplessness.
And with this there is an agony of understanding of just how deeply we love. Just how much we value and appreciate.
We can honour our loved one/s by allowing the strength of how much love there is between us to carve out a well of gratitude and deep connection in our own being. Connection with them and connection with all of life.
Sharing our deep grief with our own inner being, our heart can break open and expand with the passing or loss of someone we love.
This can be part of the gift of loving them.
We are often scared to let ourselves truely feel our more difficult emotions.
There can be a fear they might be too much, that we won’t have control, that they might sweep us away or drown us.
We can learn to trust the biological intelligence of our body as a safe anchor that holds the changing tides of feeling.
Truth be told, our body already is holding all emotion for us, but we often aren’t aware of it. When we do become alive to and conscious of the way our body is feeling with the sensation of any emotion, we then have a ‘ground’ to work from, to feel stable in, to regulate with, return to and rest in.
Whenever you are feeling anxiety, panic, sadness, stress, anger, happy etc, learn to become aware of the sensation of it in your body.
For example with sadness we might feel an ache in our chest. With stress/anxiety we might have shallow breathing, a tight chest and a gripping, prickly feeling in our tummy. With anger we might feel heat rise inside, clench our fists or clench our jaw.
Becoming familiar with our body response is the most powerful way to help ourselves release trauma or stress, as this is essentially a biological process rather than a psychological one.
We can literally shake out, yell out and move our bodies the way they need to move to complete the process of energy release and come to a restoration of our relaxed state.
Learn to let your body and breath hold you, ground you and reassure you.
Even if it is just for one or two breaths. Preferably four or five 😌
What is integrated spirituality?
Meditation is very important for building our spiritual muscles and for cultivating our focus and clarity.
However where we really need this clarity is in our challenging experiences through out the day.
We need space from our reactions in moments where we are triggered (even if just subtly sometimes) and when we are relating to others.
It’s not much good to meditate an hour every day if all the while our loved ones are suffering around us, or if when we get off our cushion we are angry, unkind or distant with our family.
What good is meditation if we are not taking responsibility for our part in everyday things and our patterns of relating and behaviours.
We run the risk of being arrogant, thinking our view is the right view and everyone has to fit in with that.
Or the risk of ‘Spirit-splaining’ – where we see we are are oh so spiritual and others are the one’s with the problem and should learn to meditate.
Or we run the risk of ‘spiritual by-passing’ where our meditation/spiritual practice can perhaps even become a kind of unconscious avoidance/escapism from the grit and real hard stuff.
Spirituality is just as much, if not more, about your relationships than it is about your meditation or any scriptures.
Life is all about relationship, not about lifting off into some other realm or state.
Spiritual practice needs to infiltrate every aspect of our expression in the world. It needs to contribute to waking us up to our way of being in each moment.
We must learn to also bring our mindful introspection inside our moments of anger, our distance or our arrogance.
Here we can really implement change and unfolding love. Here is where the ‘tyre hits the road’.
This is one way of talking about integrated spirituality.
What words would I offer to someone I love?
I am deserving of the love and compassion and comfort and mercy I would offer another.
Becoming conscious of what we consume and how we as humanity live our life, is imperative to our survival.
Positive climate action:
-Ride your bike.
-Sign the current Greenpeace petition calling for a Green Covid Recovery.
-Plant a vege garden.
-Donate regularly to Greenpeace/other climate action movements.
-Appreciate nature.
-Eat less meat, even better aim to transition to become fully plant-based.
-Plant trees.
-Recycle reduce re-use.
-Buy local.
-Petition for government action.
-Write to companies saying you won’t buy their products until they change their packaging/ingredients.
-Don’t buy anything with palm oil in it.
PLEASE ADD MORE ACTION OPPORTUNITIES IN THE COMMENTS!
Be conscious of your choices and what you spend your valuable time looking at.
Cull the excess things you’re following that you really don’t need.
Nourish yourself, but don’t consume too much.
Can be easier said than done!
RATNA DYER 