As I posted about a week ago, I am still writing and am currently work on series on spiritual well-being. ππ½ To ensure that I am writing from a place of truth rather than theory, I decided that it was time to return more seriously to my own practice.
After my training finished, I sort of took a long break to focus on other aspects of my life (of which I am still working on getting out), so while I knew that there would be some consequences to that time off, it was worth it on a few levels.
First, any time that it seems that something is working or vital in life I think it is a good idea to take a step back and see if it really is. We can easily convince ourselves that a new fad or trend has meaning or positive effects, but it isn’t really until we stop doing it that we know for sure.
Let me digress with an example – I was convinced that taking a multivitamin was helping me from getting sick and feeling better. My skeptic husband said he was convinced they had zero effect and was just part of the money-making scheme of vitamin sellers. Well, I did not like that and I particularly do not like the idea of companies making money off of my ignorance. Still, I was not ready to admit defeat to my husband….. π₯ So, I quietly tested his theory and stopped taking the vitamins. Three months later, I realized that there was zero change to my health, energy-levels, etc. Thus, with great reluctance I admitted he was probably correct…. π While they may have had some internal benefits, there was no physical change without them, so why continue spending my money on them? π€
Back to my original train of thought – unlike the vitamins, I noticed after three months that my skin was sagging, my muscle tone was diminishing and the back pains that I used to have had returned. π³ My sleep was again being affected as well. π΄ On top of that I was dependent again on chemical help to balance my mind. All the things that had greatly improved from my regular practice were slowly returning to the detriment of my quality of life.
After just a week of fairly regular practice in both meditation and yoga, my body is returning to its fit form and my mind is definitely less agitated even as I slowly come off the meds. π For a 41-year-old, I take pride in the fact that I am probably in the best shape of my life without all the angst of having to maintain it as required in my 20s and 30s. π
Therefore, when I am asked how I keep calm despite other influences in my life, I can continue to confidently say that it is through the regular training of both my body and mind.
So, as I write this series for April Magazine, I keep in mind that this is after nearly 18 months of heavy training, reading loads of books and practicing daily that I have gotten to this place of ‘zen’. My hope to help others find this remains just as strong as ever before. πͺπ½ Now, it’s time to take action….
~T βοΈππ½
