Being Kind & Listening First
Starting within for clarity of expression
5/13/2024
There is so much we take in. Melodie Beattie writes “Our bodies react to the world around us- and within us… Our bodies act like sponges- they can soak up healing energy or they can absorb and trap the negative energy of stress and tension.”
Let’s begin again. Take in this moment with inspiration from Tara Brach. Extend a resolve, a reset, to bring to yourself the intention of being kind. Can you orient yourself toward kindness and start within? Kindness toward yourself with a gentle inquiry.
How are you doing? Like a sponge, how is the body feeling? Take in this moment to pause, to breathe, and to listen. A steady attention in practice of listening from the inside. Take in 10 rounds of breath. And if highly energized- let yourself anchor the mind to the simplicity of counting, inhale 1, exhale 1, inhale 2, and so on- letting the eyes close until 10 or more is met.
As you come back from this simple practice, just start to notice if anything may have changed for you. Without need to influence what is true. A curious inquiry for how your energy is at this moment. Elevated, anxious, energetic or alert? Is there a tone of fatigue, apathy, subtlety, or stillness? Reminding that there is no right or wrong, and perhaps there’s an unknown or transitory quality of knowing. What might be true of your energy in this moment?
Often we need to pause and be with what is in our internal experience. Not to think or problem solve our way into what is there, but being with. Being with and offering the resolve for kindness. Extending kindness toward yourself is an act of courage in the heart that creates the conditions for compassion. This compassion to then be with the sorts of stirrings, longings, and aspirations that rest underneath.
My intention today was to discover if writing would bring us to the 5th chakra- of expression, communication, purification toward what we ingest, the subtle energetic center surrounding the throat & neck. What I’m present to is that- yes- our society and needing to find our voice is strongly imparted in our collective values, to bring life to our passions for impact, our identity, speaking out toward justice and all we care about. And that what we take in, what we consume, also asks us for purification and clarity (the gift of this chakra). But what is most present to me is that most important aspect, that the necessary pre-requisite is to start with listening. Listening to our physiological needs, a bit of self soothing from listening. The power of pausing and listening before speaking, acting, taking in more through the gateway of the 5th chakra is vital to support this filter for harmonizing within us, and aligning us more fully toward what is most true.
There is such power in listening. Starting within from the heart of compassion, and enacting the intention of kindness. Necessary foundations for our expression to move forward in wise action.
May we be reminded that we can always begin again. No matter the weather, how clouded the day, or intense the circumstances, we can come back to the refuge of the breath, and of the intention of kindness toward ourselves to listen a bit more as we meet the moments.
Here with you in practice, and in Love & Light.
-Maya
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