It’s amazing what having a bit of extra time, changing up your routine, altering your daily environment, or setting up vacation time can do to mix up your mental activity.
Right now I am on a vacation that is a reunion with dear friends I’ve known for 25 years. My thoughts prior to the vacation were that there would be tons of group activity and I may have to sneak away to get some of my introverted recharge time.
This is not the way it’s turned out. I’ve had free time with my own thoughts, my book, the beach, tropical weather…gathering in the evening only under a big moon with friends after slow days.
Outside the scenery is gorgeous. The movie right now, my particular movie of life, has iguanas, mangoes, waiters with trays of drinks walking by, blue tiled swimming pools, baking heat, pelicans, waves crashing.
Inside the movie is this mind, responding, having thoughts, occasionally getting snagged on some ideas or images. It is busy, running, never stopping its conversation about EVERYTHING.
The mind has new things to comment on in this new environment. And more TIME. Nothing scheduled.
For some people, empty, open time can be tricky. The mind has an opportunity to talk louder than ever, without busyness to distract it.
Funny, but the mind can get so loud for people when they are done with their jobs, for example, that they fill their evenings with watching TV or playing games, just to get away from their minds. This can happen in an even bigger way when they are on “vacation”.
I find one of the best ways to work with the mind in these kinds of chatterbox moments, when time is available for the Committee to get VERY loud, is to start writing down the most fearful, infuriating, sad or painful thoughts.
This may be writing in a journal for some, but for others the thoughts may be simple and clear. To see the stressful thoughts is very powerful, more clarifying than you may know.
Empty time. What are your thoughts? I should be exercising, I should be writing, I should be working, I need to eat something, I want activity, I wonder what “x” is doing (about 20 people may float across your consciousness), I wonder what I should do for next year’s workshop, I should work on my business today, etc, etc.
And these are only the thoughts that are commenting on “productivity”. There may also be comments on people with whom you’ve had difficult relationships, unresolved communication, painful moments.
Back again to just watching. See if you can actually just watch, even if only for 2 minutes, without “doing” something or reacting.
In Horrible Food Wonderful Food in the past couple of weeks a wonderful participant was able to practice slowing down the way she usually experienced and ate a kind of chocolate she loves.
She opened the chocolate and then waited, watching her mind comment, but not allowing it to take over and consume her (so that she in turn would then consume). She was amazed to find that she drove home in her car without eating, as she normally would have, and then found she didn’t want it anymore.
Just a little waiting and watching can change everything. EVERYTHING. This means waiting before you act, slowing what you say down, slowing what you do down, not acting when you’re in the thick of a fearful or vengeful or aggressive or bored moment.
In the hours that pass most recently, on this thing called a vacation (stepping into a different scene than the usual life, if there is a “usual” life) my mind is still here, and so is my inner observer, enjoying and watching all of THIS.
Let your mind run, and let it show you what is real and not real! It is safe to look at your busy, busy mind, especially when your life is more empty on the outside and you have more time, in those moments later at night, when the outside of you is not so busy.
I notice as I let myself watch the ideas, the loud voices saying that I need, should, want in this place that is like paradise on the outside, it doesn’t matter what it looks like or where I am. The inner world is what matters most of all to me. I am sure to you, too.
You don’t need to go anywhere to explore it.
There is a life-force within your soul, seek that life.
There is a gem in the mountain of your body, seek that mine.
O traveler, if you are in search of That
Don’t look outside, look inside yourself and seek That.
——
This aloneness is worth more than a thousand lives.
This freedom is worth more than all the lands on earth.
To be one with the truth for just a moment,
Is worth more than the world and life itself.
~Rumi
Love, Grace
Turning Relationship Hell To Heaven In-Person Intensive Seattle 12/1 10 am – 6 pm.
Horrible Food Wonderful Food Weekend In-Person Intensive Seattle January 12-13, 2013 Saturday 10 – 5:30, Sunday 1:30-5:30. To register for either weekend workshop, click here! Fill in the workshop fee after you click the Buy button at the bottom of the page. You can use paypal or any credit card (you don’t need a paypal account).
Mark your calendar for Breitenbush, the end of June! We will be looking at all aspects of what we consider to be flaws in the body, and Un-doing our beliefs about them. Stay tuned if you’d like to join me and Susan Grace Beekman from June 26-30, 2013. You can change your internal beliefs about what you think bodies should be like….and change your entire experience of being in yours.