My habits are changing. Drastically. And I have the Corona Virus to thank for it.
It sounds like blasphemy, considering the devastation and the destruction that it is bringing to the world, irrespective of gender, social status, physical, and/or mental needs.
But in a sense it was due to arrive.
The Western world, so attached to material symbols and superficial images had it coming.
It had moved too far off the side of what would make us see the beauty of the inner world that each one of us possesses, and that we so easily discard for sense pleasures or immediate gratification.
Don’t feel guilty. Industrialization and the power of few individuals is to blame, if anyone. We are human, we are imperfect, we are made of many, many facets and sometime we pivot to what these Powers feed us.
But the purpose of this letter is to share with you how I have changed and the amount of energy I feel now with these modifications to my lifestyle.
I hope that you too can see the splendor of what we still have, inside of us, now that we cannot go…..outside!
I have slowed down. Way, way down. And not because I have more time to sleep, or eat or stare at my cat.
I have slowed down to allow myself to feel what else is there. Someone said, “When you can’t go outside, you are forced to go inside.” How appropriate!
But even in that I first tried to quickly garner what it was I could get OUT of it. Fast, let’s see what else I can get. Move, eat, feel pleasure, stop, do some more, accomplish, call someone, exercise…. It was not to be so.
To absorb and to embody the new meaning I was searching for I had to stop for real, and breath. In and out. In and out. In and out. And let that Presence inside of me slowly emerge.
I have taken up Tai Chi, again. A long forgotten (by me) martial art, it had saved me from a nervous breakdown ages ago. Tai Chi: A” Chinese martial art and form of stylized, meditative exercise, characterized by methodically slow circular and stretching movements and positions of bodily balance.”
I have become 100% vegetarian after watching endless videos of abused animals, or animals able to recognize their owners and express their love for them (and I am talking about all kinds, from roosters to lambs to lions). And of course, after the Corona Virus, supposedly caused by the consumption of live wild stock
I practice meditation. Yeah I know, boring. But it is boring as long as the mind looks for quick answers and fact-based information. Begin by believing that you have a Higher self-dimension, that we have a Creator who loves and watches over us, and you will feel the pull to another dimension even with a very few minutes of closing your eyes and breathing deeply. From there you become a witness, a spectator to the Shakespearian play that is Life. From there you gain clarity, strength and the courage to re-enter the arena of Life with its terrestrial challenges and gifts.
I practice awareness. What that means is that I try to see where I am and where I want to go, every day. And this allows me to every day inch closer and closer to what I was when I was born, a free-of-limitations Being, with all that the definition implies.
I take classes on line. From cooking to dance to learning practical and conceptual new practices.
I pray. Yes, I had to give up my Ego (who wanted me to believe I/we have all the answers) and begin praying. For me, for the ones I love, for the world to go on in peace and global health.
These changes fill me with hope and gratitude even in the midst of a nefarious phase of our life. I hope that you too can find a corner of quiet and serenity inside, to give you respite and space, to feel the vastness of who we really are.
Useful Links:
Tai-Chi: http://www.jakemace.com/
Meditation: https://chopracentermeditation.com/experience
All Subjects, Classes on-line: https://www.masterclass.com/
Exercise classes: https://cardiobarre.intelivideo.com/
Yoga: https://mindbody.io/ – https://www.facebook.com/BikramYogaRoma/