I love my home, my family, including our four-legged fur baby, Little Bear. I love my practice, my friends, my clients. Life is good. I am grateful for the abundance of peace I feel now….in contrast to what life used to feel like. And sometimes I just need a break, a change of pace, a change of scenery. I just need to make some space where I am my only responsibility.
I realize the scale of my responsibilities pale in comparison with many others….but we each are living our own life, on our own path. Comparing ourselves to others is a guarantee of suffering. Our own path, just how it is, will teach us about love and joy.
So I took myself to my place of restoration and space, the beach. Just for an overnight. I did just what I wanted: I walked on the beach, sat on the sand and watched the waves, read the kind of spiritual writings that feed my soul, ate good food, stayed up late, watched TV (a little), met with friends (briefly). I stayed off the phone (for the most part, except calls home) and thought. I made space.
I was thinking I’d do some work (like this newsletter) but that is the kind of thing that has to appear when it is ready and defies being part of a “to-do” list. So I let it go and just indulged myself, in a way that felt loving and kind. And it was enough.
And because of the space, there was room for feelings to be felt and awareness to rise up. I know we take ourselves wherever we go, and I know we need to find a way to make space and feel peace and joy in the middle of everyday life. I know we can’t wait for time way or a vacation to let ourselves feel what we’re holding and process it so we can let it go.
Holding unprocessed energy from all that we feel and think and do weighs on our bodies. Held long enough, that unprocessed energy can show up as pain, anxiety, worry. When we are consistently depressing something, we feel depression. And we can’t wait for that vacation, that long weekend, the gap between jobs, kids leaving for college…..we need to give ourselves the daily teeny tiny mini-vacation of just a pause, just a breath….just a bit of space.
I had the luxury of going away overnight. But really, what would be the most loving to me would be to sit or lie quietly for just a few minutes each day….and breathe. And perhaps think of the walking on the beach and hearing the waves….