Move the clutter, sift through the chaos of the mind, clear the decks.

If you are like many right now, you may be feeling overwhelmed by events in the world, what to say or not say, and feeling emotions from anger to sadness to rage to helplessness. Alternatively, you may go into shutdown and auto-pilot…

I have been focussed in other places about #Blacklivesmatter and that now is the time to bring forth true compassion in the world.  I am humbly educating myself and reading about black experiences and realizing how much I didn’t make this as truly important as it clearly is. I am seeing the ways I may have participated by not speaking up. I am trying. We are trying.

But I want to remind you today, there is not ONE way to do this, or ONE way to live your life, or THE way to proceed.

There are a million ways to live your life, and yours is the one you are living right now.

Everything points back home, to right here in this moment, in the beat of your own heart. That is the place you will begin and end.

I see the distraction, I feel the discomfort and restlessness of being where you are. I hear the worry about what to do, how to be, what to say. 

All I can say is “Be still and listen.” Pause just for a moment. 

I was on my daily morning walk yesterday (Is it me or is the world more vibrant and colourful these days?) and I was caught up in a mind of thoughts, planning, thinking, remembering. I turned a corner and in an instant was struck by the corridor of wildflowers, tall trees with sunlight streaming through onto a path laid out for me. This moment, this breath, this heartbeat. There were no other moments.

I was busy telling my son what he should do with his day, when in a moment I was struck by his face, his eyes, his being-ness. This beautiful miracle before me, taking in what I was saying. Have I really stopped to see his beauty? Have I acknowledged how my life is made so incredibly wonderful by sharing it with him? I was brought to tears.

These moments are available to us all the time.

Inside of us we have a place, deep in the heart so beyond thought, beyond judgement and resistance, a landing pad that is soft, tender and fertile. It is love. An endless source of the energy of love.

When we feel it, it is mirrored back to us in the world. In everything.

When we stop and breathe and notice all the ways we protect and arm ourselves against it and others, we have a doorway. My work has been in helping people breathe, relax, and disarm the barriers to pain, to love. To put down the weapons we have been fighting ourselves with.

Where do you hold tension in your body, your life?

Where do you hold your breath?

Where do you focus on what should be rather than what is?

This is not putting on rose-coloured glasses. It is holding everything in your heart without judgement, and somehow the heart takes cares of it, softens it back into the source of fertile ground. Nothing is left out.

It is holding your anger in love, it has good reasons to be there.

It is holding your pain, your sadness, your fear in love.

It is holding what is dear to you close to your heart.

It is forgiveness of yourself and forgiveness of others for not being who you expected them to be.

Try it now: Put your hands on your heart and drop your mind down there. Breathe in and out of the energy field emanating from your heart. You are here in this moment. The only moment is here. Be still and listen.

The world is waiting for you. Your body and life are waiting for you to embrace them with your heart.

May you find joy in your moments today.

Madeleine