Putting Our Practices Into Action

I believe that it is important to understand the “why” around the practices we choose to dive into and how they are applicable in our lives. If we don’t have a clear understanding of why we are doing what we are doing it makes it more difficult to remain consistent and steady in them. Sure, we can read all of the books and articles about why we “should” do something, yet if we don’t have a palpable feeling in ourselves and in our bodies around our motivations, they most likely will not land.

Meditation practice is a perfect example of this. I am fairly positive that every single one of you reading my words have been told at some juncture of life that you “should” meditate. That meditation will be supportive of you for one reason or another. Yet, I know, both for myself and what I see regularly in working with clients, unless you have that nudge on an embodied level from deep within to actually sit daily, then it is very challenging to sustain this practice.

I am a huge proponent of meditation practice. Meditation which involves sitting quietly with oneself, focusing on the breath and a mantra or word. This, I feel and believe (and have witnessed in myself in massive ways!), is an essential practice in gaining the inner resource and connection to oneself to navigate life and all of its flavors and textures from a place of alignment, truth, steadiness, and inner connection.

A practice that builds the skills to learn how to respond to life, rather than react.

I am a devoted, early morning meditator. By the time my son was 3, I had already been single mom-ing it for 2 years and felt as though I was drowning. No sleep, a special needs kid with extreme emotional outbursts, an abusive “co-parent” who caused more stress than help, and many more factors led me to barely being able to take a full breath and resource myself. My boy was not a sleeper and was up for the day at ridiculously early hours.

I knew I needed to do something drastic on my own behalf or the walls may literally crumble in my little family. I decided that I needed to be awake an hour before him (absolutely brutal many mornings!)….sitting in meditation, writing, and movement (if I had time).

The meditation quickly became the non-negotiable piece of the morning puzzle. Sitting in stillness and quiet with myself day-after-day, I finally began returning home to my true self, my body, and my weary heart after years of disconnect beginning when I became pregnant and felt like utter shit for over 9 months. It was the anchor that I so desperately needed and became something that I craved on a deep level.

Was it a cake walk moving forward even though I was meditating? Definitely not. Yet, these inner muscles of strength, resilience, compassion, and steadiness began taking shape and certainly carried me through early mothering more gracefully.

The more I anchored myself in my morning sits, the more anchored I became in my life on the whole. For awhile, the impact was subtle (perhaps feeling just a bit more awake in my days, not reacting to my son’s behavioral upheavals, etc.) and sometimes still is more under the surface.

Yet, there have been a few more glaring encounters in life which I know my early morning sitting practice has served greatly….

The first was in a near-death experience a few years ago while traveling in Mexico. I have shared the entirety of this story previously on my blog.

What I want to highlight here is that moment of impact when the gunfire went off…..it was a moment of deepening in connection to myself from a calm, resourced, present, embodied, and awake place.

It was in that moment that I really *got* why I had been sitting all of those early mornings. The effects were palpable in my ability to remain calm and present in the chaos and fear. I did not panic, yet was deeply attuned to my body, my breath, my nervous system, and the present moment.

It felt like a profound spiritual awakening and solidified all of those years of the “why” for me around my choice to practice meditation.

The second occurred this past weekend here locally up in the mountains west of Boulder. Those of you whom I am connected with on social media received clips of the scary and wild unfolding.

What I want to share here is that we had a medical emergency while on a hike with my elderly parents without cell service. In that moment of knowing that something was definitely not right, I felt myself take those deep breaths and calm my system so that I could make the best choice possible given the circumstances. I could almost feel myself on my cushion while witnessing my Dad struggling, as if with a birds eye view. I was present and connected and clear as to what needed to happen.

I chose to run down the trail and up to the station where they were checking passes as I knew they had a functional phone. I was not crazed, yet calm and provided the information needed. That state of being continued over the next 24 hours as we navigated this crisis.

My point in sharing this is that in both of these high stress situations could have gone very south…I could have panicked, reacted out of fear, became disassociated out of “survival” from the trauma, and overall not functional.

Yet, I truly, whole-heartedly believe that my devoted meditation practice was my guiding light in both of these situations.

Am I also trying to convince you to sit in meditation?

Perhaps I am because I know that meditation practice is the single most important practice to bring into our lives for longevity and effectiveness.

Even as our bodies change with age, meditation can still happen.

No matter what is going on in our lives, meditation can still happen.

It is a deep declaration of love for oneself, of commitment to oneself, of devotion to being exactly who we are and learning how to embrace the journey of this human life.

Intrigued, interested, struggling to land in your own practice?

Ready to deepen in your process and relationship with yourself so as to heal the cobwebs of the past and open to new possibilities of living and being in the present?

I would be honored to be of guidance and support to you. Please reach out either by replying to this email or scheduling a 20-minute Clarity Call. I am here for you!