Wise Heart Way

Principal #8: Mindfulness of the body allows us to live fully. It brings healing, wisdom, and freedom.

Practice: Walking Meditation

Principle #7: Mindful attention to any experience is liberating. Mindfulness brings perspective, balance, and freedom.

Practice: Establishing a Daily Meditation

river

Saturday I had agreed to participate in a full day meditation retreat.  During the week leading up to it, I was anxious about it. How was I going to be “still” for 8 hours? Although it had seemed like a good idea when I signed up, as the date neared I kept thinking of everything else that I should be doing. I had overbooked myself with commitments and in the coming week, there’s too much work to deliver.  I could use Saturday to get some of it done. Besides that, I hadn’t slept well in the past week, and I was very tired.

I thought about making excuses in advance, but when it came to a face-to-face-opportunity to do it, I didn’t. And then the morning of the retreat, I thought about just not showing up and making excuses and apologies later.  Too often I don’t say “no” to an invitation when I should.  But the problem is not so much that I can’t say no, it’s more like I don’t take enough time to make the decision in either direction – yes or no. I don’t delay a bit and carefully check my calendar for conflicts or surrounding events, and more importantly, I don’t carefully check in with myself to see if I really want, can, or need to do the thing. “Yes” is my default answer to social events and work-related requests, and “yes” comes immediately -- all too immediately -- and I often find myself regretting the “yes” later, because either I felt too pressed for time, or didn’t really want to do whatever I  agreed to do.

Principle #3: When we shift attention from experience to the spacious consciousness that knows, wisdom arises.

Practice: The River of Sound

Principle #2: Compassion is our deepest nature. It arises from our interconnection with all things.

Practice: A Meditation of Compassion