Sacred Inbreath - Dynamic Rest
My house is a mess. Even as I tidy it, the mess gets created. I have begun leaving the piles that Henry cretes - because he just recreates it if I tidy it away. There are scenarios (monster trucks, booby traps and race tracks) that are invisible to me but clearly very present and important to him. It is in MY looking that the newspaper scattered with woodchip mixed with cushions and toys (and some empty biscuit packets) is named mess, not opportunity. Or even better, lets frame it as ‘child at work, busy learning’. I think it is a Steiner notion, or maybe Freire.
So our lockdown can be reframed. Being indoors can be awful entrapment for some, and for others a blissful switching off. There is no question that emotions are heightened, and time has become stretchier. The days pass slowly but the weeks whizz by. I have been running group meditation twice every week day. I didn’t mean it to be particularly generous. I saw that the attendees valued it and kept showing up. In fact I think there have only been 2 (both at the weekend) when I have had no one. Weekends feel like weekends now - not time to do all the life admin we didn’t get to during the weeks. But now they are a time to cook and eat together, to hang out, to make no plans. To forget the time. in other words, to BE not DO.
When we meditate, we are taking dynamic rest (this is not the black out sleep of a drunk, even when very deep). We are resting our body from the daily grind in order for the background systems (e.g. the immune) to have all resources directed towards them. When we close our eyes, our body’s essential workers come to the fore to do their thing.
And this is the opportunity of Lockdown. Appreciating the essential, undervalued entities that make things tick. We may have felt stress coming out as we had to adjust to a new, and repetitive situations. Some of us had too much time alone. Some had too much time together. There is a Vedic story where an old man visits a famous storyteller and grills him on his interpretation of an ancient text, . The young storyteller stands the test, and it transpires that the old man was in fact the author of this ancient text. The sage had returned incarnate specifically to challenge this youth - in order to increase his confidence.
So whatever your challenge has been in this lock down, can you reframe it as a chance to grow? All my time at home has not meant my bathroom is cleaner, but I have at last finished hanging pictures in my bedroom (9 months after moving in!). By being at home so much, each space has been used, and I feel like there is life in the dusty corners again. And, yes, plenty of toys too.
