You may have noticed a shift in your mood and your everyday rhythm as the days get shorter and the air gets cooler. Although winter is a time of moving inwards, over the next 6 weeks especially our energy can be pulled outward by the holidays and all that they entail.
This outward movement can be in addition to our usual states of activity.
Thich Nhat Hanh talks about meditation and mindfulness practice as “the art of stopping.”
“We have to learn the art of stopping - stopping our thinking, our habit energies, our forgetfulness, the strong emotions that rule us. When an emotion rushes through us like a storm, we have no peace. We turn on the TV and then we turn it off. We pick up a book and then we put it down. How can we stop this state of agitation? How can we stop our fear, despair, anger, and craving? We can stop by practicing mindful breathing, mindful walking, mindful smiling, and deep looking in order to understand. When we are mindful, touching deeply the present moment, the fruits are always understanding, acceptance, love, and the desire to relieve suffering and bring joy.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching: Transforming Suffering into Peace, Joy, and Liberation
In a season full of consumption, socializing, joy, as well as conflict loneliness and grief,
stopping is healing. Healing what is present and taking care of ourselves in the face of inner and outer challenges. In stopping we can come back to our breathing as an act of self-love. Dharma teacher Anh-Huong Nguyen offers:
Holding onto our breathing is an art. It requires self-training and practice. By nurturing ourselves with the ease and joy of conscious breathing while strong emotions are not there, we will remember to return to our breath the moment strong emotions start to arise. If our instability is so great that we cannot hold onto and experience a sense of safety in our breath.
The Energy of Love
The Mindfulness Bell, Issue #23, Winter 1998
https://www.mindfulnessbell.org/archive/tag/stopping
This Monday we will have the opportunity to share about how you practice stopping.
How do you plan to practice stopping over the holidays in order to cultivate and maintain True Freshness? (as Annie spoke about last week) What possible challenges lay ahead in this time? What/who else might support during this time of year?
I look forward to our time together.