This Monday November 21, we will meet in person.
See calendar for online and in person schedule here.
Address for the OHMC meditation space:
3812 Northampton St. NW
Washington DC 20015
This Monday evening Annie will facilitate.
On Monday, we will practice “resting our consciousness”. These days we all have a lot on our minds and hearts. We are awash in unhappy information about the environment, the political situation, war, and more. We have been isolated for more than two years, and are now trying to find our way back to social normalcy. Rather than pushing forward harder, we can take a step back and practice clearing our minds and resting our bodies.
This Monday, we will start by enjoying a guided deep relaxation, walking meditation / mindful movements, and silent sitting meditation. We will then read together this writing by Thich Nhat Hanh on resting (from Lions Roar here):
When an animal in the jungle is wounded, it knows how to find a quiet place, lie down and do nothing. The animal knows that is the only way to get healed—to lay down and just rest, not thinking of anything, including hunting and eating. Not eating is a very wonderful way of allowing your body to rest. We are so concerned about how to get nutrition that we are afraid of resting, of allowing our body to rest and to fast. The animal knows that it does not need to eat. What it needs is to rest, to do nothing, and that is why its health is restored.
In our consciousness there are wounds also, lots of pains. Our consciousness also needs to rest in order to restore itself. Our consciousness is just like our body. Our body knows how to heal itself if we allow it the chance to do so. When we get a cut on our finger we don’t have to do anything except to clean it and to allow it the time to heal, because our body knows how to heal itself. The same thing is true with our consciousness; our consciousness knows how to heal itself if we know how to allow it to do so. But we don’t allow it. We always try to do something. We worry so much about healing, which is why we do not get the healing we need. Only if we know how to allow them to rest can our body and our soul heal themselves.
Scientific American agrees:
“...many important mental processes seem to require what we call downtime and other forms of rest during the day. Downtime replenishes the brain’s stores of attention and motivation, encourages productivity and creativity, and is essential to both achieve our highest levels of performance and simply form stable memories in everyday life.”
On Monday, after we rest, we will have time to share about our experiences with taking care of our difficulties and resting.
Some questions to consider:
What are the wounds in your consciousness that you are currently dealing with?
Do you find that resting supports your mental and physical healing?
What are some of the ways you find time to rest your consciousness?
What prevents you from getting the quiet restful time you need?