Below is a list of creative practices that you can use to stay connected to body and breath between sessions and classes. Feel free to use any of the suggestions below to stay close to the Life that breathes you.
Embodied Inquiry
To explore the life within, beginning with the body is fundamental. We cannot be in this experience of life without our human bodies. To pay attention to the breathing body is to pay attention to the moment. There is nowhere else to be but in the present moment, and it is through the body that we can be present to what each moment of what our lives have to offer.
Sitting meditation, ten minutes daily
Sitting with the Life that lives within you is a natural way to experience the deepest parts of yourself. It helps to do something vigorous with your body immediately before. This allows you to sit with not only the "radio station" of your monkey mind playing, but also with your beating heart and awareness of your breath throughout your body. Also feel free to use the 10-minute meditation listed on the Soma podcast page that will offer you some guidance as you sit.
Focusing on the Breath
Throughout the day, when you remember, bring awareness to your breathing. You can do this by bringing awareness to your nostrils and experiencing the air coming in through your nose, or by resting your hands on your chest and feeling the rise and fall of your torso. The breath brings you into the moment where we receive what ultimately sustains us.
Rooting with the Pelvis
Practice tightening your muscles just below your navel while breathing intentionally. This space in the body, named the dantien in the Qi Gong tradition or the udyana bandha in the yogic tradition, holds great grounding power in our spiritual and physical lives. Bringing attention to it repeatedly allows us to begin to receive the power that lies in the core of our bodies.
Befriending Yourself
Look into the mirror, into your own eyes, and breathe. Repeat to yourself "I am Beloved" or "I am Loved." Notice how you receive (or resist) that love. Allow the breath to help you stay present to your vulnerability.
Responding rather than Reacting
When you feel an intense emotion, take 60 seconds and wait. Breathe into what your are feeling. Then speak if you feel called to it.
Spend Time Outside
Be with the non-human world. We are thirsty for it as human beings. The non-human world teaches us many, many things like surrender, stillness, acceptance, humility, authenticity and so much more.
Artistic Inquiry
Using creative expression is a powerful way to explore your inner life. Through art process, we can begin to move with that which is resistant and begin to celebrate our wholeness. The rational aspects of ourselves alone often take us deeper into that which we resist. Art process allows the student to explore the darker aspects of oneself in new and creative ways.
Poetry
Read poetry that inspires you and take it a step further by learning your favorite poetry by heart. Take a line each day and take it to heart. Reciting it before and after meditation allows for the mind to have something to hold onto, repeating it like a mantra.
Collage
Create a collage using magazines, old greeting cards, poems, images and words: to the limiting voices within you (and then burn it); to your dreams; to the voice in you that support you (and put it on your altar); to something you wish to let go of or invite into your life.
Clay
Clay moves and bends with pressure. Get (or make) some playdough or buy some clay and allow yourself space to play. After meditation, allow your hands to create something out of the clay. Be surprised. Feel the clay as it moves as this is another way to explore movement and resistance.
Beads
Beading our stories and emotions is a powerful way to name what is happening within. Take seven beads and a string. Choose a bead in honor of your: self-love, fear, anger, sadness, joy, compassion, and your relationship with the Life that is bigger than you. Along with the beads, share with someone or write, for each of the emotions what comes up for you. For instance, choosing the bead for self-love, also write something that you love about yourself in the moment, something that you fear, etc.
Movement and Dance
Allow yourself the freedom to move, to dance. The body needs space for free-form movement that is intentional and awakening. Turn on some of your favorite music and dance. Move in front of a mirror and breathe. Notice what happens to your breath when you move. Turn up the radio and move your hips in the seat of your car. Invite movement into your life. It is a safe way to experience change. Learn more about the radical act of dance.
Sing and Make Music
Rumi, the Sufi poet, says that when we feel frightened and empty "don't go to the study and begin reading, take down the dulcimer." Chanting is a beautiful way to open to your breath. Sing a mantra in another language. Learn your favorite song and sing it out aloud. Play the piano. Write a song for your guitar. Buy a shaker and shake it while you make dinner. Music allows us to explore spontaneity as well as invites us to breathe into the shadow of perfection and inadequacy.
Spiritual Practice
Practice, practice, practice. To learn new ways of being in the world, we must practice them. The pathway is not nearly as important as the commitment to the pathway. Commit to a practice that nourishes and supports you. You just might find that after a while, you become devoted to it.
Yoga
The practice of yoga is ancient and involves more than just the physical practice or asana. There are eight limbs of yoga, asana is the third. The first two limbs (yama and niyama) are the do's and don'ts by which we live, universally and as seekers of the soulful life. The next three (asana, pranayama, pratyhara) have to do with entering and then withdrawing from the physical body and the last three (dharana, diyana, and samadhi) all have to do with the mental and spiritual practice of yoga- focus, meditation and bliss. Find a yoga studio that studies all eight limbs of yoga and learn how to breathe into all of yourself beginning on your mat.
Scripture Study
In the yogic tradition this study is called svadhyaya (part of the second limb of yoga, niyama.) Sign up for a Bible study at the local monastery, deepen into the study of the Torah, read the yoga sutras, studying ancient wisdom languages like Sanskrit or Hebrew. Study theologians and philosophers that include both body and soul; both the earthy and the transcendent aspects of being human. Allow your mind and intellect to focus on what nourishes you.
Find a Spiritual Community
We are in this life together and when we join a spiritual community we remember this. We also can feel a sense of belonging that is necessary t living a whole hearted life. Check out some churches or synagogues in your area, join a sangha, or find a yoga center. Community can help us stay accountable to our spiritual practice and even to have fun while we are doing it!
Labyrinth Walking
Walking meditation is a beautiful way to stay connected to all aspects of yourself while honoring the turning inwards and expanding outwards. Many churches and monasteries have labyrinths to walk. See if you can find one outside!
Language
Languages are expressions of a people and a culture. So when we learn a language, we also explore aspects of being human that we may not have been aware of before. Learn the original language that the scriptures you read were written in. Learn some of what your favorite words mean in other languages. Sing in another language. Notice what you feel in your body when you do.
Qi Gong
Qi Gong is an embodied practice that allows you to feel into the Life that you are immersed in. Through gentle movements and sound, the student is guided deeper into the power of that Life. Learn more about Qi Gong offerings in Colorado Springs.
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