Today, for some reason, I found myself restless in mind and spirit. I did not have a sense of satisfaction nor ease with myself. My world outside was unchanged and calm, but inside there was a lot of mindless chatter and loss of focus in the activities of the day. Perhaps it was because I had missed this morning's yoga session and was not in the mood to go for a walk. Or because I had eaten an extra bowl of cereal and felt sluggish all morning that precipitated these feelings. It did not matter. I had set myself up in a cycle of negative egoic thinking and I felt the need to break it. I realized that having this awareness was a step in the right direction. How often do we set ourselves up for failure in our day, our work, or relationships by allowing a seed of negativity to plant itself inside our minds only to grow into a mammoth weed by the end of the day.
I decided to do some meditation and breathing exercises to help me focus better. By becoming more aware of each inhalation and exhalation as I experienced them, I could quiet down the extraneous thinking. I have found these exercises very helpful in the past. Focusing on the breathing and thinking are often difficult to achieve simultaneously. Perhaps we were designed that way intentionally to remind us of our truer spiritual nature and to get out of our egoic thinking.
So while I have the rest of the day ahead of me, I decided I'm not going to dwell on how my day started and what I have not accomplished. Instead, I will listen to my inner voice and pat myself on the back for being able to finish this blog. Namaste : )
Meditation and breathing exercises are a great way to shift negative thinking and replace it with a sense of well being. Last week I got a note from my office mate that revealed she was holding a grudge from a past event. I could not get the nasty taste of the note from my mind. So I did breathing exercises and meditation to make that shift in my mind to replace the negative energy with a sense of well being. Today's yoga class has helped me immensely in this direction. As I lifted my hands to the sun in my sun salutation, I felt I was reaching to the very heavens and bringing all of this heavenly energy into my heart as I folded my hands in prayer.
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