You are a living organic creature and should not suffer. Just as any other creature in this world you deserve gentle compassion and that care be given to your comfort. Here is a challenge today: see if you can take the whole day and pay conscious and consistent attention to your own level of suffering or ease. Pick a day and decide to be care-full with yourself. This means if you are in pain, discomfort, or under strain you change it. On this chosen day you will tune your attention to yourself and your own being, nourishing yourself with healing corrections. By day’s end we will surely each realize that these subtle changes made will result in reducing pain and finding more Zen balance in our daily existence.
You will not multitask to the point where your shoulders are binding up from carrying 5 things at once from the car to your doorstep. You will not wait to go to the restroom once your bladder is painfully full, but rather at the first sign you need to go. You will adjust your posture by sliding your shoulder blades down your back or raising your chair to reduce the strain while typing or tasking at your desk – not just once, but every time you notice the tension creeping back in to your shoulders, neck, arms. You will stop when your hands grow tired from trimming, scrubbing, stitching, typing, to stretch and massage them just for a few moments and avoid injury and pain. These are the things we must do to raise our own standards for how we treat ourselves, and it will take raising our awareness.
We create pain in our lives not only through grand events, traumas or accidents but through the daily tasks and actions we do regularly many times each and every day- pushing through with the aim of getting things done right and fast, among others. This pain leads to lasting limitations and decreases our ability to pay attention to the joy and beauty in our lives; it makes us grumpy and not able to do as much as we once could. There is not some other life where we get to be graceful and calm people who are kind and gentle with our own vessel, flowing through life without pain – this is our opportunity to do that, right now!
Paying attention to ourselves and doing what we do in a way that is comfortable and nourishing is one of the simplest ways we can create positivity and spread good in our world, our immediate world. Really!
This occurred to me this morning as I was brushing my teeth, unloading laundry and putting on my boots – pretty much simultaneously. I glanced over at my cat staring me down from the stairway – the only being in my life I accept passing complete judgement on me – and realized if I saw her floundering about so I would try to soothe her, make her more comfortable. Yet for some reason this type of strain is acceptable for me to undergo with boring regularity. I took a breath and decided…
I am taking today to be gentle with myself and start this conscious doting on my body and mind. I will breathe, relax my jaw, roll my shoulders, blink and exercise my eyes by looking gently around me – I will do what my body indicates I need to do and I will feel better. So, please excuse me, I have to stretch my neck now and get a drink of warm water, because I am a little stiff and a bit chilly.
