Under ordinary conditions, we’d be inspired into all manner of group outings and activities.
But we’re now 7+ days into our collective practice of social/physical distancing to flatten the curve of this new virus, which has demanded a change in how we connect and created a SURGE in our virtual communications.
These digital spaces are important. AND (as many of us have identified/lamented long before the pandemic) They are also draining.
(*ahem*…which is why it’s been nearly a year since I last posted on Instagram and why I’ve limited my posts on Facebook.)
So, as we continue to safeguard our physical health, I pray we are diligent about safeguarding our spiritual + mental health!
Safeguard your humor + joy. Safeguard your hope + faith. Safeguard your heart + mind.
It’s Spring, y’all! Things are/will be blooming!
May you rest in the energy of this season of possibility, growth, healing, transformation and things being made anew.
[Image Description: 5-second video of a Khalil Gibran quote from “The Prophet” that reads, “Let there be spaces in your togetherness” in white lettering on a blue background, with white arrows that fade in from the upper right corner + lower left corner to point toward the quote in the center. Credits for the content creation appear at the top in yellow lettering: 3jewelsyoga.com + radicalbodhicitta.com.]
Last month a highly-intuitive friend sent me this video for releasing ourselves from the karma and burdens of others, and it was a pure revelation!
First and foremost, this meditation arrived divinely-timed at the end of a season when I had discerned a need to reclaim pieces of my soul from those who were incapable of bearing witness to my growth and my wholeness. In that process of reclamation, I had also recognized the importance of leaving the blessing of grace and mercy to stand in for those old impressions/memories of me. And because healing is not one-time event, I was prepared for something more to eventually show up and support this new level of growth.
Second, with one simple metaphor — likening cutting cords to cutting weeds: they’ll grow back if you don’t pull them out — it shifted the paradigm of teachings I’d previously encountered on cutting energetic cords! In the past, I’d used cord-cutting visualizations to unfetter myself from people and situations whenever lingering unresolved issues were unlikely to be fully addressed and transformed, and reconciliation was not possible. I truly found it helpful. Still, as we get equipped with new tools and new understanding, we can go back and dive deeper in order to rectify, amend, clear out and transform the seeds of suffering.
Between the two full and new moon cycles since then, I have pulled it out of my medicine bag nearly a dozen times for myself and in prayer on behalf of others who asked for support with transforming conditions and circumstances that are a source of discord in their lives. And it has indeed been good medicine! So now, under the auspices of the new moon, I offer it to you. Make it your own (as you’ll see below the video that I have done).
May it open the gates to new possibilities for compassion, generosity, skillful understanding, and authentic connection.
May it release you from the exhaustion, worry, guilt and resentment of over-giving.
May it help you discern the difference between duty and obligation so that you are empowered to make skillful choices from a sense of honor instead of acting out of habit and expectation.
May you trust that by centering your wellness and unhooking yourself from those who lack the capacity to offer mutual care, opportunities for healing will deepen and expand.
May you trust that they will be guided to grow into skills, tap into resources, and call upon a larger circle of wise council for support.
May it restore you and fill you up with abundance.
Unhooking Meditation (with my expansions in italics):
I unhook myself from the ancestral burdens and adverse karma of all people, places and things that no longer serve me — sending them into the light with love, grace, and mercy to be healed and resolved as I am/ have been healed and resolved from them — and restore, reconcile, and redeem myself with the Divine Lightnourishing me with love, peace, strength, grace, mercy, good health, free will and the optimum balanced flow of Divine energy. This wound is healed.
Aware of suffering and injustice,
I, [tara scott], am working to create
a more just, peaceful, and sustainable world.
I promise, for the benefit of all,
to practice self-care, mindfulness, healing, and joy.
I vow to not burn out.
Burnout and self-sacrifice, the paradigm of the lone hero who takes nothing for herself and gives everything to others, injure all of us who are trying to bring the dharma into everyday lay life through communities of transformative well-being, where the exchange of self for other is re-envisioned as the care of self in service to the community. The longer we live, the healthier we are; the happier we feel, the more we can gain the experience and wisdom needed to contribute toward a collective reimagining of relationships, education, work, and play.
Reducing the “Noise” — or practicing mindful consumption, which we Buddhist practitioners celebrate as part of the 5 Mindfulness Trainings — enables us to filter out content that triggers our anger, fear, judgment, resentment, and overall suffering.
No, this is not about AVOIDING everything. However, staying #woke (i.e. informed, conscious, enlightened, culturally competent) also means staying sane!
The benefits of pressing pause on the flood of external information:
We have space to reflect, listen deeply and respond skillfully (thoughts/feelings/actions) and are better able to water the seeds of compassion, skillful understanding, and authentic connection!
tscottmiller 