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..and building resilience, taking charge of our minds, learning the skill of happiness, making friends with reality, being strong whatever the situation, being happy no matter what....Gelong Thubten's approach to meditation is very proactive and positive and for me, right now, these seem like ideas worth exploring. (Hear hin on YouTube.) I dug out this favourite card recently.. 
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..bringing the outdoors in and experimenting with the stagelight edit on my camera kept me away from the news today!  My self-imposed news blackout is about 99.8% successful I would say, and when I get the urge to listen to the news I try to find something creative to do instead. It's been fairly challenging...but nice. Posted under Simply Chill and Simply Headspace.  Being in nature, being with friends, and learning to meditate will be my focus for the next ten days or so. I was a bit surprised at how often I thought about listening to the news today, and by accident I overheard one set of headlines beforre I quickly turned off. This may not be easy, but this evening I do feel a bit more peaceful and quietly got on with some paperwork that needed doing. I might well catch up with a few things.., Short blog break coming up. Be well. ..to this politics-free zone. I am planning a news blackout for the next ten days or so. I am refusing to be caught up in any hype/speculation/gossip/mass hysteria, exciting though it undoubtedly is! I do wonder if I can stick to this as I have always been interested in politics and current affairs, but I will try. In fact I will DECIDE and stick to my decision. I am finding being decisive very invigorating. Do you?  I heard Buddhist monk Gelong Thubten speak at Wigtown Book Festival. He spoke about meditation as a way of training your mind, so as to be better able to deal with difficult times, so although I am filing this post under Simply Chill it's not perhaps appropriate. Thubten is not describing meditation as clearing your mind or chilling out but as a fairly challenging and rigorous practice.  Of breathing meditation - Every time you return to the breath you are becoming your own boss.  The whole garden is spectaculaly colourful this autumn. ..by Handbook For Hard Times. A Monk's Guided To Fearless Living by Gelong Thubten. Expect lots of quotations!  The beauty and simplicity of the unelaborated present moment. ..and do they really know better than you what is best for you?
I find it takes time to work out my own ideas, and to be an independent thinker I do need to be informed. I am very very choosy about who gets into my precious headspace! It's all too easy to be overwhelmed. I want to stay sane and calm and will not let my nerves be wracked by the latest news/trend/scare/speculation/prediction.. Posting this under Simply Chill, Simply Headspace and Simply Live and am simply sharing what works for me :-) You will know how I have been longing for some sunshine. Well, here we are - several days in a row of high temperatures and full sun - but I have to stay out of it! I developed a rash around a tick bite and was prescribed an antibiotic as a precaution against Lyme disease. There was a warning on the label that bright sunlight should be avoided and although I covered up and wore a hat I have had an allerggic reaction with swollen lips and nose. Had to stop the medication and am being very cautious and staying out of the sun, but have to confess that I am feeling a bit sorry for myself. I am going to an outdoor wedding reception tomorrow and a red and swollen face is not a very good look!  This llittle robin is getting quite tame. The sun shone and in a little rebellion against my sensible self I decided to buy only ice cream and roses.   I needed cleaning materials and carrots and kale and other sensible things, but I will shop for them tomorrow. Today I am having a holiday, ..it raineth all around..  Trying to stay positive! Don't let your emotions overcome your intelligence. I don't remember where I read ths. I don't take it to mean you should supress your enotions, but to try to maintina a baalance perhaps. It reminds me of an old slogan by an insurance company - We don't make a drama out of a crisis. Do you have a saying or motto to help you when the inevitable crises befall you?  Sometimes when I can't sleep only a cup of tea and a slice of buttery toast will do... I am living life in a beautiful state of........(fill in your word).  Today it was I am living life in a beautiful state of resting. In sunshine I can just be. Yesterday morning I set aside my lists and plans and projects and striving and thought today I will just be. It was wonderful (and things did get done!)  ..to start the day well, I've thought about how I wake and what I think and see on waking, so what do I hear? What do you hear? Tell me it's not a rmedia compilation of all the terrible things that have happened around the world while you have been asleep! To people you will never know, in places you will never see and whcih you cannot change in any way. The more I think abuot this the more insane I believe it to be. Really. No rational person would do this. Instant stress. We were not designed for this (children especially), and we wonder why there is an epidemic of mental health problems? Not that we shouldn't take an inerest, but first thing on waking? I have woken to the sound of aircraft taking off, a milk float, noisy neighbours leaving for work, a baby crying (mine), a call to prayer, a bellbird in a forest, children arguing, someone else's radio, a noisy wren at 5am, the city cacophony of traffic and sirens and boats on the river and helicopters in the air (London), sheep, peeweets, a kiss, lashing rain.... I waken to quiet now, a little birdsong and I may hear the early bus trundle by, but there isn't another for two hours. Love it and know I am very lucky.  The native cranesbill doesn't flower fo very long, but it's lovely and totally undemanding. ..I retreat into nature and my own small world. That's how I am. Others may leap into the fray to try to chage tings and I can admire that. We need good people who do that.  Buttercups and orchids and the blackbd's song. Someone has to admire them, and today it is me! ..taste the coffee. Relax. Listen to the balckbird sing.  I am having to remind myself not to rush! I will probably never 'catch up' with this ever-wilder garden. Tomorrow is going to be sunny. I may just sit in it, at least while the blackbird is singing his heart out. It would be rude not to. Yesteday I got an urgent email from a garden centre telling me it was my last chance for priority booking for Father Christmas.  Sorry. I am only just able to contemplate the end of summer! Having beautiful weather too. Posting this under Simply Chill and Simply Laugh.
..by which I don't mean just lying in the hammock, though I plan to do a fair bit of that!  Some periods of lightness and ease (a phrase I still remember from reading The Ya-Ya Sisterhood decades ago). In order to try and get that, at leasst some of thime I will take care not to commit to too many things this month, to leave room for some spontaneity. I may skip the news altogether. If there is something I need to know it will find me. I will try not to exhaust myself gardening as I did yesterday. Light hearted books and beautiful music are not hard to achieve. I have just listened to Bill Paterson's Tales From The Back Green (a world I recognise) which made me laugh out loud, and walking round the garden early yesterday morning listening to a Beethoven cello sonata really loud on my headphones was absolutely thrilling. Both wondrous and joyful. I may have danced a few steps... I woke one morning recently and realised I had no actual appointments, I did not have to be anywhere at a certain time, in fact I had a fairly free day apart from my self imposed to-do lists and I thought How would it be if I just let the day unfold... I can already hear some of you say Hah, chance would be a fine thing! We are so goal-oriented and driven at times, don't you think? Even our 'time off' is often timetabled. So, when did you last just let a day unfold? On holiday? When convalescing? Ever?  I gave muself the gift of the whole day. When the sun shone I went out, when it rained I came back in. I ate when I felt like it, I napped, I gardened a little, I cooked a little, I played some music, lit a fire, drank a lot of tea, watched the clouds, did a few light chores, paused every now and then to ask myslef What do I feel like doing now? And listened to my answer. It was so refreshing! Can you gift yourself some time? Time to just be rahter than do? Most days at some point I enjoy this 10 minute meditation... I really like it. Do you?  We judge each other all the time. It's what we do, and necessary for survival, but we are often expected to express an opinion when, it seems to me, we are in no position to judge and social media encourages us to be simplistic (thumbs up/thumbs down) on even complex issues. Try, just for a day suspending judgement. Just let things be. Give yourself a break from it, from turning everything into an ethical dilemma for example. Or from judging yourself, perhaps harshly, as well as others. When I tried this I was quite shocked at how many of my thoughts were very judgemental indeed! After a few hours of not judging I felt very free and relaxed, and since my private judgemental thoughts rarely if ever make any diffference in the real world it seemed like a very good idea to try it out more often. What do you think? I got the Christmas box out from under the eaves to retrieve the Advent calendar..  ..if full of care we have noot time to stand and stare (W H Davies scroll down here ).  ..that outer order equals inner calm? I do think it helps..  |
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