‘Your Practice is your Power, not your Hiding Place’
For a long time now, my practice has been something I return to each day to find quiet, sometimes silence, amidst the noise of the world. So much has happened in 2020 already - every single thing being the wake up call we've needed as a species, in my opinion - and I wanted to talk a bit about how to use your practice as something to help you build resilience in facing these times we are currently witnessing.
CV-19, Black Lives Matter, Climate Crisis. Every single thing is connected. If you consider yourself spiritual and have even the slightest inclination towards nature on a bigger scale and questioning what part you play in all of this, this fact won't have escaped your notice. In some way, each of us has been complicit in all of this for some time and have chosen to ignore it.*
Rather than trying to hide from it all, becoming defensive and just switching off to everything that is happening and that can often feel so very overwhelming and scary, we can find a way to face this all with a determination of spirit and with compassion far exceeding the violence and lack of empathy demonstrated by the 1%, whose choices we are all at the mercy of.
For me, my meditation practice has become a way to 'zone out' for a moment each day (this is not something to feel 'guilt' over needing to do, you cannot give from an empty cup, as the expression says!), to create enough quiet space to be able to hear the whispers of my soul, my spirit, my Creative Self, my very Essence; to be able to turn inwards and truly see my part in all of this.
And we all have a part to play.
YOU are needed right here, right now.
Otherwise you would not be here.
YOU are so very important.
The clarity that a daily practice can create is second to none in my eyes (and is the reason I teach it to others!) and can help to listen in to where we are being guided, to where our true strengths lie. What is this thing that only you can do that will help to create something new in this world? The purpose that only you can fulfil? The beautiful thing is that this doesn't have to be 'big'...and really and truly, most likely, it probably isn't.
Perhaps you are the person in your family who will find the courage and opportunities (however small these may be) to change the hand you have been dealt through no fault of your own, and perhaps by finding this courage, you will inspire your brother, or your mum, or your friend, or that person you helped find bread in the supermarket...
Perhaps you'll set up a community group helping vulnerable people in your local area...
Perhaps you will support your child through all of this, teaching them how to live in an ever-changing world and setting the example they so dearly need...
Perhaps you'll commit to going zero waste and then be the one that inspires your friends to do the same...
Perhaps you'll finally get the courage to speak to that racist auntie or family member (white people, you know we all have one!) about the way that they speak about refugees or the black/brown members of their community...
Perhaps you'll set up a petition to send to your local council to protect that small but magnificent area of biodiversity around the corner from you...
The list goes on and on!
Find time once a day, ten minutes, fifteen, twenty...whatever you can manage...to just sit, turn your attention inwards and listen. No judgement. No expectation. Just you and your breath. Just you and your mantra or affirmation. Just you and the flame. Just you and the birds. Whatever point of focus works for you, use that to help you create that space and quiet and to really tune into the part you will play in all of this.
Lots of love,
Helen x
*
*At this point it's important for me to note that there are nuances to this, and that I speak from the perspective of a Westerner in what can be considered an 'affluent' society (although I know there are also issues with this term - I'm just generalising for brevity). For me personally, I am white, I and my partner have jobs that enable us to put food on the table and keep a roof over our family's heads, and other than worrying about the amount of rubbish left at the beach, the significant increase in cars on the road recently, my vulnerable neighbours and smoke billowing out of the Shoreham industrial estate, I do not have to witness firsthand the environmental and social devastation being experienced on a global scale that our brothers and sisters in India, Africa and so on, have to face and who have to 'pay for' our choices as a western nation. And I KNOW I'll be expressing that incorrectly in the eyes of some...consider this my very inept attempt at addressing just some of these nuances and acknowledging my own privilege.
