Each week in my creative movement classes I share a journal prompt with the students that, if they are so inspired, they can explore during the week between classes. I like to also take the time to explore them myself and share what I write. This week's prompt was, "What does “here” mean to me?"
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For the past six months I’ve attended monthly weekend workshops
for a year long study program in Contemplative Dance. The retreat center where the weekends are held
has a small desk that sits at the entrance to the guest rooms. It is here that we pick up our keys when we
arrive. On this desk is a small bucket
filled with colorful folded pieces of paper.
If you draw one of these out and open it, you will be given a quote or a
phrase.
Each of the six weekends I drew a slip of paper from the
bucket and each time it seemed to contain words I needed to read in that
moment. This past weekend the paper I drew
said, “Be where you are.”
These words were quite appropriate as I’d spent the past
week dealing with a lingering feeling of unease about my future. The worry
comes because though I’m starting to get an idea of what I’d like to be doing, I
don’t currently have a plan to get there.
This is an uncomfortable feeling.
“Be where you are.”
Don’t sit in yesterday which I can’t change. Don’t sit in tomorrow which has not yet
happened. Be where I am, right here…right
now. Doing this does not fix things. It does not make a plan suddenly appear and
all is well. In fact, it doesn’t even totally make the sense of unease go away,
but it does bring me back to myself. It does
stop that worry about the future from taking up so much space in my head, in my
‘right now.’
It isn’t easy. To
bring myself to being here I often must stop what I am doing, close my eyes,
and focus on my body. Bringing my
attention to what my body is feeling in this moment keeps me present, it also
often tunes me into what other things I might be feeling. Sometimes I will find my worry is present in
my hunched shoulders, or my clenched jaw.
I can relax them and feel some of my worry melt away as the muscles
soften.
There are days where I must do this multiple times. Over and over again, to bring myself back to
now; back to here.
This is what here means to me. To be present where I am, feeling what I am,
doing whatever I’m doing in that moment.
Good or bad, up or down, lost or focused – being here means being where
ever I am.
Thank you . This is good for me too.
ReplyDeleteThank you. I am glad it is helpful.
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