FEBRUARY/MARCH NEWSLETTER
HEART CONNECTION
Valentine's Day, like all our holidays, can be commercial or it can bring the sharing with a loved one, a special time, a reminder to open our hearts. From my last newsletter you now know although my sessions focus on body awareness, I also stress the importance of working with, training the mind. I'm going to give you two practices today...
-- Lovingkindness, repetitive phrases to quiet the mind, open the heart,
-- Body-based practice to give yourself unconditional love.
Both can be done in a few minutes at the beginning of your day.
LOVINGKINDNESS. This is a very simple practice taking less than five minutes of sitting quietly repeating the phrases. You can also use it periodically during the day, when you want to calm yourself, come back into body awareness. The effect of this practice is cumulative. Starting with phrases that resonate with your heart, and using them often enough so that they become familiar, automatic, you will find that a feeling tone is being developed--one of greater openheartedness to yourself, others and the world around you. Once I did a ten-day retreat, repeating these phrases over and over again. By the end of the retreat I had a fondness for every little pebble! When I came back out into my everyday world it was more challenging to keep my heart open, of course, but the phrases had gone deeply enough in my subconscious that they were and still are very powerful for me. Since you don't have a concentrated time to establish this practice, it will probably take you a couple of weeks for the phrases to really drop in, depending on how much you use them during the day. But you may feel the effects of it after only a few days.
The practice of Lovingkindness is often referred to as the Metta practice, dating back to the Buddha's time 2500 years ago. There are traditional phrases, but I find it is much more meaningful to find your own, what resonates with your heart. If you wish to investigate this practice further, I would refer you to Sharon Salzburg's book,"Lovingkindness," which I highly recommend. There are four traditional phrases, having to do with safety, physical health, mental health, and finally ease of well being. They are:
"May I be free from danger, both within and without,"
"May I be free from physical suffering,"
"May I be free from mental suffering,"
"May I have ease of well being."
I use the following phrases...
May I be safe,
May I be happy,
May I be well,
May I be at peace, accepting things just as they are.
A friend and meditation teacher uses these phrases...
May I be free from inner and outer harm,
May I be happy and peaceful,
May I be healthy and accepting of mind and body,
May I care for myself with joy and ease.
Take a few minutes to sit quietly, reflecting on the above possible phrases. When you are ready to do the practice, choose a place where you can sit quietly each morning. Make it your spot to come to rest. You may want to arrange a small alter, making it a sacred place. Rest comfortably for a few minutes, and let the phrases come to you. What do you want to say to yourself, give yourself, concerning your safety, happiness, health, well-being? Feel free to fine-tune your phrases for a couple of days, until they feel right, but after that stick with the same ones, writing them down, as the practice will be more powerful with consistent phrases.
The traditional Metta practice also includes sending lovingkindness, using the same phrases, to 1) someone who has been a mentor for you, 2) a close friend, 3) a neutral person (someone such a a grocery clerk, who you see periodically), and 3) someone with whom you have difficulty. If you wish to know more about doing these additional parts of the practice, I suggest you read Sharon Salzburg's book "Lovingkindness," which I highly recommend. For the purpose of this newsletter and a beginning practice of opening the heart stay with sending lovingkindness to yourself. If it's working well for you, and you want to learn more about the practice, read Sharon's book to guide you further.
I do want to mention one more way I use this practice that I have found profound in its simplicity. I often silently say these phrases to others I meet during the day, or pass on the street. Try it! It's a great experiment to see what happens if you silently say one of the phrases, "May you be happy," to everyone you meet during the day! It inclines the mind and heart to be more openhearted than it's more ordinary mode of comparing, judging, criticizing. It creates space. I find myself taking a deep breath, relaxing after a few times of saying it silently to others.
BODY-BASED LOVINGKINDNESS...
This practice comes from a good friend, Carol Hansen, of Open Heart Productions. It's included on her tape "Lighten Up," and I'll give you the resource info at the end of the newsletter. All you need is a few minutes of time after your morning bath and shower, or before you get dressed for the day, and a big bottle of your favorite lotion or moisturizer. What you will be doing is being more mindful of applying the lotion, AND talking to your body, giving it gratitude, as you apply the lotion. The power of it rests in how much you are able to really get into it... for a few minutes. For example, starting with your feet, as you apply the lotion, give them a bit of massage as you quietly thank them for moving you around for all these years. On up your leg/knee, for enabling you to keep moving forward. Arms, enabling you to reach out. Use your imagination AND your heart. It doesn't matter so much what you say as how you say it and your touch. What you are doing is giving "a verbal and physical demonstration to your body that it is loved." It's probably been a while, maybe never, that it got that!
Again, it's the consistency of this practice that will make the difference as well the depth of it, using your heart and your hands to touch your body with a moment of unconditional love, appreciation. Carol's tape explains the profound effect it had on her at one point in her life in losing weight, lowering her blood pressure and her cholesterol! Her tape also explains what you can expect, as well as the "3rd Week Wall" when the mind chatter will try and tell you to give it up. That's just what the mind does, so just keep going, watching for the subtle shifts that will tell you it's working.
Let me know if you have questions, and how it's working! With metta, Sarah
Carol Hansen, Open Heart Productions, www.openheart.com, tape: "Lighten Up."
Sarah Puyans on March 3, 2007 @ 10:14 pm PST [link]