Transformation Over Tapas

I love my March theme!! Most of the practices felt really good to do, and the universe provided even more opportunity to live this theme than I had planned. More on that in a moment.

Photo: Temari 09 on Flickr

First, reflections on a couple of the practices. I really enjoyed asking, “How am I showing up?” At first I had thought of this exclusively for when I was interacting with others through work, but I soon realized that I could also ask how I was showing up in anything, and even how I was showing up for myself. Such a useful question. It helped me come back to presence before or during a call, and at least acknowledge to myself where I was, hopefully without judgment.

I also found the practice of choosing to do something and connecting with why I was doing it in the moment to be powerful. Thanks to Kendra’s comment on my previous post, that practice too expanded beyond what I had originally thought. I still struggled with it, especially as I was working on my taxes, which always brings up a fair amount of panic. For days I wondered what possible in-the-moment ‘why’ would support me to feel better about doing my taxes. What came to me, eventually, was that I wanted to be in reality around money and my finances. Doing my taxes did not become enjoyable, however, it helped me feel like I was in more control and taking care of myself.

Asking what would nourish me and checking in with heartspace and gutspace regularly both felt like supportive self-care tools that I want to continue.

The unexpected part of this theme came from a workshop I did the last three days of the month. I have been very drawn lately to ThetaHealing®, and I had a couple of sessions with an experienced practitioner and then did the basic training. The days immediately after the workshop I was aware of a greater sense of fullness in my body—I felt more embodied.

Since March felt way too short, as did February, I’m thinking that a month may not be enough for me to dive into a theme as much as I would like. While I consider what I want to do about that, I decided that April would be a month of revisiting those practices from these first three months that I want to continue focusing on.

April Practices:

• Decluttering and Organizing
• Choose to do and connect with why
• What would nourish me?
• How am I showing up?
• Allow/Accept/Receive/Embrace
• Why am I enough?

February went way too quickly – and now half of March is gone too! My theme for February proved to be a little more challenging than the one in January; I had more open spaces in my tracking sheet than I’d like. A lesson in choosing the practices, I think.

A few practices were difficult to track whether I’d done them that day or not. I liked the idea of tracking my action taking schematic, but it hardly ever happened, I think it’s easier for larger tasks, not so much daily actions. I didn’t remember to send out care with online interactions very often since I didn’t find a way to remember it in the moment. Two other practices, noticing judgments and enoughness were not tied specifically to anything, so they didn’t tend to come up unless I happened to be looking at my sheet at that moment.

Still, I feel good about mindfulness overall. I think I did grow in my awareness of how I’m feeling in the moment, of noticing things more quickly, of bringing myself back to presence. I didn’t think of including a practice around breath, but was doing it anyway—taking deeper breaths in the midst of work and otherwise. Such a simple thing, but it reminds me to let go of whatever has captured me at the moment and be aware of the larger now. My focus during my meditation and small breaks throughout the day on allowing, receiving, and relaxing is slowly creeping into the times I’m not meditating or taking a break.

Of course, mindfulness is a lifelong growth process and won’t end now that it’s March and I am on to a new theme!

Photo: David Drexler

My theme for February is mindfulness. I chose it because again it’s already something I was working on, and when I read my list of possibilities, it jumped out at me. It also feels foundational, as did my January theme.

Inspiration and Mindfulness

Since my year theme is inspiration, I ask each month what inspires me about that theme, with an eye toward what inspires me in the present moment, not as a potential for the future. I feel inspired about bringing myself more fully into the present moment as a way to bring myself more fully into the world. If now is truly the only “place” we can be, then really being “here” might be a good idea, instead of being somewhere else—past, future, fantasy, intellect. I’m also inspired by the idea of being more in harmony, starting with myself, and moving outward. I ask myself, “How much can I open to fully receiving what is here right now? Can I allow what is in this moment to be and to flow, as all energy wants to flow?”

I can see benefit to bringing mindfulness to many areas of my life:

• Emotion and thoughts
• My body – paying attention and giving it what it needs
• Interactions with others on- and off-line
• Where I try to numb, go away, escape
• Where I am judging myself or my life
• Taking action
• Openness and receptivity
• Scarcity/enoughness

My daily practices for this month:

• Notice judgments
• Practice receiving receptivity
• Send at least 2 online interactions out with care
• Notice 1 aspect of doing schematic around one action (I’ll blog on this soon)
• Notice enoughness
• Check in with last month’s practices

What are you practicing this month to shift your habits and achieve your goals?