Hello,
Beautiful soul.
Have you ever noticed that sometimes the hardest thing to do is simply switch off?
You finally sit down at the end of the day,
Perhaps the house is quiet,
The emails are done.
The responsibilities have eased for a moment.
And yet your mind keeps going.
The conversation from earlier.
The thing you forgot to do,
The decision you need to make.
The future,
The past.
It can feel as though the body is sitting still,
But the mind is running a marathon.
And that means that your nervous system is too.
I'd like to share a different way of looking at those moments.
Because your busy mind is not a sign that something is wrong with you.
It's often a sign that you've been carrying too much for too long.
Imagine for a moment your mind is like a television screen.
And there is a remote control to it.
But sometimes we forget it exists.
Many of us spend our day with the buttons jumping back and forth.
Fast forward what will happen,
Rewind what did happen.
Or stuck,
Simply on Fast Forward.
What if,
When will,
I wish?
Thinking about next week,
Next month,
Next year.
Or perhaps the rewind button is stuck,
Replaying conversations,
Revisiting mistakes,
Second-guessing ourselves.
And all the while we miss the only place life is actually happening.
NOW!
In the play button.
We can all admit if we were trying to watch a movie and someone else was always hitting the fast forward or the rewind.
We'd get pretty annoyed and we would miss the plot of the movie.
Isn't that what's happening when we are physically living life,
But our mind is stealing presence away?
I find the breath is one of the simplest ways to return to the present.
Not because breathing is magical.
Because breathing gives the mind something gentle.
And truthful.
To focus on.
That is happening right now.
And calms the nervous system,
Which will calm the mind from the future or the past.
So let's breathe in together.
And as you breathe out,
Gently release through the mouth.
And then again,
Breathing through the nose.
And slowly out the mouth.
It's not about how you're breathing or the technique.
It's simply about the fact.
That you've paused.
And you're noticing that you are breathing.
In this moment.
In through the nose,
Slowly out the mouth.
Now whether you practice two or three breaths,
Doesn't matter.
The point is,
You have noticed that you are in fast forward or rewind.
And that you wish to hit the pause button.
In the mind.
And come back into the now.
So the next time.
.
.
Your mind becomes noisy.
And steals the remote control.
Please don't fight it.
Simply notice.
Ask yourself.
Am I rewinding?
Or am I fast forwarding?
And then come back to your breath.
And imagine taking the remote control of your life back into your own hands.
One breath at a time.
We're here to live a life that's full.
And living with the presence of breath.
Is one of the easiest ways to begin.
