How to Tune into Life
While you are reading this, I invite you to take a moment and check in with your body to see if you notice any holding there. You may notice your shoulders are raised, your jaw clenched, a tight band across your chest, a knot in your solar plexus, or a chronic tightening in your belly.
You, like most people, live with chronic holding, a chronic resistance to life. Most people are not very familiar with relaxing into life and yet it is one of the most healing things you can do. For a moment or two, I invite you to relax into life by contracting every muscle you can on your in-breath and then slowly, as you breathe out, let that holding go. If you want to enhance letting go even more, you can say the sound of, ‘Ahh,’ on the out-breath, either silently or out loud. A deep let-go on the out-breath is delicious. This simple breath resets the fight or flight part of your nervous system and reminds you of the ‘feel good’ of letting go.
When you were very young, life flowed through you. As you grew up, you began to hold your breath and tighten your body, cutting you off from the very thing you most deeply long for – an intimate, alive, nourishing connection with the only moment that matters, right now.
Now notice your body again. Is it holding? Probably so. But you can learn how to see through the prison walls of your resistance and actually make contact with life the moment it appears out of mystery. Take a moment and lift your eyes and see life all around you. See shadows and light, see colors, see a wide variety of shapes. Everything you see is totally brand new. Now tune into life through listening to the music of life: a car going by, a door being slammed, a furnace coming on, the sound of voices outside. By connecting with life through really seeing it and hearing it, you have come out of the bubble of struggle and are present for life! You are making direct contact with a river of creativity that has been going on for many, many eons.
Your mind will probably close down again, going back into the storyteller that is always trying to do life and do it right. No judgment. You have spent most of your life in the world of thought. But moments when you soften enough so you can make direct contact with life really matter. They not only open you back into life, they show you that there is a huge difference between being here for life and being caught in your story about life.
So be willing to cultivate moments of pure contact by relaxing into life. Sprinkle this letting-go breath throughout your day – while sitting at a stoplight, waiting for an appointment, standing in line at the store. You can also give yourself the gift of this kind of breath before an intense meeting, or when you are awake in the middle of the night, or when your heart is breaking from a deep loss. Pema Chödrön, the much-loved Buddhist nun and author, once described enlightenment as “relaxing into life.” So, know that even when you are deeply challenged, life is here, and the safest thing you will ever do is to relax in its flow.
If this resonated with you, and you’d like to explore more of my work, then I invite you to listen to my podcast on Dreamvisions 7 Radio: Possibility! It will air on Thursday, March 12th at 5am and 5pm HERE. After the 12th, it will be available on demand, along with every other podcast I’ve ever done HERE. Please feel free to explore my catalog and listen to topics that call to you.
Offerings:
Free Live Call with Mary: My Good Friend Cancer, Really???
Thank you again for a wonderful free night! I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. We will be meeting on March 3rd, now March 17th, at 5:30pm PT as usual. Here’s the topic:
Mary has been working for 6 years with a rare form of blood cancer. While it has had its challenges, it has also healed her in ways she couldn’t imagine before her diagnosis. Join her in exploring all of the gifts this cancer has brought into her life and how you can access all the gifts that come with the challenges of life.
As always, even if you can’t make it at that time, if you are registered, you will receive a recording of the event for you to listen to at your leisure. Registration is now open! Click HERE to learn more and register.