TOUCH AS A LIFELINE – DAY 1
“Just do NOW”, a friend used to say when I was deep into worrying about the future and trying to control everything to feel safer.
Today’s invitation is to notice when you have been swept away into thoughts of catastrophes to come (which might never happen! That’s what minds do – imagine a possible future). Then look up and out at something in the world.
It could be a cloud in the sky, a pet’s eyes, a flower, frost, water (always full of reflections), the grain in a piece of wood. By focusing on the exact details of shape, colour or texture, you have come out of the mind and into NOW.
When you feel ready, bring your fingertips into contact with something nearby: the table top, a mug or even the palm of your other hand. You can choose whether to have your eyes closed or open. And then, using the same level of attention, become interested in the sensations of touch. Tracing a little pattern, notice the amount of pressure you have chosen and experiment with a lighter touch or press harder.
See how it feels to drop your shoulders, your jaw, breathe a slower breath out, and feel your feet on the ground.
These things are NOW. And you are back in the here and now. Alive.
Inspirational Poem
Linda France: Dreaming the real
I’m lying down looking at the colour
of sky falling through trees, dreaming
the real, tasting what it feels like to love it.
Why did it take me so long to let go, simply
exhale, so the day could breathe itself in
and open without me standing in the way?
How could I forget the grace of my own body,
strong as this blue, tender as the white
of the wild blossom, warm as midday light?
Let me practise a patience bold enough
to hold every weather, trusting the elements,
the beauty of rain, all its shades of grey.
I want whatever’s real to be enough. At least
it’s a place to begin. And to master the art
of loving it; feel it love me back under my skin.
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