004_Third of "7 Ways to Take a Deep Breath": Come Home to Yourself

The Third of “7 Ways to Take a Deep Breath”:

Come Home to Yourself

Hello everyone. The body becomes home when the mind, heart and spirit can live there. This is the third of "7 Ways to Take a Deep Breath".

I'm Adela, and this is "Just Breathe.... You Are Enough".  Together we will deepen our connection with ourselves, strengthen our relations with others, and to re-think together how we connect with our world. 

Thank you for joining us for the third of "7 Ways to Take a Deep Breath". We'll come home to ourselves by synchronizing mind and body.

It's possible to spend an entire lifetime looking for home:  never quite feeling at home, even in those places that should be familiar, and even if we are surrounded by people who care for us.

Home is actually a place inside of ourselves.  It is deeply familiar, and we can gradually learn to relax into it. It is like rediscovering a taste that we knew but just somehow, for a moment, forgot.

The body is a place where we can begin to rediscover this feeling of where home is.  We taste it when the body and mind, heart and spirit, can come into alignment.

A contemporary Buddhist expression for this is "synchronizing mind and body". Much of traditional mindfulness, or meditation, practice is designed to support us in this gradual return to home.

Meditation practice allows the mind to relax into a single point of focus. Maybe it's a candle. Maybe it's a repeated sound. Maybe it's the breath. This "shamatha" practice is called "calm abiding" because it helps the mind to relax into its own inherent nature, returning to its place of rest that is home.  This allows the mind to sink more deeply into the physical container of the body itself.

There are many ways, however, that we can help our mind and heart and body and spirit to come into alignment. The invitation for the third way to take a deep breath is to allow yourself to receive help to return to this place we call home by helping the body, mind and heart to come into alignment.

I invite you to seek out, or perhaps reconnect with,  a person who is a very good fit for you. Maybe it's a massage therapist. Maybe it's an acupuncturist, or some other kind of professional who works with some other element of body or mind. Find someone who has a professional role to help your body and mind to come to a place of balance and relaxation, in the safety of the boundaries of the professional context.

Then, if it is possible,  develop a connection by returning to spend time with that person, perhaps once a month?  Aim to return to this place of self-care often enough that your body will grow to trust and to recognize the relaxation that comes from this act of honour and respect for yourself. 

Do you have a benefits package as part of your workplace, or part of your student health plan?  Can you find a creative way to increase your resources by the amount that you would need? 

The invitation is to offer yourself a safe, professional setting where you can remind yourself what it tastes like to feel the regular feeling of gradually coming into the relaxation of a home that is the body.

Helping the mind and heart, and spirit and body to flow together in alignment synchronizes body and mind and helps us to more fully be where we are when we're there.

The quality of the relationship that you have with the outside world directly relates to the quality of relationship you have with yourself.  For a free list of the full menu of “7 Ways to Take a Deep Breath”, come see us at “justbreatheyouareenough.com”.

I'm Adela, and you've been listening to Just Breathe....You Are Enough™.  You can follow us on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. If you haven't yet, please subscribe, rate and review this podcast. Join us next time, and thank you for listening.

Copyright © 2018, Adela Sandness