Belly Breath, Letting Go, Letting Life/God
Toward the One, the Perfection of Love, Harmony and Beauty, the Only Being, United with All the Illuminated Souls Who Form the Embodiment of the Master – the Spirit of Guidance
Some Quotes on Life:
“It’s not about remaking a person.
It’s about seeing the perfection that is already there.” – Pir Zia
“Our job is to integrate chaos into a kind of meaningful harmony.” – Pir Vilayat
Keep in mind that when the body, mind and heart are in tune, life goes more smoothly and has more joy. Try these practices if you are feeling stressed. These practices can take as short as 5 minutes or up to 30 minutes.
First Practice – Mystic Relaxation:
1-Tense your body very tight and then relax it, one part and then another part, starting at your feet, then the legs, then the hands and then the arms, then the lower trunk of the body, then the upper trunk, then the neck, then the face and head – until you have tensed each part of the body as tight as you can and then let go, relaxing that part of the body.
When the whole body is relaxed rest a minute in the experience.
2-Pick a thought – use an essential quality like love or beauty, or peace. Put your mind on this thought/quality and hold it there, holding it tight, and then hold tighter on this thought/quality, until the feeling associated with the thought begins to arise or until it is enough. Then relax the mind and let the brain relax.
Rest a minute in this experience.
3-Listen to music, remember a song, or remember or do a dance that brings you to ecstasy. If you do not have music that brings you to ecstasy, remember a feeling in nature or imagine a scene in nature that brings you peace or ecstasy. Rest a minute in this experience.
Second Practice:
In Yoga, in Chinese medicine, and in Sufi practice one of the most fundamental and yet powerful breaths, when done correctly, can be a source of renewed energy, relaxation, and a feeling of deep centering.
1. Put your hands and your attention on your lower belly. Breathe in your nose and out your mouth in a gentle and easy breath.
2. Let the mind relax, let the mind rest, and allow the breath to find its way to the belly. This may take patience. Do not use the mind, but rather allow the breath flow to the belly. If this is difficult to do, then the first three days imagine that the breath goes easily to the lower belly. Then the fourth day put your attention on the belly, knowing that the breath is moving there, Continue to do this each day.
3. Feel that you are breathing in ‘freshness’ and that, somehow, the breath leaving your body is carrying away anything that is ready to go. Let that freshness build your inner ‘battery’ – a battery of freshness/life.
Do this practice for a few breaths – no more than 3-5 minutes.
If you begin both of these practices today, and do them each day, for a period of time they may bring something new into your life.
A Buddhist Prayer:
With the thought of peace let me contemplate the world, and let that peace extend to the four horizons.
With the thought of peace increasing beyond measure let me contemplate the Universe, and let that peace extend throughout the whole Universe up to its confines.
This prayer can also be done with the thought of ‘love’, and ‘joy’.
May you notice in your life, emerging peace, expressions of love, and abounding joy.
Warm Regards to you,
Devi