Contentment Spells Relief

 Loving ourselves and life from where we are 

Until I decide I won't, I am penning, these blog posts in support of my ongoing sacred journey course,“Creating a Life of Contentment,"  which began Sept. 15. For one entire year, we'll be traveling together as intimate companions: to relax, let go and rest into Love; to discover the bliss of our own life. I hope you will join me here! You can learn more about the program there. 

Spelling Relief

Let me tell you one of the reasons why I love writing this blog in the way that I am ... one post each day, a short reflection on what is.

On most days, I come to the page with no plans. Now, that might not sound like a big deal to you but it is to me.

I sit. I wait. I watch. I look at the Bay and see what’s there.

Right now, two majestic swans drifting by. A glimmer of white, and on they float to who knows where. My heart is happy at seeing them.

Then words come. I put them on the page. What needs to be said, is said. I go with the flow of the words, just like the swans gliding by my window this morning—an act of natural perfection.

Writing in this way spells relief to me.

R-E-L-I-E-F

You see, I sense I was born with “planning mind.” I am what I call a “born and bred” teacher. I was raised in the lap of learning. My grandmother was a teacher, the mistress of a one-room schoolhouse in the country. My mother had hoped to be an art teacher but her father put a stop to that, believing that women did not need to go to college. She had a teacher’s heart and instructed us through life just so.

I am the same, cut from the same cloth as they.

When you adopt the identity of “teacher,” your mind is always planning. ‘How can I turn this into a useful lesson?’ ‘What shall I do next?’ ‘Who would benefit from this?’ Etc.

Sometimes it’s a blessing to have a mind that works like this. Sometimes it’s exhausting.

When I was penning my old blog, “Awake is Good,” I was constantly planning it out—to make it useful, even the best, to get the highest stats. I wrote it for two years and then felt incredibly weary because of it. Too much planning ...

So being here in this way is pure respite for me. No pressure. No plans. I just write what comes. And the beauty of the process is that it is always the “right” thing.

It is a reflection of where I am in the moment through present centered awareness. It is a portrait of my mind and heart as they are. It is mindful.

Mindfulness, to me, has always spelled relief, because when we are mindful we do just one thing ...

No multitasking. No sense of accomplishing or getting anything done a certain way.

Just one thing at time with full attention. “Just this,” as the Zen saying goes. We only need to pay attention to what is here—now. Placing our foot upon the ground, one gentle step at a time. Eating a meal, one delicious forkful at a time. Putting a word upon the page, one keystroke after another.

For me, this spells relief from planning mind. And it spells Contentment.

C-O-N-T-E-N-T-M-E-N-T