We all go through times of self-discovery, and at times reinvention, due to the ever changing roles that happen as we emerge ourselves into the river of life. Sometimes the passage way through the cascades can bring us to a stagnant pool, but the hands of time, love and destiny tend to carry us up and drop us ever so gently or kick us back into to the river with its ever changing current.
As we float down the stream, we sometimes lose touch with ourselves. We start to go through a boulder garden and get tossed around the rapids. Without intricate manoeuvring, intuition and faith one can feel afraid and lost.
Through our daily routine we begin a collection of overflowing thoughts and this compounds and builds through the weeks, months and years, creating a feeling of being in a raft cartwheeling down a fast paced river and bouncing from huge rocks or boulders. The feeling of losing ourselves and drowning in a whirlpool of emotion can and does create chaos within.
I open the door to a tall elegant woman named Angela. She has two beautiful daughters, a husband and a fast paced career. She is in a boulder garden of emotion. She is caught up in the rapids.
“Angela, you are a very busy woman, you need to take time to yourself, you need to find your peace, and you have not been peace.”
“Yes, Katherien,” she sobs. “I am lost.”
Angela has been floating down the river of life through its channels, stagnant pools and boulder gardens and now feels as if she is trying to maneuver herself through a house boulder.
Angela has a familiar and similar beginning, as a child she was raised to honour her children, spouse, mother, father, brothers and sisters, God, and nature. She was taught to focus on building, creating and maintaining for future generations. Like so many of us, she has lost the one thing that ties us to everything. She has lost herself. It is always hard to learn to honour thyself; to take time to nourish ourselves, to smell the roses.
I pass Angela the rose covered box of Kleenex and start to explain to her that, at times, we all experience the feeling of being caught up in a whirl pool of emotion. The secret to floating above this whirl pool is to replenish your soul and taking the time to honour thyself.
I encourage Angela to begin by taking a few minutes per day in order to replenish her soul through meditation. Meditation is a practice in which an individual induces a mode of consciousness, it is often used to clear the mind and can ease many health issues, such as high blood pressure, depression and anxiety. Many people fear the thought of meditation because they feel they are unable to quiet the mind and keep out their thoughts.
As we begin to learn the practise of meditation, we must remember that thoughts are a part of meditation. They are a natural activity in the mind. It takes time for the body to settle down and feel at rest. We must also find a comfortable position to relax, whether you choose to sit in your favorite chair or lay in your bed, the key is to be peaceful.
By creating the daily habit of clearing our mind of the chaos we can truly begin to let go of the static so we can begin to start to get reacquainted with the self.
Replenishment and connection with the self can and does feel like floating down a beautiful slow moving channel.
Many people who take the time to honour thyself tend to create their own soul nourishment through their hobbies which they make time for either weekly or monthly.
Hobbies are a wonderful way to enrich your personal identity as well as create bonds with other elements, such as other people or with the earth itself. Gardening, hiking, scrapbooking, poetry, fishing, motorcycling, whatever it may be, can keep the souls flame ignited.
Whether it is a hobby, reading a few excerpts from a book, or taking a few minutes for meditation, we must all learn to take time for ourselves.
Yes, it can be very hard to make this time, especially with the hustle and bustle of career, family, friendships and daily routines, as well as duties, but it is imperative for our spiritual, physical and mental well-being to create balance with routine and the self.
After many months, Angela has found the time for a new daily routine; this being taking time to smell the roses as well as taking a passage through a gorgeous waterway to reunite with herself.
Honouring thy self brings an appreciation of ourselves, then we can begin to accept ourselves and truly learn that amidst the chaos and the beauty of family, friendships, career and the world itself, we alone are the emerging bud in a rose bud.
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