After the Great Pause

Hello out there. How is every one? I haven’t blogged in a while …I spent some time asking the question; Is what I have to offer about Aging helpful? All the while, through the challenges this year has brought us,  I have been practicing The 5 Tibetans outside in sunshine,shade, and rain or inside when I had to get away from bat poop. (Anyone know how to get rid of a bat?)  The 5 Tibetans keep my core strong and my muscles flexible. ( You can click on the May 2018 blog post to read all about the 5 Tibetans) I’m beginning to find that increasing core strength and flexibility also seem to improve my capacity to handle emotional perturbances (bat poop being a small disturbance:). My morning dock time has lengthened. I’ve invented some new practices that enhance Life around here. I wrote a book about one of them, a form of meditation practice. It’s called, The Slowest Lord’s Prayer In The World. It describes a way to sit deeply with The Lord’s Prayer, and contemplate each individual word and observe how they individually can point us into a state of oneness. I began doing this in meditation class and I love the practice on any night that I have trouble sleeping. It has also been very helpful for some of my patients who feel slightly resistant to meditation because it seems too “new age”, but prayer is meditation. Take a deep breath in, watch as breath fills you up, witness the pause at the top of the breath and then on the exhale, whisper the first word of The Our Father…”Our”. Wow! first little word; you are a powerful pointer into a beautiful state of peace and connection because “Our” links me to EVERYONE. Take the next deep breath in, watch it fill you up and then on the exhale, breathe out the second word, “Father”. There are about 52 words in the Lord’s prayer and each one, exhaled separately, has the ability to point us to a state of peace that passes all understanding. The book is coming along, trying to make it’s way into the world. Right now, a dear friend is helping me to get my written reflections  graphically designed into a book. I continually send the manuscript out to publishers. Holding the book in my hands someday will be a joy but the real joy was writing it, practicing it, and sharing it with beloveds. Praying/meditating in this way works with any favorite prayer. You get the same incredible health benefits as silent meditation; increased joy and peace, decreased heart rate and stress. If you try it, let me know how it goes for you. 

I answered my own question, deep down I can see these practices have sustained me so what else can I do but offer them to you… for Life is Aging and Aging is Life.