Breathing from my belly as I awaken in the morning, and quietly repeating my special affirmation several times. Then I welcome the precious day into my soul.
It has been a very hectic few days at work. Member’s enrollment segment got wiped out in one of our lines of business. They had to be manually fixed. There is an annual winter concert at my church tonight. It is the church choir etc that is amazing! I never got a ticket but they put on fb to come and no ticket necessary today. I really think I could use some pick me up and singing so I must go! I enjoy singing at church (one of my rituals), many of the songs were written by the music director. There is no organ at my church just piano and many talented musicians with their instruments and of course the choir.
I hope you got to enjoy what sounds like a wonderful evening. It may have been jusst :what the doctor ordered”…to give you some peace and quiet at the end of your work week. Thinking of you.
I have begun to read and reflect on the word of the day
and to respond to the daily question each day.
This is my new morning ritual.
I find it very interesting to reflect upon and then respond to the question each day.
I like to answer before I have read other responses.
This is because I want to think through the question on my own,
and give my most authentic response, or at least my most authentic first response.
Then I’m always so interested to read how others here have responded.
I learn from your responses and I learn to see the question in ways that I did not consider.
So thank you to everyone here for sharing from your own experience and wisdom.
I have learned a lot already, and feel like I have come to know each of you better.
It makes me feel like I belong to this very special and inspirational group.
So thank you to all!
And thank you to all of you who work behind the scene
and to all who come up with these wonderful questions!
Yes!!! Mary!! You voiced all your gratefulness so well. I always learn from the responses of this wonderful group of people. How Blessed I was to find this site and the Community of folks who come here. I also try very hard to answer the morning question without reading the replies of the Community. However; sometimes, I feel that I have “answered wrong”…and after reading your post, I realize that there is no wrong answer…I answer from my heart. Thank you once more, Mary for helping me see what I failed to see.
The practice of coming to this site every day for the daily question and sharing with this beautiful, wise and willingly vulnerable community. Reading and meditating on Richard Rohr’s Daily Meditation which feeds my growth in self awareness. My daily walk–a practice I am so grateful to be able to accomplish after all the compression fractures I’ve experienced.
Thank you, Carol for reminding me of Richard Rohr’s meditations. I also get them daily (after you mentioned it over a year ago). I don’t always make the time to read them…as I seem to read much in the mornings…but I am going to try to make that a priority from now on. I think I have much to learn!! I am so happy that you can enjoy a daily walk. I also do that…but when the weather gets cold I try to hide!! But ..you have taught me…I am Blessed to be here and go on a walk. Thank you so very much. God Bless You!
Nannette, Your posts inspire and teach me daily. You have lived a very interesting and challenging life and it brings me joy that you now live in the country surrounded by nature and a loving husband. May you keep reading and keep walking!
Mine are similar to those many of you have listed.
Starting each day with poetry and this site, a cup of coffee my sweetheart brings to me and our cat warm on my lap.
Walking, especially if I go into the woodsy parks near our home.
Riding my bike and paying attention to how good it makes me feel to move my legs and go flying along.
Cooking, baking, and preserving foods to make something delicious.
Going outside and looking up into the sky. (When you think about it, we all live in the sky. It’s right there all around us. In fact, we live in outer space! This is a planet that supports human life and here we are.)
Dancing with my sweetheart, feeling the music moving me, moving us.
I meditate twice a day using passages that I have memorized from mystics and religions around the world. The words of these passages help me to touch base with my true Self. Sometimes (especially if I am alone while eating), I close my eyes and say my mantram in my mind before eating. I try to say it with as much concentration as possible and to say it for as long as it takes for my mind to slow down and stop thinking other thoughts for at least a few seconds. Sometimes I get a feeling of deep peace and power when I do that. At night time when falling asleep, I imagine my true Self sweetly singing my mantram to me as a lullaby.
My morning routine of contemplation, stretching, and meditation helps me. Sometimes this is not so easy though. Maybe that’s what it’s for. Just a mental check to see where my head is at.
Lately it’s been a struggle. Distraction and emotions definitely can get in the way. Like right now. I will continue to push through.
Baking! I love the feeling of dough in my hands, the seeming alchemy of yeast rising, the textures, how different substances react together, how the baked goods respond to heat. Gets me back into my body and back into a sense of awe.
I have a few practices that I must tend to in order to be me!
Morning coffee & toast, meditating, reading spiritual passages & sitting in prayer.
Yoga & stretching. Spending time outdoors, walking & walking some more! Spending time with Mother Nature, trees, flowers, birds, moon & star gazing.
Reading, listening to music.
And this site, it is a sanctuary for me.✨
Having some quiet time all by myself is my ritual that I enjoy. I’m an introvert and only child, so having time alone refuels me and helps me show up better for my family and friends.
I don’t think I have a practice but talking to someone with whom I’m comfortable sharing my thoughts and feelings is an act of bringing me home to my true self. I’m practicing listening with an open mind to facilitate others in finding their true selves.
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Breathing from my belly as I awaken in the morning, and quietly repeating my special affirmation several times. Then I welcome the precious day into my soul.
It has been a very hectic few days at work. Member’s enrollment segment got wiped out in one of our lines of business. They had to be manually fixed. There is an annual winter concert at my church tonight. It is the church choir etc that is amazing! I never got a ticket but they put on fb to come and no ticket necessary today. I really think I could use some pick me up and singing so I must go! I enjoy singing at church (one of my rituals), many of the songs were written by the music director. There is no organ at my church just piano and many talented musicians with their instruments and of course the choir.
I hope you got to enjoy what sounds like a wonderful evening. It may have been jusst :what the doctor ordered”…to give you some peace and quiet at the end of your work week. Thinking of you.
. . . the quiet time coming to this place,
folding laundry,
curling up with P at night,
Sophie in my arms,
and peace at the end of the day.
I picture all of this in my mind…Peace, joy contentment and a great deal of love. Thank you, Sparrow!
I have begun to read and reflect on the word of the day
and to respond to the daily question each day.
This is my new morning ritual.
I find it very interesting to reflect upon and then respond to the question each day.
I like to answer before I have read other responses.
This is because I want to think through the question on my own,
and give my most authentic response, or at least my most authentic first response.
Then I’m always so interested to read how others here have responded.
I learn from your responses and I learn to see the question in ways that I did not consider.
So thank you to everyone here for sharing from your own experience and wisdom.
I have learned a lot already, and feel like I have come to know each of you better.
It makes me feel like I belong to this very special and inspirational group.
So thank you to all!
And thank you to all of you who work behind the scene
and to all who come up with these wonderful questions!
Yes!!! Mary!! You voiced all your gratefulness so well. I always learn from the responses of this wonderful group of people. How Blessed I was to find this site and the Community of folks who come here. I also try very hard to answer the morning question without reading the replies of the Community. However; sometimes, I feel that I have “answered wrong”…and after reading your post, I realize that there is no wrong answer…I answer from my heart. Thank you once more, Mary for helping me see what I failed to see.
This brought tears to my eyes, dear Nannette,
Thank you!
I agree Mary, this a very accepting community.
The practice of coming to this site every day for the daily question and sharing with this beautiful, wise and willingly vulnerable community. Reading and meditating on Richard Rohr’s Daily Meditation which feeds my growth in self awareness. My daily walk–a practice I am so grateful to be able to accomplish after all the compression fractures I’ve experienced.
Richard Rohr’s meditation today “We Cannot Be Self-Made” is worth your time. https://cac.org/daily-meditations/we-cannot-be-self-made/
Thank you, Carol for reminding me of Richard Rohr’s meditations. I also get them daily (after you mentioned it over a year ago). I don’t always make the time to read them…as I seem to read much in the mornings…but I am going to try to make that a priority from now on. I think I have much to learn!! I am so happy that you can enjoy a daily walk. I also do that…but when the weather gets cold I try to hide!! But ..you have taught me…I am Blessed to be here and go on a walk. Thank you so very much. God Bless You!
Nannette, Your posts inspire and teach me daily. You have lived a very interesting and challenging life and it brings me joy that you now live in the country surrounded by nature and a loving husband. May you keep reading and keep walking!
Thanks Carol.
Reading this was helpful to me.
I get the meditations from CAC too,
dear Carol,
and find most of them
incredibly wise and generous. ♥
Mine are similar to those many of you have listed.
Starting each day with poetry and this site, a cup of coffee my sweetheart brings to me and our cat warm on my lap.
Walking, especially if I go into the woodsy parks near our home.
Riding my bike and paying attention to how good it makes me feel to move my legs and go flying along.
Cooking, baking, and preserving foods to make something delicious.
Going outside and looking up into the sky. (When you think about it, we all live in the sky. It’s right there all around us. In fact, we live in outer space! This is a planet that supports human life and here we are.)
Dancing with my sweetheart, feeling the music moving me, moving us.
Other practices take me out of myself, in a way, or at least out of my thinking cogitating head, and those are worthwhile too. Certain pieces of music like Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man, for example: those horns lifting up up and up and then climbing back down over and over https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdqjcMmjeaA&ab_channel=BBC with live musicians, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NjssV8UuVA&ab_channel=StarRider8008 with images that take us into outer space. Or Pachelbel’s hauntingly beautiful Canon in D https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ptk_1Dc2iPY&ab_channel=BrooklynDuo.
I meditate twice a day using passages that I have memorized from mystics and religions around the world. The words of these passages help me to touch base with my true Self. Sometimes (especially if I am alone while eating), I close my eyes and say my mantram in my mind before eating. I try to say it with as much concentration as possible and to say it for as long as it takes for my mind to slow down and stop thinking other thoughts for at least a few seconds. Sometimes I get a feeling of deep peace and power when I do that. At night time when falling asleep, I imagine my true Self sweetly singing my mantram to me as a lullaby.
I relaxed just reading your post Elizabeth H.
These seem like wonderful ways to pause and reconnect with yourself in the present moment!
My morning routine of contemplation, stretching, and meditation helps me. Sometimes this is not so easy though. Maybe that’s what it’s for. Just a mental check to see where my head is at.
Lately it’s been a struggle. Distraction and emotions definitely can get in the way. Like right now. I will continue to push through.
Someone wiser than me said, “That’s why they call it practice.”
🙂
Baking! I love the feeling of dough in my hands, the seeming alchemy of yeast rising, the textures, how different substances react together, how the baked goods respond to heat. Gets me back into my body and back into a sense of awe.
I have a few practices that I must tend to in order to be me!
Morning coffee & toast, meditating, reading spiritual passages & sitting in prayer.
Yoga & stretching. Spending time outdoors, walking & walking some more! Spending time with Mother Nature, trees, flowers, birds, moon & star gazing.
Reading, listening to music.
And this site, it is a sanctuary for me.✨
Sitting quietly in the early morning!
This site always refreshes my spirit.
Daydreaming!
Having some quiet time all by myself is my ritual that I enjoy. I’m an introvert and only child, so having time alone refuels me and helps me show up better for my family and friends.
Going on this site is my daily ritual.
Morning reading and yoga. Walking outside, weather permitting.
I don’t think I have a practice but talking to someone with whom I’m comfortable sharing my thoughts and feelings is an act of bringing me home to my true self. I’m practicing listening with an open mind to facilitate others in finding their true selves.
My Ngoc, having people to talk to goes a long ways. As far as being an active listener, I can be your lab rat which I already am.