I start each day by making minimum effort. My system loves the familiarity of simple tasks like turning the heat up, opening the curtains, looking outside in the yard , making coffee and feeding the cat. I ease slowly into my day. Before I settle on the couch with my coffee I always light a candle to acknowledge the sacred. The sacred to me is the simplicity of each moment. What’s here and offering itself without any effort.
“Why abandon a seat in your own home to wander in vain through dusty regions of another land? If you make one false step, you miss what is right before your eyes.” – Dogen
The sun shining on the building next door, trees in all shades of green heavy with moisture from the night, a rake leaning up against the shed, the sound of traffic, a stack of books waiting to be returned to the library and the taste and smell of coffee.
I feel the weight of my body on the couch. How natural it is to simply be here and receptive to what’s happening. My feet on the ground which is the touchstone of present moment practices and nervous system regulation. I often say, “as long as I can feel my feet on the ground I know that I am connected to something greater than myself. Something stable and supportive.” A slow gaze around the room reassures my nervous system that I am safe and nothing needs my immediate attention. I call this noticing “cues of safety”. I listen with the same intention. All is well.
I also notice the places that stress and tension are held in my body. I welcome these parts as friends and part of the totality of who I am. They aren’t something foreign that needs to be gotten rid of but rather how the body has been unable to integrate things that are difficult. I put my hand on my heart with tender reassurance and welcome. “I’ve got you.”
This is how I start my day. It’s as familiar to me now as rushing was in the past. Reality is offering itself to us in every moment but for simple and complex reasons we are unable to recognize that. We are caught in our heads and disconnected from our bodies. We’re here and we’re not here.
If this is something that you recognize in yourself and you long for more ease and simplicity you are welcome to join me for my upcoming 6 week course; A Light in the Dark: Trauma, the Nervous System and Spiritual Awakening.
All of Candace’s services are Trauma, PTSD, Complex Grief, Chronic Illness and Benzo withdrawal symptom sensitive.