My favorite at-home retreat is a 45/15 schedule
45 minutes of activity followed by 15 minutes of active rest, all. day. long.
It’s beautiful.
The first time I did it, I set myself up with timers.
Activity. Alarm. Laying. Alarm. Activity. Alarm. Laying. Alarm
It took about 5 hours to sync up with the rhythm
And then I didn’t need the timers - the pace became natural
Tidying and laundry, and then laying down.
Then I’d get hungry and get up to make a snack, at which point the laundry was done
After which I laid down again, paying attention to my sensations, maybe writing, maybe reading, but mostly laying and breathing and noticing my body
At which point, the doorbell would ring…
What I’m trying to say is that after just a few hours, my day would reveal itself to me in that rhythm, where I would actually get quite a lot done, but I would also be very rested and grounded.
I’ve used it in preparation for holidays which is amazing, because I think I have too much to do to have time for rest
But getting the rest actually gets the stuff done, too
And I feel good
Today, I noticed that same invitation - my day offering itself in a pattern of activity and rest
And I’m so grateful
One thing leads to another and to another, and then to the couch
Then an activity arises, and another and another, and then out to the bench in the sun
The sun becomes too much, and the cycle starts again, and I think ‘I want to do this every day’
Because I stop directing my day and let it reveal itself to me
My typical overlay of my perspective and opinions and ideas about what I must do
Makes way to listen and move from that listening
Quite an upgrade to my experience
My thinking mind says I’m being irresponsible
My lived experience watches things get done between rest periods
And acquiesces
My cognitive mind doesn’t quite receive messages from staring at a bush for 10 minutes (I believe some people do)
But my body is getting more messages than I know how to translate
My nervous system is having a very different time than it does when i’m plotting my next action or evaluating my progress
Nature is speaking, always
Listening isn’t only cognitive
Listening does not need to translate what it hears
To shape my energy field
There’s a quote attributed to Alan Alda that says “true listening is letting yourself be changed by the other person”
I want to be changed by nature, too
That my wordless receptivity to wordless expressions of life living dynamically in the present moment
Align me with the heartbeat of nature and all of her beings
Lord knows listening in this day and age must be curated
The noise is loud. Everyone’s sharing their point of view. We all have visions of the world
But the world itself, that’s what I want to pay attention to
Not assessments or predictions
And when I listen to the voices in our culture inviting us into deeper relationship with the pulse of nature in all of her expressions
The ‘horizontal download’ of light from these sources shapes me
Listening is a privilege and a pleasure
Which is a welcome counterbalance
To the equally true atrocities also happening everywhere
I like to listen to Philip Shepherd and Tara Brach and Thomas Hubl
And let that listening shape me - and shape me it does
Yet it’s my own body and my own back yard where the shaping is most precise
Listening
Acting from that listening
Resting
It’s a beautiful pacing
And time for me to go lay down…
