Check your vitals. Are you calm and relaxed? Is your mind in a state of repose? Are your thoughts minimal and without charge? Is your heart center cool and empty while also warm and full? With your spirit present, your mind at rest, and your heart center open, declare yourself fit and full of vigor. These vital centers are as important as any technical vitals a doctor might check. Give yourself a checkup to start the day. If calmness and openness are not your present state, then work on yourself to get to a new state that will work in your favor and so that your spirit may emerge and be present throughout the day. Your calm spirit is the best doctor you will ever encounter.
In the midst of chaos find balance within the self, in the heart center that knows what calmness is, for it is the center of love, compassion and kindness. How can it connect to those attributes if not from a place of calmness? Think of love and how its magic can cure anything that humans disrupt. Love finds its invisible way into other hearts where it does its good work. Stir it within the self to do the good work that it was made to do, throughout the self and throughout the world. Let love be the cure.
It begins with deep calm in the body, the soul’s physical extension into this life. The true father of all modern somatic therapy, Wilhelm Reich, brought intimate attention to the opposition between natural impulse and defense in human musculature.
The suppression of sexual and aggressive energies, as well as powerful emotions such as sadness, is executed through what Reich called bodyarmoring, the tensing of muscles that freeze the free flow of instinctive and emotional energy.
A tense throat constricts the vocal expression of emotion. A tense belly and solar plexus create a wall that short-circuits the natural energetic current of tender emotion, natural reflex, and instinctive movement that issues from the lower half of the body.
Love is the energy of union and wholeness, the glue that binds together all of creation. To embody it we must soften our armored muscles.
The standoff between impulse and defense creates pools of charged energy, which in turn generates fears of an uncontrolled tidal wave of chaos and eventual loss of control. Indeed, a cathartic release, such as a deep cry or scream, might be necessary before a natural balance between expressive and receptive energies can be established.
One can directly speak to the body and receive a response. “Stomach, relax and release tension,” or “Shoulders, let down, release tension,” are suggestions to the body subconscious that result in immediate relaxing of rigidity.
Be gentle and accepting of small increments of release with each suggestion. Allow the body to gradually let go and adjust to the influx of freed energy. As the body musculature releases, invite and allow the breath to flow gently, expanding and opening new channels. The key word here is gentle. Follow each gentle breath with a slightly more deepening next gentle breath. Force nothing; gently widen the channel over time.
On the mental plane, Carlos Castaneda’s suggestion to suspend judgment is foundational. When we judge we create separation; this is good, that is bad. Thoughts, feelings, sensations and intuitions that are ‘bad’ are suppressed, and the body responds by rigidifying against them; they are not allowed.
In a shamanic recapitulation, or in an end of life review, as reported consistently by many who have experienced near-death experiences (NDE’s), the salient feature is total acceptance of every experience and every person one has experienced in life, regardless of their abuses and failures. This is the mood of love embracing everything with equanimity.
Boundaries may be absolutely necessary in this life but love knows no boundaries, all is accepted. Love and boundary can coexist. That was Christ’s golden message: Love All!
Total acceptance of self and other, of every aspect of life lived, and lost, is the path to embodying the mood of love.
Change is constant in Nature, which presents an eternal flow of energy; a chaos of sorts that engages, evolves, both creating and destroying as it churns onwards. So is it with the human body and all its components; it too is in constant flux. Nothing is really stable, though control of the emotions can produce the feeling of calmness that is so desired. Calmness brings a sense of control over chaos and thus it is wise to seek calmness. Even while knowing that change is constant and that chaos ensures, the calm mind can handle anything and be at peace. In the midst of chaos what better state to be in! Seek the still point of calmness and ride out the chaos with a sense of balance and harmony, within and without.
Find a spiritual discipline that you can rely on to nurture yourself during difficult times. It can be something as simple as taking a walk alone in a quiet setting, or sitting for a few minutes in a special spot, or simply taking a few minutes to breathe and calm the body and mind. This will provide a quiet contrast to the racket going on around you. It will comfort you and steady you. It will offer a slight respite from the chaos that abounds. It will bring you a few moments of peace and serenity.
