Come On, Inner Peace, Get On With It!

"Never be in a hurry;

do everything quietly and in a calm spirit.

Do not lose your inner peace for anything whatsoever,

even if your whole world seems upset."

~ St Francis de Sales

        Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to Week 19 of my "Motivational Mondays" personal challenge!  I think it's Week 19...that's what the book said, anyway.  I know I passed Counting in school, but some days are easier than others. ;)

        This week, it appears Christine is trying to help me keep my cool.  I can't imagine why I'd need to remember to do that...but here's her question:

How can you keep your inner peace this week?

        At first, when I read this, my first thought was on the worry post from a couple of weeks ago.  I kind of smirked, thinking something to the effect of: "Sheesh; really gonna make me analyze my anxiety, isn't she?!"

        Then I came back to it, later, and realized that it hadn't said anything else about anxiety...so evidently that topic is on my mind, and needs more processing.  We'll have to see about that...but I'm not in a hurry. (See what I did there? Not in a hurry...like the quote - yeah, I know; but, still!) :P

        Never be in a hurry.... When I was a kid, my mom always seemed to be in a hurry.  I'm not sure if it was due to a serious lack of babysitting, or simply because she actually liked having me along, but she took me all kinds of places where a kid wouldn't normally be particularly welcome, and her quick, energetic footsteps would keep my feet running double time!

        Later, when I got into junior high, it sometimes came in handy that I could walk quickly and gracefully between students, often taking less than a minute to get from one class, to my locker and across the school to the next class, with plenty of time to spare before the other students started arriving.  I wasn't a particular favorite among my peers, so taking time between classes to do my homework worked out rather well, academically.

        It was around that age - actually, a year or two before that - that I began to explore relaxation techniques, like self-hypnosis and meditation, with my mom.  She had a therapist who was Japanese, and from what I could tell, he was teaching her skills for handling anxiety and stress.  He fascinated me, as did all of the beautiful, foreign artifacts in his office, though I never had a meeting with him, myself.  But my mother got me a lot of things that were supposedly useful in working on creating balance, evidently at his suggestion or inspiration.

        So...as this was by no means the extent of my experiences...in my life I've had a variety of educational opportunities, learning speed, and learning calm.  Of course, these days I'm slow and often anxious...

...but I'm still working on it, which is all we can do.

        The pain management guide/counselor I've previously mentioned in other posts, really tried to focus me on mindfulness and creating a sense of grounded, inner stability, which can allow for greater capacities and abilities.  As she explained to me, our natural inclination when dealing with chronic illness/pain is to try to block it out of our minds, in an attempt of making "mind over matter" a possibility.

        Unfortunately, as I've learned the hard way, the effort involved in shoving things down into the core of us not only wastes precious energy, but it condenses the negative energy in there, causing internal chaos to fester.  Emotional infections can be as bad - if not worse - than a lot of physical ones.  Sadly, mental and emotional illnesses aren't often, really accepted in most modern cultures, so diagnosis and proper treatment are not always offered by the mainstream, medical community.
 
        That happens to be a rant for another time.  Moving on...

Try something with me, hmm?

Try taking five, slow, deep breaths.

Seriously. 

Breathing is the one thing we can choose to control.

I tend to breathe really shallowly,

so I could seriously use the increase in oxygen to help with

pain, tension, cognitive issues and more,

though there are infinitely more benefits, too,

even without those kinds of issues.

Just do it, hmm?  Humor me?

~ breathe ~

...

~ breathe ~

...

~ breathe ~

...

~ breathe ~

...

~ breathe ~

...

        How does that feel?  Calmer?  More relaxed?  Clearer head?  Tension released?  Just imagine how it could help when under stress, physically, mentally or emotionally!  The health benefits are incredibly wonderful!

        Do not lose your inner peace for anything whatsoever ... How can you keep your inner peace this week?... I could answer this by simply choosing one thing, since there are so many.  I'm going to choose trying to ground myself more, through my breath, so that I focus more on being alive and vibrant than I feel, currently.

        And what about you?  What do you think will help you keep your inner peace?  Feel free to answer in the comments below*, or on the PB FB Page post, if you like.  I'd love to know!

        Better days ahead, my friends.

(*Update: Google's comment functionality has for some reason not worked for me, and I've been unable to post responses - to my own blog's comments - so if you do have comments, you're welcome to send them to me at thephoenixandthebutterfly@gmail.com or private message at the PB Project Facebook Page Thanks!)