This week’s Presence Activating Statement is accompanied by a couple of additional practices, primarily that of getting into the water. Water sessions of 20 minutes are encouraged before the 15 minutes of connected breathing to stimulate the process of emotional reconnection and growth.
This is taking place at a time for me when things are heating up busy-wise, both because it’s October in Tucson and everything gets popping here in October, and also because I am in the process of applying to grad school, which involves time-sucking hoop-jumping tasks like taking GRE’s, taking a few prerequisite courses, tracking down recommendations, doing some volunteer work, writing essays and also continuing my life. I haven’t been this kind of busy in a long time, but I feel calm and focused, eyes on the prize.
I think this is primarily the case at the moment because I just finished a 5-day workshop with Christina Sell, which is always a wonderful thing to do. Christina has this way of encapsulating the practice into words that are so eloquent and accurate that I feel brightened by just being in her field. The 5 days included a fair amount of yoga asana, which is a wonderful vehicle to explore the ways in which I can stretch and push my body to its limits, but with safety and awareness. Thus the phrase I Feel Safe in This Body was continually supported throughout the 5 days as I learned more about the practice and more about my body in the practice, my self in the practice.
Including the water sessions has worked out in a number of ways because I needed the soaking (I was sore!) and I love taking baths anyway. Memories have surfaced of a retreat I attended around rebirthing which pushed all of my cult buttons as well as other random memories from long ago as well as recently. The intention of the water is to provide a womb-like environment in which the process of remembering and integrating can be readily accessed.
I can feel the volume of pressure getting higher in my life at the moment and, much as the book said it would, putting pressure on my commitment to follow through with this process. Interestingly enough, the 10 weeks of the process conclude just after I take the GRE’s and just before my first application is due. Gotta love timing.
I am grateful for the continued opportunities that this process offers to stay in the moment. Spending too much time dwelling on the mountain of tasks ahead is not only unhelpful from the vantage point of not being able to do anything about it, but also in that it adds undue stress to my moment NOW. So I continue to breathe, to welcome the peaks and valleys of my emotions, and stay in this Process, all the way through.
