Coming into Practice

Greetings all,

I hope you are enjoying the cold winds that have brought their snowy gift to this region.  I am very grateful to have a place that is safe and warm to rest.    Much has been made about this super blood wolf moon.  I felt something deep stirring last night, but it felt like it was the powerful quiet of the snow.  It seemed to radiate energy as it fell.

Many will make noise about the power of celestial events, and they can heighten energies.  What I have been working with has been more internal.  I have a weekly practice of ceremony which I have maintained for the past 5 years.  The weekly prayers that I do have touched many lives and while I take them on as an obligation they are also a privilege.  They offer me great steadying power as I move through my life.  For a while I've been contemplating a daily practice. I knew whatever I did would have to be simple.  It would have to something I could perform anywhere.  It would also have to be able to be done quickly.  So in the past two months I have come up with something, and while I don't always remember to do it early in the day, I do get to it once a day.  I'm trying to not be a hard ass about it.

I can hear some of you thinking, "What is your practice?"  So I will describe it as best I can.  My daily practice involves me tending to my energetic cords that connect me to the world and all my relationships.  I invite the energy of Grace to move through my cords, to clear any debris or imbalanced energy.  I ask that it repair any tears or holes in them.  I ask that it remove any attachments or cords that no longer serve me.  After that I draw down light from my cord to the Source of Life.  I surround myself in that light and then invite all my guides and helpers into it to walk with me.

One of the things that prevented me from committing to a daily ritual was perfectionism.  Ideally I would do this when I woke up, or at least before I left the house.  However I have noticed the more loose I am about the practice, the more likely I am to adhere to it.  I often tell my students about Tai Chi that just 10 - 15 minutes a day is enough to see some benefits.  It is of course better to practice longer, but if they feel pressure to do that they are more likely to skip it, rationalizing that since they can't do a half hour or more it is not worth doing.  So with that practice I often will do my 15 minutes and on days where I have time or feel like doing more, I do more.  It turns the obligation into more of a treat for the self.  I'm trying to adopt that attitude for my daily spiritual practice, and it seems to be working.  If I forget to do it one day, I simply pick up the next day.  The practice is for me.  It isn't homework, nor an assignment.  It is self care.

Why am I telling you this?  Well I think we all need some sort of practice each day that centers us and brings us back into balance.  That practice doesn't have to look anything like mine.  It could be simpler or more elaborate.  It could be a short walk outside where you let go of the day.  It could be turning off your phone and lighting a candle.  It could be simply listening to some peaceful music, or it could be dancing around to your favorite rock ballad.  It doesn't matter what it is, just that it feeds your spirit.  In our society we have ways to feed just about everything except our spirit.

So how about you?  Are you consistently feeding your spirit, or are you getting by on the scraps fed to you by the human interest story on the nightly news?  Do you take a single moment to acknowledge that power that resides within you, or do you worry more about recharging your phone?  Well if you find your spirit is on the malnourished spectrum I advise you take some time to feed it.  Just take a moment or two a day to do something that is meaningful to you and your path.  If you don't know what that is, then use that moment to pose the question to your spirit.  "What simple action or practice would nourish you the most?  Please show me."  Once you find that, just try and do it each day.  Be glad when you follow through, and forgive yourself and simply start again when you forget.  Until next time...keep practicing.

Peace and Blessings,
Thomas Mooneagle

Moving Slowly

Greetings all,

I hope this post finds you well and whole.  The last few weeks has been a whirlwind of change for me.  There is much that I can do now, but I find myself moving slowly.

At the end of the year, I found people were getting back in touch with me for appointments and opportunities.  I generally see a dip before the holidays and sometimes into the new year.  This time it was a blessing as it gave me time to process my recent loss.  I've had just a few clients since my grandmother's death.  What I have found is that I am still quite capable and effective, but that when I work my emotions are much more intense.  Of course it has always been that way, but I've not quite had this level of grief whilst trying to work.  It hits me both before and after a session.  So I am able to focus and give a level of service I am proud of, but the personal cost to me has been higher.  For this reason I find I am not getting as much done as I could be.

I can't tell you how many times I've had people tell me that they'd love to do what I do.  What they don't understand is just how much what I do demands of me.  I require lots of time to rebalance myself to make sure I am in integrity.  I arranged my life in a way to be of service that precludes a normal full time career with benefits and safety nets.  Plus I get all the feels, all the time.  Emotional states in me have to be watched because if they go much out of balance my physical body tends to get sick.  All while I live in a culture that actively ridicules what it is I am and do.  Still I can only be what I am.  I can only do what is in me to do.  So I do it the best way that I can. So rather than beating myself up, right now I am allowing myself more rest.  I am moving slowly.  I am re-centering until I feel strong enough to move out into the faster currents of life.

Why am I telling you this?  Well many of us get bogged down in the idea of being productive and ceaseless activity.  Some refer to this as the Cult of the Busy.  The belief goes something like this, important people are busy, good people are busy.  Therefore if you want to be good or important you must always be busy.  We were not designed for such things.  We were designed to be active, but we were also meant to rest and relax.  We need the latter to achieve the best results with the former.

So how about you?  Do you berate yourself for having human limits of energy or will?  Do you put off feeling your emotions so you can get more done?  Do you ever clear your schedule for slow time?  Well it might be a good time to start.  Give yourself time to rest, dream, and then maybe your plans can come about in their own good time.

Peace and Blessings,
Thomas Mooneagle