Wherever you may go, whatever welcome you may receive and whatever your comfort zones may be, your truest home is within you, right here and now. There is an eternal, compassionate luminosity into which your true nature may rest. It is like the sacred hearth that gives light, warmth and unity to a home. Just as you can draw near to the hearth for warmth, you can return to this presence to feel loved and supported anytime, anywhere. Yet, in our stress and our mental complexities, we can miss this grace-filled opportunity.
If you feel unsettled, or somehow not quite in the flow, there is likely a way in which you are resisting the moment and not accessing the grace and light that are waiting for you. If you go inside and practice non-resistance to what is, you can come home to yourself. Here is what I do. Give it a try.
1. Wherever you are, whatever you are doing, if you notice you feel disconnected or unsettled, pause.
2. Take several long, deep breaths. Enjoy the breaths. Feel life entering into you as you inhale and feel your body let go as you exhale. Notice the fullness of your lungs as you breathe in, and the fullness of possibility in the here and now as you breathe out.
3. Settled into your breath this way, simply look at your surroundings with a relaxed gaze, and notice what you see. Just watch, without adding stories to things. Keep breathing, allowing the breath to draw you close to what you see, feeling an intimacy with the here and now.
4. For example, you may see a tree outside your window. Just notice its dancing leaves, the light and the colour, without going into any narrative or associations you may have with it. You may hear a car go by. Simply hear it approach, pass by and drive off. So it is. Keep breathing and be present for what you see.
5. Feel your body within your surroundings. If you are sitting, feel your sitting bones on the chair, your heart receptive, and the top of your head broad. If you are standing, feel your feet anchoring into the Earth as your chest softens and your crown expansive. If you are lying down, feel the weight of your body resting into the ground and notice the release and lengthening in your spine as you breathe. Notice the softness or hardness of the surface supporting you. Notice how you feel.
6. Allow everything—physically, mentally, emotionally—to settle. Notice that you are not limited to your thoughts, or to the sense of being separate in a body. Allow yourself to begin to feel divisiveness dissolve, replaced by energy, flow and abundance. You are connected and interconnected. Feel that flow and just stay with it, watching.
7. If you start to think about what you will have for dinner, or if you will get that call, or whatever, notice that you are going into thinking. Simply and gently bring your attention back to the feeling of being rooted and expansive, here and now. Allow your breath to feel natural and delightful, like Nature itself.
8. Trust that from this place of ease and connectedness, at home within yourself, the universe and the moment, you will be guided to the next steps in your life. There is no need to push, manipulate, fear or control.
9. Life arises in each moment. All is unfolding in balanced perfection. All you have to do enjoy being here, being now, being home.
May all beings feel at home, in every moment and in all that is.
Parvati is an award-winning musician (“I Am Light”, “Electro Yog”, “Yoga In The Nightclub”), yogini (YEM: Yoga as Energy Medicine), author (“The Grace Mindset”, “Aonani of Avalon”, “The Three Supreme Secrets for Lasting Happiness”) and founder and CEO of the nonprofit Parvati.org. All her work is dedicated to protecting all life on Earth by establishing the Marine Arctic Peace Sanctuary (MAPS). More info: parvati.tv; parvati.org.