Cultivating Calm with Sunday Softening Practices

Last year’s unpredictability led my focus to waver; my essays, meditations, and Instagram feed transitioned from careful curation to something more spontaneous and less intentional. Despite the time constraints that challenged my efforts, my desire to maintain a presence remains strong, as I aim to share creations that, in turn, provide others with glimpses of the peace I have discovered through various mindfulness practices.

Finding Stillness

I am shifting back towards more deliberate, niche-centered posts that enable not only myself, but readers and viewers as well, to find that still point amidst the unpredictability of life. Although this unpredictability remains unchanged, my experiences over the past year have taught me patience and provided the wisdom to accept life’s inherent uncertainty.

Allowing Flow

We often hold assumptions and expectations without justification, which can cloud our judgment and hinder personal growth. This journey leads us to realize the significance of flow—not just as a concept but as a transformative experience that allows us to engage deeply with the present moment.

Reflection

It is a topic I’ve explored extensively in my essay, Open Awareness: The Gift of Gracious Acceptance, where I delve into the nuances of being open to life’s unpredictable nature. Embracing this mindset can lead to profound insights and inner peace. To complement these reflections, I invite you to explore the meditation below, which serves as a practical guide to cultivating this sense of flow and serenity in your daily life.

Gentle Reminders

I often revisit my own writings and meditations as life becomes overwhelming, making it difficult to maintain a sense of peace. We need gentle reminders and practices that we can slip into during hectic moments. Over the past few weeks, I’ve actively engaged with the basics of meditation, yoga, and lymphatic flow movement, aligning my mind, body, and spirit energetically to a state of calm amid the chaos. From this still point, I aim for my work to feel deeper, more genuine, and authentic.

Photo by Karolina Grabowska on Pexels.com

Work Week Flow

I am on an inviting journey that embraces the comforting essence of Sunday softening. For many, including me, Sunday is that cherished interlude before the hustle of the workweek kicks in. It’s a day infused with serenity and anticipation. While meditation and writing ignite my creative spirit, I work full-time as a professional in chemistry and geology. This unique mix allows me to relish my Sundays as the slow day before diving back into a more technical workflow. This path not only enriches my experience but also offers you a touch of softness and warmth as you prepare to face the new week ahead.

Sunday Softening

Sunday softening invites you to take a moment to feel your breath and your body, actively noticing tension and where emotions reside in your body, and allowing for a gentle release. As you breathe in deeply, envision the air filling your lungs and nurturing your spirit, while you exhale, let go of the burdens of the week behind you. It serves as a small reminder of who you are beneath the labels, revealing the essence of your true self, which gets overlooked in the busyness of life. In this sacred time, allow yourself to reconnect with your inner being, appreciating the stillness and presence that is always available to you. Recognize that you can return to this mindful space at any moment, embracing the peace and grounding it offers, cultivating a sense of calm that can guide you through the challenges ahead.

These posts will be shared each Sunday on Instagram, Facebook, and right here. I warmly invite you to share your word in the comments, and together, we can create a safe space to hold those thoughts.

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A post shared by 𝖪. 𝖬. 𝖲𝖨𝖬𝖮𝖭𝖣𝖲 – Meditation Teacher || Reiki Master (@dandelion.doorways)

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The felt sense is the whole-body sense of something that is not yet clear to the conscious mind. The capacity for felt sensing is inherent in you. The more that you slow down, breathe, clear the mind, and begin to sense into the core of your body, the more available the felt sense will be to your conscious awareness. … In time, your attention will gradually be able to drop down and into your body whenever you want to access your sense of inner knowing.
—John Prendergast, In Touch
#feltsense

“Once a felt sense comes into awareness and is sufficiently explored, something very interesting occurs. Gendlin describes a distinctive felt shift that happens, a shift accompanied by a “coming unstuck” and “a relief and a coming alive”—key components of a transformative insight. …one of the markers of inner knowing [is]…relaxed groundedness. The sense of coming alive is often intimately linked with the sense of inner alignment, another marker of inner knowing… …we can sense when something is genuinely open or resolved within us and when something new emerges that feels both natural and good. …Gendlin gradually developed research-based guidelines to help anyone discover felt sensing. He called his method focusing. He acknowledges that some people will learn it more quickly than others.”
—John Prendergast, In Touch: How to Tune In to the Inner Guidance of Your Body and Trust Yourself
#gendlin #feltsense #focusing

What is this sense of inner knowing…? We have all probably experienced it at some time or another—something just feels on or off the mark inside of us. It has been called many things: the small, still voice; a felt sense; intuition; heart or whole-body wisdom; somatic intelligence; a hunch; or a gut feeling.
—John Prendergast, In Touch: How to Tune In to the Inner Guidance of Your Body and Trust Yourself
#innerknowing #feltsense