Busy...busy...busy.
Personally, I feel a call to slow down a bit when the weather cools and the storms begin to roll in. It is a time when I want to meditate more, contemplate more, just BE...more. It is a time when I wish to stop doing so much.
And yet, with the approach of the holidays, sometimes it seems an impossible task to stop doing so much. So many parties....so little time! Along with shopping, planning menus and meals and potlucks and what to get your 87 year old father for Christmas who has everything.
And more than ever, I want to slow down and BE. I want to snuggle in with my kitties in my sunroom and enjoy watching the weather move across my field of vision in the skylights above me. I want to settle in and read.
I had an opportunity to do that yesterday, and it was heavenly. And then I ran across the quote in the photo above in my readings this morning, and I remembered some things.
I think we have become a society of doers. If we feel ill at ease for any reason whatsoever, if something is not working in our lives, we "stuff" it and do more. We ignore the call to reveal and heal, and do more. And in this doing, we are denying a true part of ourselves, and much of our limitation and troubles stem from this practice.
I have watched people do so much stuff, at the expense of their peace and joy and happiness. People come to me as counseling clients and one of the first things we look at is their patterns of doing vs being, and whether or not that is serving them.
This pattern of doing vs being speaks to what I hear regularly in my practice. I'm not alone. Thomas Moore, in his book "Care of the Soul," says that symptoms of emptiness, meaninglessness, vague depression, disillusionment and a hunger for spirituality all speak to one thing: our concentration on getting material things, or changing relationships or job to fix ourselves. None of that works.
What works is answering our inner calling, and this is what I help people do in my practice. Problems in relationships are the primary reason why people come to see me. What they quickly discover is that the problems will stay with them, no matter who the other person is in relationship. The problem really isn't in the relationship, the problem is in how we relate with ourselves. And so we, the client and I, begin a journey to within. I give them tools to see what is going on inside of them, remove the focus from "out there" and move it to "in here." And what they discover, if they are willing to do the work, is a wonderful world. Yes, sometimes that world is populated with things that need attention, like low self esteem. We work through that, and the client emerges with the inner shifts in perception and awareness that provide for a happier and more productive life.
If you are doing more than being, and still feeling like if you stopped doing you would be like the hole in the donut, consider that it may be time to explore what is happening within you. I can help.