Rebooting a Daily Practice

How many times have you restarted a practice? Have you restarted flossing your teeth the month before or after a cleaning? On the first day of classes, have you made a promise to take better notes, review those notes nightly, or complete all homework tasks? How many times have you said, “This time it’s going to be different” to yourself?

I’m no different from you. But this time I was able to continue my new habit, daily meditation, for nearly a year. Then something happened. I have no idea why I fell out of a daily practice. I just stopped.

The Anatomy of Restarting

My life slowly deteriorated. I got sick after experiencing wellness for over seven years. My knees and hip joints ached. Soreness crept into my leg muscles. I felt so tired, it seemed sleep was pointless. In desperation, I turned to meditation for help, the tears stinging my cheeks. I’d lost the memory of what was once routine.

The next morning at the breakfast table, after pouring my morning coffee and complaining of extraordinary fatigue, I announced, “I’m heading to the office to meditate.” “Okay,” they replied, like it was nothing unusual. I expected fanfare, encouragement, a pat on the back.

I let the dogs outside, eager to start their day playing in the yard. Distractions removed, I slowly descended the stairs, half-empty coffee cup in hand., I approached my return to routine without enthusiasm, the old feelings of inadequacy in residence inside my mind.

Taking the First Step

Sitting in front of my laptop, headphones in place, I clicked ‘Play’ on a familiar guided meditation. The comfort of Bronwen’s melodious voice immediately relaxed my neck and shoulders. My breathing eased into a natural rhythm. As she led me through each phase, I felt layers of stress lift. My arms felt light, cushioned on pillows of air as I pressed my palms together in gassho. A sense of peace returned to my body, soul, and mind.

Once the 30- minute meditation concluded, my hands moving effortlessly into self-healing, their warmth resting on my face, then moving through the positions, stress dissolving like steam over a bowl of oatmeal on a cold morning. a gently boiling open pan. A huge sigh escaped my lips, the final stress released.

My tiredness fatigue had been considerably reduced, but it was still present. Slowly, as I started my daily chores, I felt the return of my normal energy level until the fatigue was completely gone, replaced by a sense of euphoria.

What Was Different?

I really thought that my meditation practice would have been like starting over. Back to square one. But Tthe opposite was true. I had entered a new level of peace and compassion for myself that was stronger and deeper. Returning to an established routine was much easier than I expected, and all it took was the first step.

Now, as I write, the physical and mental pull to put on the headphones and enter a state of relaxation is stronger than even my desire to write….

Top 5 Health Benefits of Family Hiking

1. Improved Cardiovascular and Muscle Fitness

Do you remember when children ran outside and played active games like hide and seek or hopscotch? Today children are often sitting in front of the television, engrossed in a video game, or texting their friends. Regular hiking will build stronger muscles and improve their heart, lung, and vascular fitness. Adults are also less active if they have careers that keep them at their desks.The whole family gets healthier together!

2. Improved Bone Health

A sedentary lifestyle results in weak bones that may break more easily, in children and adults. The impact of walking and hiking strengthens bones at the cellular level and is one of the factors to reduce the chance to develop osteoporosis as we age.

3. Better Sleep

Who doesn’t want their children and themselves sleeping better!

4. Active Learning Using All the Senses

When you expose your children to different environments, the opportunity to learn is huge. Take the time to engage all your senses by closing your eyes and smelling the odors of nature; pine scent in a forest, earthiness of a swamp, sweetness of wild roses, the deliciousness of ripe wild strawberries. Using touch, feel the textures of different rocks, tree bark, leaves, and stones. In the stillness of a quiet forest or along a lakeshore listen for the calls of birds. Look for the small animals often missed, ground beetles, blue dragonflies, hummingbirds, and butterflies.

5. It Just Feels Good

The positive energy in nature makes us smile. To tune in to its treasure, ask your family to sit on a rock or bench in a comfortable location, in sun if it’s chilly, in shade if it’s hot. Instruct everyone to close their eyes and breathe in to the count of 4, breathe out to the count of 4. In a soothing voice say, “Feel the breeze across your face and the warmth of the sun on your neck. Ahhhh. How do you feel?” Let your children express their feelings in this safe, loving environment. Congratulations, they’ve just participated in a short meditation!

Take a Walk in a Public Garden

Revisit a Favorite Garden

It had been a week since I’d visited my favorite place, Bok Tower Gardens. Puttering in my own garden wasn’t enough. I needed to walk in nature too. On the way to the grocery, I took a side trip to the public garden, handed over my membership card at the front gate, drove the winding road past citrus groves, longleaf pine forest, and parked beneath the shade of a live oak. Opening my door in the climate controlled environment I was assaulted by the air heavy with humidity from the previous day’s much-needed rain. Quickly I grabbed my backpack, stuffed in my wallet and pocketed the iPhone.

Notice by Being in the Moment

As I walked under the arch with the quote, “Make you the world a bit better or more beautiful because you have lived in it,” I pondered my own life. This quote had been a part of the gardens since it opened in 1928. As a child, I read it in various locations every time my family and I visited. Perhaps it influenced my lifelong love of gardening, especially flowers. Or maybe this place calls me because I have the same philosophy. I just knew I was happy to be in the midst of the beauty this garden offered. As I continued along the walkway outside the visitor center, the “What’s in Bloom” table caught my attention. My head bent, I inhaled the heady aroma of the gardenias in a vase flanked by pentas and firebush, picked that morning from the gardens by one of the many volunteers. Sometimes I would spend my visit hunting for the blooms on the table. Instead I felt I needed to forgo formal gardens and walk among the native plants.

Follow Your Gut Instinct

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Just past the Pollinator Garden, I entered the large oval, my first intersection. I checked my inner voice for direction. It led me left, fragrance once again pulling me forward toward a towering Southern Magnolia tree. As I continued toward the wild gardens I saw Gulf Fritllary butterflies as they flitted about above the native purple passionflower vine, Passiflora incarnata. I looked under the leaves with holes eaten hoping to find a caterpillar, bright orange with black spines, without success. The adults, however, gifted me with opportunities to photograph them, pausing just long enough to snap these portraits.

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Close Your Eyes and Listen

On the edge of the Wild Garden I heard the “Chee-wink” call of an Eastern Towhee. It brought back memories of my grandmother who lived next door. She taught me the names of all the flowers in her garden and the feathered visitors. The call of the Towhee always made her smile. As I searched nearby trees I found the less colorful female perched on the limb of a sumac, the male furiously vying for her attention. Next my wanderings led me into the nearby bog where carnivorous pitcher plants fed on hapless flies and ants. A native milkweed bloomed among the native grasses, the leaves a larval food for the Monarch Butterfly progeny. It reminded me how vital it is to include native plants in the home landscape, natives for natives. Bees, wasps, moths, butterflies, and birds are all dependent on native plants for food and shelter. As homes replace the native meadows, bogs, and forests, we help the native animals survive when we add native plants to our gardens.

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How are Native Gardens and Designed Gardens Different?

Finishing out my hour in nature, I walked the gravel section of the Pine Ridge Nature Trail. I was surprised to see Turkey Oak leaves turning red in June and realized it was the current drought that forced these trees into early dormancy. The trail wound back into the Edible Garden joining the main trail toward the Visitor Center and entrance. My spirit renewed and a little damp with perspiration, I paused to drink water from my day pack, and turned back toward my car and the resumption of my morning errands.

Take Your Renewed Spirit Into the World

As I parked under a strip mall parking lot tree, the prospect of my errands seemed lighter and my smile brighter as I gathered my reusable bags, and entered the local Publix grocery, where “shopping is always a pleasure”, especially after a visit to the garden.

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