Rest and Action

Life pulsates. Our hearts beat. Our breathing flows in and out.

What we call life is a self-renewing process, part of the dance of the universe.

Whenever we rest, the body goes into maintenance mode in order to repair, refresh, rejuvenate itself. When we are meditating with restful attention, we notice many pulsations.

One is the fluctuation between rest and action. The body-mind system is continually pulsing between rest and action an many levels, from the microscopic to the global.

Rest - Action is a two part pulsation we can track and celebrate.

The Triple Shakti

Another rhythm of life is Rest - Healing - Action - a three-part flow we can go with. When we rest, our body-mind system takes this opportunity to heal itself, before getting us ready to move again in the world. Shakti is POWER and in life we welcome these three powers of Rest, Healing and Action!

The 8 R’s

A more nuanced way of looking at this Rest - Healing - Action flow is an 8-phases flow, called the 8 Rs. It is a way of noticing the transitions and the skills involved in navigating not only meditation but also life.

Remembering to meditate. Remembering what our approach is, what the techniques are, remembering what we love.

Resting in the embrace of our practice. Making ourselves at home. Welcoming all the flows.

Relaxing the rules of attention we use in the outer world. Re-orienting to our inner world. Giving our muscles permission to shift from vigilance and tension toward relaxation.

Releasing excess tension in the muscles, nerves, tissues.

Reviewing what we are tense about.

Repairing the wear and tear of working and stressing.

Restoring the full flow of pranashakti, of blood, oxygen, and nutrients, to the areas of the body that were in tension mode.

Revisioning our life now that we are a bit more at ease, poised, and have some perspective.

All these phases happen spontaneously, whether we notice them or not. This is just a way of welcoming the work life is doing as we rest in love.

Make your own dance moves, or mudra flow, of these phases of meditation and train yourself to welcome them.

The Pain of Being

Each of the phases of meditation can feel painful in innumerable ways. For example, if you are really tired after a long day, and sit down or lie down, there is a painful sensation of relief that can quickly or slowly turn into pleasure.

The ability to shift from doing to being is instinctive, babies do it, dogs do it, all the animals do it. Nature guides us.

As meditation guides, a gift we can give is to witness people as they explore their experience of these transitions as they learn to cooperate with their own healing.

Meditation is cooperating with life's dynamic powers of self-renewal.