Weathering the Moment

“Let the rain kiss you. Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops. Let the rain sing you a lullaby.”
~ Langston Hughes

Do you ever get stuck in your head?

I found myself there last night. The sort of stuckness where you’re oh-so-tired, and know you should be getting to sleep, but instead you keep worrying something around in your brain.

It’s not any good, you know. That useless kind of fretful worrying. Nothing constructive about it. It won’t solve anything, fix anything, heal anything. All it shall do is make you more tired, frazzled, down or stuck.

I have a meditation technique I use when I find myself in this kind of headspace. I like to think of it as ‘weathering the moment’. Invariably when I use this method I emerge out of the other end feeling calmer, quieter and with some breathing space up there in my brain again. I realise that I can put down the tail of the particular tiger I am wrestling, and move into sleep, or onto something more constructive.

Here’s what you do:

Stop. Wherever you are, whatever you’re doing, just stop. Give yourself five minutes. Obviously if you’re driving a car wait until you can pull over safely. No point in adding to your problems… 🙂

Deliberately take a deep breath and exhale slowly, and then consciously move your awareness to what’s outside you. Not to people or traffic or man-made things. Instead tune in to nature.

If you’re in an office block or an apartment, go sit by a window, or at least where you can glimpse outside. It doesn’t matter if what you have is a mountain, a patch of sky, the top of a tree.

If you are fortunate enough, take that five minutes outside.

If you are bedridden, let your mind float out of the window into that summer day, the quiet night, the rain storm, the falling snow, the endless stretch of afternoon.

Be the air. Follow the sunshine. Let yourself fall with the raindrops. Expand out to the horizon. Alight on a leaf. Fly like a bird. Roar on the wind.

Soon you understand something fundamental. You are not your problems. Your soul is bigger than that. And in fact, in the scheme of things, as you merge for a while with the wider world of nature that keeps happening all around us, it is easier to distance ourselves a little from the immediacy of our worries, and to gain some precious perspective.

If you’re able to, conclude your weathering session by standing barefoot on the ground. If that’s not possible put your hand on the rough bark of a tree, or the smooth leaf of a plant. Connect. Discharge that last racing fretfulness into the accommodating energy of Mother Nature. If physical connection is not possible, imagine yourself doing these things as if it were real. It will still have a similar positive effect.

Five minutes is not much in the scheme of things. But five minutes, well spent, can make all the difference.

Much love to you, Nicole xx

PS – You might also find these helpful :

Unblocking and Grounding your Foot Chakras

Coming Back to Centre

Staying Grounded in Uncertain Times (also includes a free guided meditation)