Beautiful Acts of Defiance: August 4 - 10

Many days when I read the headlines, I want to crawl under a rock. I feel at the mercy of terrible forces beyond my control. In these moments, I forget the power within.

No matter the situation, I can always choose:

• Hope over fear

• Mindfulness over reactivity

• Connection over isolation

• Open-heartedness over mean-spiritedness

• Abundance over scarcity

There is a difference between going with the flow and following the path of least resistance. What I'm suggesting isn't easy. Fear, reactivity, isolation, mean-spiritedness, scarcity take hardly any effort at all. In these dark days, now is the time for beautiful acts of defiance. More is demanded of me. Rather than abdicate my responsibility, can I deliberately embody kindness? Can I imagine the world in which I want to live and then build it? Can I dare to love in spite of the cost?

Practice

Take a break from the "real" world. Unplug from the electronics. Dim the lights. Maybe light a candle. Give yourself permission to breathe. Find a quiet spot and shift gears. Settle in. Take a few moments to reset the mind, the body, the spirit.

Are there any tight spots in the body? Places where thoughts get stuck? Constricted areas in the heart? Emotional sand traps? Locate one of these pain points. No need to judge. No need to fix. Simply acknowledge. Be aware. Possibly rest a hand on the place with tenderness. Take a few moments to breathe into this space.

Remember you are not alone. Imagine others who are experiencing the same thing, who share this particular pain. Recognize today's difficulty not as a blockage that dooms you to suffering but as a doorway that connects you to humanity. Use your creative imagination to fill this area with light and love. Take a few minutes to send wellbeing to others through this doorway..

Imagine what healing and wholeness might look like. Can you loosen this area of constriction a bit more? Sometimes fear and pain lock us into smallness. Envision expanding awareness into a bigger field. What practical step could you take today to be freer? What lesson is the present moment speaking to you. Dare to listen. Dare to act.

It's time to return to the "real" world. Take the seed from today's meditation and plant it in the soil of today's demands and activities. Water and nourish it. Or do nothing. The choice is always yours.