Thoughts

Build Your Home Well.

Written by Andō McDonnellWellbeing

Do you have a meditation, mindfulness, or other spiritual practice?

An inner space in which to rest, relax, unwind?

One not bound to location or form?

Even if it is just to sit silently, with a cup of tea, leaving the world behind?

If not, or if you have, but are experiencing some difficulties with finding time and space for your practice, here is some simple advice on how to change that.

See your practice as your home.

The foundations are built out of your morning practice, be it silent sitting meditation, or mindful movement of QiGong, TaiChi or mindful walking.

The roof is built from your evening practice, turning devices off, TV, computer, tablet and mobile phone all off, and so on. Even a simple a tea meditation could seal the day, or you could choose a silent sitting meditation, or you might choose a seated QiGong practice, a gently moving, yet restful Zen meditation, or a moon salutation yoga practice, or yoga nidra.

The details aren’t important. Let them be your choice. You know best what practices work best for you right now.

Between the morning and evening, the foundations and the roof, lies the day. If we don’t pay attention to the day time, to the space between the two, our home will become cluttered, untidy, unclean.

So clean the house, tidy a little. In terms of meditation, this may be as simple as stopping to pause for three breaths in the morning, a tea meditation in the afternoon, a silent walking meditation at lunchtime (a park, or even a quiet street will do).

A secure, dry, clean home is a happy home.

Take care of your home well, and you will find, as you step over the threshold, that you can drop your heavy baggage (mind activity), and rest at ease.

This practice neithers begins, nor ends, just as home is always there.

Whenever you need it, you can rest here, at home.

That it is clean, and ready for you to relax in, is your responsibility.

That it is there for you, is essential.

Home doesn’t need to be big, grand or complicated.

Simplicity can be the most beautiful thing.

A cup of tea, under a favourite tree, this is home.

Sun salutations yoga in a room filled with dawn light, this is home.

A cat, on your lap, in your favourite chair, no book, device, or magazine, just silence, this is home.

Find out where your home is, take care of it, and spend time there.

Build your home well, and it will take care of you.

Always.

Written by
Andō McDonnell
Poet and writer.
Ando is a talented and active writer - a woman who spent many years living in deep retreat from the world. Her poems are about silence, stillness, the research of inner peace, and the human relationship with nature. She shows us that a journey of self-discovery can be described with just a few words at a time: and the result can be beautiful and intimate poetry.

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