nature Archives - Mindfulness with Sitara Morgenster

Photo credit: Phillippe Demande via 123rf.com

Today, I’m sharing a friend’s writing, with their permission. Apart from my desire to share their brilliant writing with a wider audience, I wanted to promote them. Alas, the friend wishes to stay anonymous – for now. And even if you’d be able to speak to them in person, they’d deny they wrote this letter below. They’d tell you they found it on their front lawn one morning in March, and that it was written in dew drops. All they did was transcribe it for us to read.

To me, the content of this letter is an example of outward expression of open awareness and a great sensitivity going beyond just our speciest viewpoint.

A virus is sweeping the world.
It’s killed many of us and will sicken most of us to various degrees.
It restricts our movements, confining us to ever-smaller spaces.
It’s a constant threat to our economy, in particular to our food and its circulation.

This latest antiviral drug, COVID-19, isn’t a cure, however initial signs are positive that it can slow its progression significantly.
And currently, species everywhere are enjoying a better quality of life.

However, we must remember that this virus is an amazing mutator and expect that it won’t be long until COVID-19 becomes ineffective.
Enjoy the reprieve – because we expect it to be short-lived.

– Tree, addressing the Council of Non-Human Life Forms (CNLF), March 2020

My friend went on to comment: “It’s cheeky but it’s true. Like the weed versus plant debate, we’re eradicating something for our benefit alone with little consideration for the impact on the global community. This virus is anti-humanity but I’d say it’s very pro-life. That being said, don’t spread it or flout lockdown – I’m sharing this to encourage the reflection that COVID-19 must be churning up in us all.

Let’s not waste this suffering, let’s learn from it as much as we can, so that when it calms down, we’ve grown up a little and live less like the irresponsible, disrespectful, selfish teenage dickheads that we’ve been living as for far too long.”

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Humans temporarily halted, reprieve for other creatures and plants. [Photo by Sanga Park via 123rf.com]

Even if you feel mindfulness meditation is “not working” (whatever that means!), do it anyway. The benefits occur, even if you feel they don’t. Here’s a reminder of the benefits of mindfulness meditation from the Mindfulness Works Newsletter today:

“How mindfulness works to reduce stress and anxiety

Practising mindfulness meditation will automatically and quite naturally cause us to relax more often; it does this by triggering the relaxation response. When we are sitting in one place for a period of time and focusing on our body or our breath and we naturally start to relax, we find that:

•   the breathing slows
•   our blood pressure drops
•   our heart rate slows
•   oxygen in our blood increases
•   our muscles relax
•   the mind starts to soften and/or feel more spacious.

Over time and with consistent practice, both the structure and the chemistry of our brain changes so that we are relaxed and at ease more often. This happens automatically and, in fact, it shows us that relaxation will happen even if our mind seems very busy and full of thoughts.”

So keep practising, especially during these big changes in daily life all over the world because of…. you-know-what!

And if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to send me an email via the contact page, or leave a comment!

If you’d like a guided meditation to use, you could check out this open awareness guided mindfulness meditation recording on Soundcloud.com, made by me. Or choose from the heaps more, wonderful Mindfulness Works NZ facilitators, put Mindfulness Works in the search box and find a voice you like.
I also recommend having this in the background if you don’t live in nature (and are lucky to have unlimited data/wifi): 8 hours of bird and water sounds (on Youtube)

Tag: nature

The tree speaks

Mindfulness “not working”? Do it anyway. Here’s why

“How mindfulness works to reduce stress and anxiety