Strength for the Swim
66 of the many ways that exist to help give us vital energy to restore us
On Sunday, April 20, we organized & hosted a short 2-hour afternoon of mindfulness in Missoula at the Open Way Mindfulness Center entitled Strength for the Swim. Our program consisted of a session of outdoor walking meditation in Rose Park, a period of sitting meditation, a practice talk that I (Nicole) gave, and our afternoon concluded with a guided deep relaxation. We had a lovely group of around 15 people attend.
This Missoula afternoon of mindfulness program wasn’t part of our original Empty Mountain calendar of events when we first planned out what we would be offering this year, but I was inspired to toss it into the mix rather last minute based on hearing & feeling a need for more grounding and support amid our trying political times right now from friends and sangha members. And for a couple of practical reasons, it made more sense to host this program in Missoula, versus here in the woods at Empty Mountain.
Above images: outdoor walk & indoor deep relaxation
Creating and leading mindfulness practice programming and bringing folks together in community are genuinely two of my favorite things to do. There are only a few other usages of time that I consider as valuable and beneficial as coming together to connect with others in the context of the practice. So any time I am able to be with my sangha is a good day for me.
The main message I wanted folks to take away from my talk and our time spent together was this: In order to have strength for the swim, we must invest in our own personal hydration. And by the swim I mean our life, and all that it means and takes to be alive and human in this wondrous, amazing and also terrifying, suffering world on a daily, ongoing basis over the long-haul of living. And by hydration I mean anything which serves to help nourish, restore, replenish, energize, uplift, inspire, or enliven us. We all have so very much energy going out, and many of us do not have enough energy coming back in to help refuel us. In order to stay strong for the swim, we must tend to and care for our own wellness of being.
To listen to the full talk I gave, please click here.
Many ways exist to help us have strength for the swim. I crafted a poster prop that listed out 66 possibilities (see image above), but there are, of course, loads and loads more. No one thing is for everyone, as I often like to say. What works for one person might not work for another, so it’s important to individually tailor our hydration efforts to suit our own personality, preferences, and proclivities. And. What works for us one day might not work next week. So there’s that to consider as well. Everything is of the nature to change, and that includes our self and what works to restore us when our battery is low.
When we are able to start looking more deeply into what self-care genuinely involves, and not simply view it from the surface where it’s easy to fall prey to the false notion that self-care is selfish, we are able to see clearly that when we are able to take good care of ourselves, it’s what enables us to take better care of those around us. With the insight of interbeing, we see that self-care is one of the most altruistic acts we can engage in, because we understand how much we impact and affect one another.
The practice invitation is this: invest time and intentional effort on a regular, ongoing basis to re-hydrate, in order to stay strong for the swim. Make self-care a priority, in order to keep on keeping on in all the ways we want to stay actively involved doing what we’re doing. In order to keep the porch light of our heart on, for others and the world.