Receive and Release

What daily habit do you do that improves your quality of life?

I begin each day with meditation. If I do not begin my day that way, the experience of the day is altered, seeming less “real” and more reactive. This daily practice of “letting go” helps me live more awake and attentive to the natural pattern of receive and release; breathing is such a pattern, breathing in (receiving) and then breathing out (releasing). I find it crucial to mirror that flow with my thoughts and feelings as they arise in an endless stream.

When I began a regular practice 11 years ago, meditation was an add-on, an extra piece to my limited, lackluster spiritual practice. It even came into my life in what seemed a haphazard way: I read an article about meditation in an online health forum. I no longer believe it was “haphazard” and would describe it instead as serendipitous. The practice has changed my life!

Life is challenging. That fact has not changed since I began the practice of meditating every day. What has changed is the way I receive the challenges that come to me. Rather than resist it or hold onto it, my practice carries over into the way I live. There is an inner pause during which I see the myriad of my knee-jerk reactions arising; that inner pause gives me the opportunity to let go or release a reaction without acting on it.

There were thoughts and possibilities my mind could not entertain before I began a meditation practice. That was usually because of fear of judgment, of rejection, of appearance, of “heresy,” etc. Now I can receive, ponder, accommodate or reject a thought or feeling with a greater sense of freedom. I release the fear; consequently, there is no need to repress or suppress that line of thought.

I no longer consider meditation practice optional for my life; it is the foundation for an open spaciousness in me. I am more present, less reactive; I listen more deeply rather than listening-to-respond. I trust my deepest Self. Meditation has changed the quality of my life experience and the experience of those around me, too. I bring a bit less dissonance into people’s lives; that makes it a win-win for my quality of life and for the quality of life of friends, family, acquaintances, and strangers.