{"id":5907,"date":"2013-05-15T11:08:52","date_gmt":"2013-05-15T15:08:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beginnersheart\/?p=5907"},"modified":"2013-05-15T11:08:52","modified_gmt":"2013-05-15T15:08:52","slug":"three-step-practice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/2013\/05\/three-step-practice.html","title":{"rendered":"three-step practice ~"},"content":{"rendered":"

First, come into the present. Flash on what\u2019s happening with you right now. Be fully aware of your body, its energetic quality. Be aware of your thoughts and emotions. <\/em><\/p>\n

Next, feel your heart, literally placing your hand on your chest if you find that helpful. This is a way of accepting yourself just as you are in that moment, a way of saying, \u201cThis is my experience right now, and it\u2019s okay.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n

Then go into the next moment without any agenda.<\/em><\/p>\n

~ Pema Chodron<\/p>\n

When I stop & think about it, I spend a lot of time in two places… Body here, in the now, and mind almost anywhere else. In the past (thinking about childhood), in a book’s alternate universe, in worry about the future… Not here now, for sure.\"alternate<\/a><\/p>\n

So today I’m trying this 3-step practice by the inimitable Pema Chodron<\/a>. Right now, I am sitting at my desk, listening to my two dogs howl as they invite me to share my breakfast with them. I’m listening, too, to the clatter of a keyboard — a sound so familiar I could conjure it like magic. I’m trying to sit tall in my desk chair. And just paying attention. It’s hard<\/em>.<\/p>\n

My grandmother used to share that familiar grandmother advice: Anything worth doing is worth doing well.<\/em> And its corollary:\u00a0If it was easy, everyone would do it.<\/em> Yeah, yeah, Grandmother. \ud83d\ude42 But of course she was right. Things that are worthwhile are seldom easy at first. And couple that w\/ my ADD (diagnosed only in adulthood, by process of elimination!)? I’m the world’s worst blue fish.<\/p>\n

\"blue-fish\"<\/a>Note<\/em>: if friends, family, AND colleagues all have titles for your … ‘non-linear’ way of doing business? It’s a clue: you distract. EASILY. Which make it hard to practice, quite often. At least traditional forms of practice, like sitting still… \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

Perhaps that’s why poetry, and walking meditation, and drawing birds work for me. I’m able to put myself into the action, expanding into what Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi<\/a> calls ‘flow.’ That state of being fully immersed in the moment. The now of doing…<\/p>\n

So try what Pema Chodron offers us today. Three fairly simple steps. And notice that I said ‘simple.’ I never told you it would be easy…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

First, come into the present. Flash on what\u2019s happening with you right now. Be fully aware of your body, its energetic quality. Be aware of your thoughts and emotions. Next, feel your heart, literally placing your hand on your chest if you find that helpful. This is a way of accepting yourself just as you…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":398,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[310],"tags":[11,1181,1187,262,1248,1198,1259],"class_list":["post-5907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-being-here-now","tag-beginners-heart","tag-britton-gildersleeve","tag-buddhism","tag-buddhist-blogs","tag-living-in-the-moment","tag-mindfulness","tag-pema-chodron"],"yoast_head":"\nthree-step practice ~ - Beginner's Heart<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"First, come into the present. 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Years spent living on the margins - in places with exotic names and food shortages - have left her with a visceral response to folks \u2018without,\u2019 as well as a desire to live her Buddhism in an engaged fashion. She\u2019s a writer and a teacher, the former director of a federal non-profit for teachers who write. She believes that if we talk to each other, we can learn to love each other (but she's still learning how). And she believes in tea. 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