Published December 15, 2001 in the North Island Weekender
Life moves forward and then life has to consolidate itself.
What this means is that we need to take rest periods between busy productive
times. Life ebbs and flows just like the tides. Here are some ideas on how to
jump off the rat race for an hour, a day or a weekend so that you can stand
back from your life to get a better look. When we are too close to life we
don’t see the whole picture and if we think we do it is blurred and we can’t
make sense of it. J.K. Rowling talks about the pensieve in The Goblet of
Fire. “One simply siphons the excess thoughts from one’s mind, pours them
into the basin, and examines them at one’s leisure. It becomes easier to spot
patterns and links you don’t understand when they are in this form.” This is an
excellent meditation technique for standing back to get a better look.
If you have the resources it is best to get out of your normal surroundings for
a retreat at least once per year. Pick a time of year where your schedule is
not so hectic and plan for a day or more.
An essential element for an effective retreat is no telephone,TV or newspapers.
The goal is to get in touch with your world, comprised of your dreams,
aspirations and goals and that have not been watered down by someone else’s
point of view.
What you must take with you are books such as The Sabbath where you
learn how to truly take one day off a week, Simple Abundance and The
Artist’s Way where you are given some clues on how to increase creativity
in your life, How to Master Change in Your Life to help you get to the
next phase of your life, Taming Your Gremlins if you want to tame your
inner critic and Medicine Card if you want to see how the animals in
your world are speaking to you.
A Woman’s Comfort Book will give you other ideas such as take along with
you your favorite blanket, music, candles, soaps and other things to make it a
spa experience. This can save you many hundreds of dollars if you learn to do
it on your own!
Here are a few exercises you can try while you are on retreat. The 15 times
exercise is a spiritual exercise where you write a spiritual goal of yours
fifteen times per day. A simple one is “I am healthy, happy, wise and free”. It
needs to be written in the present tense and kept within one line, as you will
be writing this fifteen times. Choose your words carefully because you will get
what you ask for! The idea is to scrawl, avoid punctuation, scribble and use
any old paper in order to have fun with it. After you have done this for thirty
days or more you will notice a transformation in your life. Be prepared for
change, as this exercise will certainly set it up.
The founder of McDonald’s Ray Kroc used an erasing technique to keep his stress
down so he could get to sleep at night. He would imagine a blackboard with an
eraser in his hand and whenever a thought about a worry or a concern of the day
would appear he would erase it until it was gone.
Another technique you can use while you are going to sleep is put a colored
crayon in your hand and draw the dream you want or draw a goal that you are
striving for in your life.
I received an email the other day with another great technique. If life happens
to deliver a situation to you that you cannot handle, do not attempt to resolve
it.
Kindly put it in the SFGTD (Something For God To Do) box. All situations will
be resolved, but in God’s time, not yours!
Good luck in clearing a space for yourself so that you can stand back for a
better look. It is a very important ingredient for optimal health.
Merry Christmas!
Dr. Pincott has been practicing naturopathic medicine since 1985 and is currently practicing in Campbell River. She can be reached at (250) 286-3655 or www.DrPincott.com