Experienced mindfulness teacher Bridgette O’Neill reflects on how we can stay connected to our practice through difficult times – and what can help us return, again and again, to kindness and awareness.
Staying connected to my practice through ups and downs
How do I stay connected to my practice through difficult times, big and small?
I find myself asking this over and over: when I’ve reacted during a difficult conversation with a relative; when I feel overwhelmed and hopeless watching the news; or when, in the middle of a particularly time-pressured day, I realise I’ve lost touch with my body.
What’s the point of spending time in meditation practice?
On the surface, this question could lead me into doubt and further disconnection from myself. But it can also invite a tender curiosity: how might I reconnect, again and again, with my intentions in practising, with what’s important to me?
How might I meet myself and others with more kindness, moment by moment, remembering that we are a forgetful species?
How might I hold my heart open to the joys and sorrows of life with steadiness and understanding?
For me, this tender curiosity leads into more practice, not less. It invites different kinds of practice and different practical ways of organising my day. It reminds me that practice, in its broadest sense, is a way of being – a way of being in community and connection as well as in solitude.
When I find myself wishing things were different, what helps to resource me? Sometimes it may be the feel of my feet on the floor or my breath moving in my body; the feeling of holding my own hand; or a kind inner phrase such as ‘it’s OK’. At other times, deliberately remembering a quote may bring a little softening and space, such as Pema Chödrön’s encouragement to ‘start where you are’, or the words attributed to Oscar Wilde: ‘be yourself; everyone else is taken’.
I wonder what resources you? What helps you to remember and reconnect with kind awareness?
If you’re interested in exploring these questions, Ruth Sequeira and I would love to welcome you on a weekend retreat exploring the theme of resourcing ourselves in uncertain times. Together, we’ll have an opportunity to pause, reconnect and explore practices that can support us through both the ordinary difficulties of daily life and the wider uncertainties of our times.
Find out more about our retreat resourcing ourselves in uncertain times and all our other retreats here.