Calming My Inner Squirrel
Yoga and meditation have been a bit of a challenge lately. My ability to focus and be mindful in my practice is being tested. I'm constantly battling random thoughts that just keep popping in and taking me away from the moment. Ugh, my inner squirrel is more active than usual!
I know these distractions can be viewed as a helpful tool to developing awareness and mindfulness. The theory is the more I practice the more improvement I will experience. I know this to be true, but am finding the squirrel running around in my brain very annoying right now. What makes it even more annoying is my ability to stay focused and mindful had been improving.
After diving a bit deeper into my overly active inner squirrel, I found some obvious and not so obvious reasons for the increased squirrel activity and some answers to understanding and calming it down.
I believe my over active squirrel is an indication I haven't been spending enough quiet time with myself.
The clutter and mess in my office at home is creating clutter in my brain. It's not a surprise I have a squirrel running around in my head looking for direction.
As the year comes to an end I want to believe I am going to be prepared but still feeling there is so much more to do.
The squirrel needs to be calmed and reassured that everything will fall into place. To do this I need to take care of some foundational components of my life. Cleaning and organizing my office space will free up internal clutter and create more space to focus and prioritize stuff that really matters. That was my Sunday focus this morning and I managed to get quite a bit cleaned up. It is amazing how much better I feel when I purge, organize and clean.
Kung fu training isn't always the obvious kicking and punching, etc. It can be the less obvious things like decluttering a space in your home or healthy, mindful eating, or quality time with family and friends for example. These all have potential to feed the soul, the mind, the body and spirit and are aspects of Kung Fu and help me with my Kung Fu training.
Michele Ward
