A whole year in beads

This morning I dropped my 365th bead into my blue bottle. Wow. Its been a year since we began this journey and it has impacted my life in more ways than I could ever imagine. What initially began as a sort of light reminder as to the value of each day has become a sort of climbing frame, a scaffolding of values on to which I hang my daily life. Bringing into action words which were pretty but sort of abstract to me has had a profound difference in how I think and live. Especially in the last few months, which have been extremely challenging, to have a word like grace on which to meditate when things have gotten tough has been a comfort and a leveling of anxiety.

Theres an amazing book called The 7 habits of Highly Successful People which talks about living life from a principled center rather than work, self, money etc and for me the bead movement has allowed me the space to do just that. Its concentrated down to the essence my values and principles and because i set an intention for the day and month, it draws me back to the center when I may stray. In yoga it amazes me how often a teacher has to say, lots of breath, or relax your face….simple things slip extremely fast when life gets going and the bead movement gently draws me back in, coaxing me back to my core beliefs, which I am extremely grateful for.

Even this morning a few minutes after dropping my bead, I was tested before I’d even had my coffee, by the internet going down. One thing that can push me from calm to maniac in under 30 seconds is having to call an internet or phone type company which propels you through a labyrinth of instructions with the possibility of losing it at every moment. I was enraged and exasperated and then laughed at myself as I saw the beads on my desk and thought again how quickly one can go from zen to meltdown over a minor problem. As I pulled the plug out of the socket to reset the router, I gazed up at the world map I have on the wall. I located Yemen as I was listening yesterday to the atrocities occuring there at the moment and thought how small my problems really are in the grand scheme of world events. Its shocking how quickly one can lose perspective and although I have not completely attained 100% zen yet I am a little further along than I was a year ago.

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Comments

  • Michele August 3, 2015 Reply

    Wonderful to have such a concrete reminder of what really matters. Well done to you both.

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