“For those of us with chronic conditions, changing our relationship with them is often the very best medicine. Being locked in a battle with your pain is exhausting, and it reinforces the sense that something is deeply wrong with your life. Letting go of resistance and learning to stay with what’s actually happening can be a homecoming for the heart.”
—Vidyamala Burch
May 2012
1 post
April 2012
26 posts
Calm.com →
calm.com
The people who made Do Nothing for 2 Minutes have just launched a new site. Calm is a simple little site where you can do a 2-minute guided relaxation. Or you can just stare at their peaceful pictures in silence for 2 minutes. Quite a lovely idea!
“Recovery does not mean cure. Rather recovery is an attitude, a stance, and a way of approaching the day’s challenges. It is not a perfectly linear journey. There are times of rapid gains and disappointing relapses. There are times of just living, just staying quiet, resting and regrouping. Each person’s journey of recovery is unique. Each person must find what works for them. This means that we must have the opportunity to try and to fail and to try again.”
—Project Heal (via meant-to-live-free)
“Whatever your difficulties—a devastated heart, financial loss, feeling assaulted by the conflicts around you, or a seemingly hopeless illness—you can always remember that you are free in every moment to set the compass of your heart to your highest intentions. In fact, the two things that you are always free to do—despite your circumstances—are to be present and to be willing to love.”
—Jack Kornfield (via lazyyogi)
“
We are all going to die. our health habits do make a difference but do not change the eventual outcome.
Illness is not a punishment and healing is not a reflection of goodness. The state of our bodies does not reflect our “worthiness”.
We are healed when we grow from our experience of suffering, when we can reframe it as an act of grace that leads us back to who we truly are.
” —Jane Borysenko (via markruge)
On spending the whole day in your pyjamas →
wonkypillow.tumblr.com
Pajamas are the best piece of clothing ever. That and slippers. I’m lucky enough that for 1/2 of the school year I can now wear pajama pants underneath my skirt because of how long it is :> Does this count to wearing pjs in public?
Sure it does. That’s some awesome guerilla-style secret spy pyjama-wearing right there.
61. Spend the whole day in your pyjamas.
Got this great response to our last fun thing to do in bed—
All the time, i dont even know why we ever invented real clothes.
My uncle was making fun of me for wearing my pyjama bottoms to my grandparents for Easter dinner, and I was like fine, judge me for wearing my pjs, but I bet i’m a lot more comfortable than you are.
You know what? I think we should start A PYJAMA REVOLUTION. Let’s wear our pyjamas everywhere, all the time, until society accepts that wearing pyjamas is friggin’ awesome.
61. Spend the whole day in your pyjamas.
“
“Even a soul submerged in sleep
is hard at work and helps
make something of the world.”
” —Heraclitus, Fragments.March 2012
28 posts
The Land of Counterpane
When I was sick and lay a-bed,
I had two pillows at my head,
And all my toys beside me lay,
To keep me happy all the day.
And sometimes for an hour or so
I watched my leaden soldiers go,
With different uniforms and drills,
Among the bed-clothes, through the hills;
And sometimes sent my ships in fleets
All up and down among the sheets;
Or brought my trees and houses out,
And planted cities all about.
I was the giant great and still
That sits upon the pillow-hill,
And sees before him, dale and plain,
The pleasant land of counterpane.
- Robert Louis Stevenson
“Go back and take care of yourself. Your body needs you, your feelings need you, your perceptions need you. Your suffering needs you to acknowledge it. Go home and be there for all these things…”
— Thich Nhat Hanh
“The days grow and the stars cross over
And my wild bed turns slowly among the stars.” —Muriel Rukeyser, “Darkness Music” (via awritersruminations)
And my wild bed turns slowly among the stars.” —Muriel Rukeyser, “Darkness Music” (via awritersruminations)
60. See how comfortable you can get.
This is a game I like to play when I’m in a lot of pain or having trouble sleeping. How comfortable is it possible for me to get? The aim of the game is to pay attention to areas of the body that are comfortable, and those that aren’t, and by the tiniest possible changes, to make myself as comfortable as I can. Does shifting my arm a little or relaxing my leg improve things? Which is the nicest part of my pillow? Does breathing deeply increase my comfort? Where in my body am I feeling warm, and where am I feeling cool?
This is a wonderful game because it returns focus to the body in an open, inquiring way. Instead of focusing on the pain, I can focus on all the good sensations in my body and the feeling of comfort I can get from my bed and pillow. It’s a sneaky, fun way to practice some mindful awareness and to re-engage with a body that might otherwise be too uncomfortable to pay attention to.
“Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them; that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.”
—Lao Tzu
Play
