Devotional Discipline
I hate anything that binds. This thought arose last night as I kicked off my underwear at the end of the day. Just like that feeling that you can’t wait to take them off, the notion of discipline has felt just as binding and I couldn’t bear wearing it. I had this idea of discipline as a tight-in-the-jaw-push-through to get the ‘job’ done kind of discipline.
As a creative free spirit and a rebel the mere mention of discipline made me cringe until I heard about a different kind of discipline.
One that is about listening to the heart.
The discipline to walk away from the forcing, pushing that arises in you. And it does take discipline to do this. We are so used to pushing through as a learned way of doing things. The discipline requires the mindfulness to acknowledge that this pushing indicates you’ve moved upwards into your head.
THIS new definition of discipline meant P A U S I N G.
Pausing to return downwards back into the heart and out of the head’s mental formations and stories.
I like that.
The heart as the discipline. The pause as the discipline.
The heart is courageous and devoted to following love and joy as the pathway to guided actions.
There is no need to force actions.
It’s the path of FLOW
It doesn’t mean it’s always easy.
Sometimes the heart will prompt you to take actions that feel challenging, or huge. And you can do it when you keep moving downwards into the heart and out of the mental stories that tend constrict and bind, rather than expand into unknown possibilities.
This discipline to pause when you notice you are pushing, and then do what you need to do to return to your heart, let’s your creativity flow freely from that deeper, wilder place within you.
My personal discipline of pausing and listening to my heart looks like this at the moment:
- Yin Yoga & Heart Coherence meditation - the stillness and breathing brings me into the deeper pause.
- Solitude - without audio books, podcasts, etc. Alone with my own sensations, thoughts, feelings with witnessing aware-presence
- Nature bathing - being in amongst the forest, moon-bathing, grounding
- Warm baths or moving through ocean water
What helps you in your practice of devotional discipline to pause, notice and do what it takes to come back into your heart.
In 2021 I am opening a circle for spiritual creative womxn to explore this topic (and other ponderings) in an online membership LIVING IN F.L.O.W. - Free Liberated, Open, Wild.
More details HERE
