Digging Deep for the Gold
February 2024-
(Photo: The Little House at 400 Yakima St. for all things Mindfulness & Meditation, where the MBSR Course is held starting Feb 7th!)
I look out the window and I see February. I look inside my body-mind-heart and I see and feel February. This can be a hard month for us as individuals and collectively. In our region it is usually the final month of winter and often one of unrelenting cloud cover, drizzle and dreariness.
I feel it is best summed up by the movements of my cat family: nap, come to the door, stand in doorway, sniff, turn around and go back to napping. Frequent breaks in napping taken for feeding. Then back to napping. They look up at me often as if to ask, “when will outside be FUN again, when will the birds come back to the garden?”
So how do we meet this month, this experience, in the here and now? How do we meet/face/cope with/digest/survive these times when our exterior environment feels challenging. Personally, I find solace and inspiration in remembering this truth: basic goodness is within us. Tara Brach calls this, “trusting the Gold.”
When life feels hard, is hard, looks bleak, has no zing or pop, when you feel wrung out, uninspired, flat on your face, or hopeless— see if you can find a moment to PAUSE and turn towards this idea that goodness is inside you. At times we have to really dig to find it, be patient and persistent, while other times just the simple reminder allows our mind to go right to that light and feel it’s warmth, it’s joy and innate hope.
Turning towards our basic goodness can be a practice, so I invite you to try it, formally or informally and see what comes. Maybe it can be a balm in the low light of “the Februarys” or a practice you keep returning to the whole year. Let’s face it, we always need to be reminded that the good things and good feelings we habitually desire in life are possible when we trust the goodness is inside of us.
I know I needed it the most, 21 years ago, when I was first turning towards my depression and trying to find a new way to live. I didn’t have these words for my practice at the time, but it was the meditation itself that allowed me to find my gold, my innate goodness, one that was in hiding, waiting to be seen, felt and over time— trusted.
It’s hard to describe in words the process of finding one’s goodness and trusting it, but I can say with every inch of my being, it is a healing path, practice and experience. Check it out, let me know what you find. You’re worth it!
If you’d like to join us this quarter, searching for our inner gold, we will be accepting registration through tomorrow, Friday February 2nd, at 5pm for the internationally known and trusted, MBSR Program! Right here in your backyard…
Wednesday Evenings: Feb 7th- March 27th. Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) an 8-Week Mindfulness Course, Downtown Wenatchee. Hybrid Class—also available online!
Live Well & Be Well-
Kari