Finding Peace in Small Moments
How looking at the simplest things gave me peace.
A personal story about shifting focus from fear and stress to peace in tiny, everyday routines.
I live in peace. I learn to unlearn behaviours and live to appreciate each breath, the taste of nourishing food, the smells and sensations of nature, the sounds of my surroundings, the emotions that navigate through me, the thoughts that come and go, the light that arrives in my eyes.
I owe my present state of mindfulness and tools to live in peace to a wonderful human being, Dr. Jaak Reichmann of the Center for Inner Freedom (https://www.centerforinnerfreedom.com/). Dr. Reichmann has an aura of peace, of love for life and of intense compassion and care for his patients. I have been practicing with Dr. Reichmann since February of 2022. Dr. Reichmann changed my life. From panic, anxiety, and impending doom as a result of cancer and everything that the malady changed forever in my life, to living for my love of my boys, for the love of my community, for the love of nature, and for the small things around me. Dr. Reichmann introduced me to the work of Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn, known as the founder of mindfulness-based stress reduction. I read his book Full Catastrophe Living and other papers as invitation by Dr. Reichmann. I skipped chapter one of the book and went right into the techniques of mindfulness that I was already practicing and then skipped to later chapters about applications in situations. I read by the lake. At first, I read like a textbook with pen and paper, taking notes. Then, I read every word, phrase, sentence, slowly savouring the sensations and applying what I read. i also learned to pray in Aramaic with Dr. Reichmann's guidance in his Stillpoint Program, which is the highlight of my year since I first joined this program. I also learned tasteful poems that made me appreciate my life and the gift of the blessing of being here, right now.
I learned to give myself permission to rest and find comfort in the smallest moments of your day and accept the invitations around me, to breath, taste, smell, feel, hear, and love my boys, my community, nature and my blessings.
