A Gesture of Acceptance (Day 87)

Our reactive habits have been running and building-up for our whole lives. We live with onion-like layers of reactivity. This means that, at first, we will be unaware of our deeper patterns. It won't even feel like we're reacting on those levels...it's just the way things are.

This leads to a common situation where you're telling yourself a story about how you've accepted some situation, and you're not reacting anymore...but if you check out what's happening in your body and deeper emotions, you totally still are!

You can't change what you're not aware of, and it will take some time to build awareness and excavate down to these layers. In the meantime, we're going to express a physical and tangible gesture of acceptance in the form of a deliberate breath. This practice will loosen-up the soil where your deepest reactions are buried and hidden.

PRACTICE

Assume that you are reacting in every moment that you are not actively and bodily accepting. Take a deliberate 4-part breath as a gesture of acceptance. Stretch the top hold (it'll feel a bit like the very top/pause of the best giant stretch-yawns, like where you almost get a bit stuck/lost in time).