There is a lot of noise–external and internal. With so much noise, it’s hard to hear the whispers of the sacred or what is True. The sacred is subtle and drowned out by the static many of us carry about daily.
Next month, I head to Iona, Scotland, with my amazing co-leader Wendy and the beautiful group of folks that have said yes to this journey. This island has been a sacred place that people have pilgrimage to for thousands of years. Its mystery is held in the rock, shoreline, the surrounding ocean, and air.
Without doing the inner work beforehand, we would be visitors passing by rather than souls connecting with the divine embodied within the land, water, and air.
A pilgrimage beacons one to do the inner work that we might pass over in daily life to prepare for the journey ahead. But this work helps us show up fully to the richness of life wherever we are—the highs and lows, as the sacred is intertwined within it all.
Below is a message Wendy and I sent out this week in order to prepare our group for their journey next month. It is about clearing the static to make way for the sacred. Experiencing the sacred is the way of a pilgrimage, but it is also a way of life. We can do things in our daily life to make the way a little clearer—these simple steps create spaciousness and presence within us to experience the sacred in the everyday.
First, the language of the sacred is translated by the heart. So it’s the heart that you will practice listening to. If you practice well before your journey, listening will be with greater ease and more attuned to the sacred within and all around you. You cultivate the capacity to listen with the heart through stillness and being embodied.
What does embodied mean? It’s basically taking up your space within your sacred vessel – your body. It’s dropping in from the mind to the felt awareness of the body and the present moment. Many of the practices we will do together on this journey will support this way of being in and experiencing the world.
Being embodied is a practice. The society that we live in constantly invites us to do the opposite – through its multitude of distractions, which creates inner “static.” For the next month, we invite you to “clear the static” so you can experience the sacred more fully and intimately from the moment you arrive in Scotland.
Throughout our journey together, you will be invited to experience a practice called the Body Practice. It’s an invitation to stillness, presence, and embodiment. Starting now, we invite you to practice this once daily, as it will help prepare your body/mind/spirit for the journey. If you enjoy a different embodiment practice, there is no need to change your practice. The result is the same, fully inhabiting your body in the present moment. THE BODY PRACTICE.
What are other ways to “clear the inner static” over the next month?
- Minimizing sugar intake
- Decrease/eliminate alcohol consumption
- In what ways can you decrease your screen time? This can really help clear the static
- Take moments to pause outdoors throughout the day and notice your surroundings through all your senses.
Enjoy “clearing the static” over the next month so you can more fully experience the sacredness of this moment.
