Sit Down & Shut Up

Don’t worry, I promise it’s for your good. 

At the risk of offending you with the bold offer to “sit down and shut up”, I am taking this opportunity to pass along the idea that doing this one thing daily will change your life.  Yes! Doing this is that important to your health and wellbeing!

If I was being gentle with the request, you might not hear me loud and clear. And I want you to hear this. I could rephrase and say “find a few minutes, sit, meditate, go within”. And you might respond with a ” Yeah but….. don’t have time, too busy, can’t do it, too hard.

What if you tried it?

Sat down. Shut up. Every day for at least for 5 minutes. 

You get that. It’s easy. Right?

This simple act is a actually a meditation practice.

What’s cool about sitting down and shutting up, is that you can’t do it wrong, you can’t mess up. Because there is no right or wrong way to do it, you can drop the excuse that you suck at it. You can drop the excuse that you don’t know how to how to do it.

Sit down in stillness, “be quiet” and allow it to grow, expand and develop into “whatever it will” without judging.

What’s so good about meditation?

Meditation has been proven to reduce stress, relieve anxiety, calm you down, center you in.  It enhances your creativity and your intuition. It hands you answers.   Yup. I said that.  You will get answers when you are still.  In our daily rushing around, we can’t hear anything but those chaotic voices in our heads.  Sitting down in silence gives you the space to hear your Divine inner guidance talking to you. It’s really quite amazing.

I took a meditation certification.

I learned that there’s no right way. There are many ways. And the best way is going to be the one you actually do.

Finding your flavor of mediation is all it takes.  Now there are going to many out there that say you should do it their way, but no. I say do it your way as long as you do it.

You can sit on the floor, sit on a chair, lay down on the floor or on the bed.  You can be silent, or listen to music or a soft voice guided meditation.

I hear you. I really do. Even though I took the course, and I know the benefits because I’ve experienced them, I sometimes find resistance to it, saying those exact same things you’re thinking, I don’t have the time and yada, yada.

We’re so weird! 

I mean really ! Why the heck would we resist something that would make us feel better all around?  It is uncomfortable to sit still while we know that as we’re trying to sit still, our minds are not sitting still.  Our mind continues to go a million miles a minute.

Then we get stressed from trying so hard and we think we’re doing it wrong.  Frustration ensues. The way around the drama, is to take it slow –  and not worry about what happens. Focus on your breath or an object in front of you, or a mantra.

Oh and trust me, your mind is still gonna try to pull away from that, but keep gently pulling back to your breath, object or mantra.  That’s why sitting down and shutting up are an art and a beautiful practice.  You will get better every day and every day you’ll be creating something new and different. 

Drink your way into it

Tea is a beautiful place to start drinking your way into it.  Mindfully sipping a warm drink is a huge dose of self love. And yes, it counts towards your meditation practice because if it’s good enough for the Monks, it’s good enough for us (*wink *wink).  Sipping tea became common place for Buddhist Monks – they wash their face, their hands and drink tea. They use tea as a means to cultivate mind and body.  We can do that too – 

in a beautiful sacred space,

in your favorite china cup,

with you and the Divine,

creating a quiet time for peace, pleasure and joy to fill your heart and soul.|

I love these 4 recipes for warm yummy drinks – and of course you can always use your favorite go to tea.  And there you have it – the space and place to slow down, shut up, sip, savor and surrender.

Peppermint Hot Chocolate

This yummy drink is make with:

• 1 cup almond milk
• 1 date
• 1 peppermint tea bag
• 1 tbsp raw cacao

Warm the almond milk, date and raw cacao to a soft rolling boil.  Remove from heat and add tea bag. Let it steep for 5 minutes and serve.

Pumpkin Hot Chocolate 

If you are desiring smooth, creamy and warm, this is the one!

This yummy drink is made by mixing and warming these few naked ingredients:

• 1 cup almond milk
• 1/4 cup pumpkin
• 1 tbsp raw cacao
• cinnamon

(sweeten with stevia or you can add on date while heating this on the stove. And then you can eat the soft gooey date, right before pouring your drink into your favorite china cup)

Warm Pumpkin Cream

• 1/4 cup pumpkin puree
• 1 cup almond milk  (hemp, rice, cashew or any nut based milk will work perfectly) 
• Optional sweeteners (stevia, raw honey or a mejool date soaked while boiling as in the above Hot Pumpkin Chocolate) 
• cinnamon  (sprinkled on top as desired and stirred with a cinnamon stick) 

Tumeric Latte (aka Golden Milk)

And this one is one of my absolute favorites. As you sip your Golden Tumeric Latte, remember the golden opportunity that going within offers you. You’ll feel the health benefits as you sit this one. It’s anti-inflamatory, improves memory and brain function, anti bacterial, anti viral and lowers blood sugar. So there you have it. You’d actually be multitasking (in a good way) while sipping on this in a meditative state. 

Feel free to share this graphic.  I’ve got to say, from my personal experience, allowing a time for “slowing down, going inside, and checking in, has been a life changer – changing my relationship to myself and my relationship to the world.   

(Pick up your free gift – Self Love Guided Meditation here)

Give it a try, experience these ideas for your self,  and please share what changes come up for you in the quiet corners of your mind,

Hugs,