In the midst of change or challenge, it can be easy to get stuck focusing on what we don’t know, or can’t control, and harder to generate productive focus and action. Often, it can be quite freeing to ask, “What do I know?” about this situation?

With this question answered, we can then ask, “What do I not know?” and often find access to some new perspectives.

Finding Peace While Moving through Change

Walking the Labyrinth

Walking a huge labyrinth on retreat in early February on the moist western slope of the Cascades, I found myself deeply at peace, even in the midst of a sea of change. 

A non-denominational practice, walking the labyrinth has been used as spiritual practice for thousands of years.  Laid out like in a great circular pattern, a labyrinth has one path, which steadily leads into the center, then back out.  While the pattern is intricate, this is not a maze, nor a puzzle to be solved. 

As I entered the labyrinth, jaw tight and butterflies in my stomach as I contemplated multi-front change in my life, I was surprised to find how quickly I was able to allow my breath to soften, my shoulders to relax, and my mind to calm.   My thoughts were these:

This is a path of trust.  I do not have to figure out the whole picture. Life is not a problem to be solved.  My work is to be fully present, to pay attention, and to give myself fully to each step on the path in front of me.   One step at a time.

I was amazed at the speed of the shift in my mind and body.  What was so different?  How did this simple act of walking the labyrinth bring peace?

Make a conscious choice to commit to a particular path.  I made walking the labyrinth a conscious choice.  Sometimes in life, we choose a new path; sometimes it may feel like a new path has chosen us.  Regardless of the impetus though, in this moment of choosing to commit to following the path laid out, there is less struggle.  More acceptance.  Peace.  Where there may have been struggle yesterday, last night, or even moments ago, peace becomes possible.   What we thought we needed may no longer be so vital.    

Allow your body to align with the path.    To prepare, start with your breath. A complete exhale allows a full inhale, and allows our attention to drop into our centers.    Fully center into your own sensations.  We think of our bodies as closed, set containers, but for even a moment, allow yourself to be more of an open channel, a conduit of sorts, rather like a fire hose, in which energy and sensation can run. Let yourself feel the life in that energy.    If this is a stretch for you, picture the delight of a young child in motion – in a field a flowers, a snowfield, or autumn leaves.   Those boundaries of ‘inner’ and ‘outer’ are a bit more blurred, yes?  We may be adults, yet this same ability to delight and ‘let in’ the wonder and energy of the world around is possible for us too… and may even be more important!

Allow your spirit to align with the path.  Feel all of the love and support that surrounds you, either through your faith, your connections with the natural world, or your relations with those dear to you in your life.  It is so easy to generate a story in which we feel alone on the path.  Yet, with the simple act of shifting attention to the arenas in life in which we do feel deep love and nurture, at any moment this sense of connectivity is available to us.  We can reconnect into this love at any moment, simply by shifting our inward attention.

Share your Freedom. When we find and nurture our own centers, it easier to live in harmony with those we care most about.   In generating this sense of freedom and connectedness in myself, this sense of a unified whole even in the face of change, I realized I could also share this with those around me.  To be more at peace in myself, I had less need to make requests that might conflict with the needs of others, and could support them in honoring their own courageous wisdom.

If you get a chance to walk a labyrinth, I’d encourage you to go for it.  See what you can generate!

What are the possibilities?

• The willingness to show up fully on the path before you,
• A centered inner peace and aliveness to carry you through,
• A deeply integrated sense of connection to what you care about…

the kind that requires just the softening

of an inward smile.