With Hands In The Dirt

Finding a Regular Practice to Quiet the Critical Voice

Writer and personal friend Seja Brumley shares her experience with the critical voice and the regular centering practice she uses to quiet it. Seja writes:

I am in my garden preparing for the spring planting. The sun is shining, the ground still cold beneath my feet. All is well when a voice in my mind interrupts this peace and begs me to listen.

“All is not well," she says before listing off all that is wrong. “How could you forget?” She brings up my past, and times I thought I wasn’t a good mother or a good friend.

I breathe and tell her I am no longer there. It’s the past. I did my best.

She chimes in again with worries of the world, about the future. I put my hands in the dirt and tell her it is okay. Let us do what we feel called to do and let go of the rest.  I am in the garden and all is well.

On this day, I won the battle.

I have heard it said that our minds are wonderful servants and terrible masters. But in its attempt to keep us safe and convince us there is always a problem to be solved, the mind separates us from the truth of who we are - love incarnate.

Our minds convince us that the only way to return to wholeness is by curating the outer circumstances of our lives. Our minds say, “Change these people, change this situation, and all will be perfect and whole again.”

But this attained “perfection” is only brief. The voice of the mind eventually finds something new, something else it needs to acquire or rid itself of to achieve an equilibrium that will only exist for a moment and then is on to the next.

The good news, however, is our wholeness, our divinity has never left us. It has been here all along.

When we quiet the mind, even briefly,

through meditation

through getting back into our bodies through exercise

through nature

through closing our eyes and breathing

through prayer

through gratitude

we land at this moment and return to the essence of who we are.

I put my hands back in the dirt. I breathe. I tell my mind that it’s okay. The future will always be uncertain. But the best way to be present is to ground ourselves in this moment. And in this moment, I am free.

Question

1. What is a regular practice you can begin that grounds you, helps quiet the critical voice, and reconnects to your spirit?

Peace,

Seja

Seja Brumley is a mother, metalsmith, and writer.  She lives with her family on her farm in Bloomington, Indiana. Her writing can be found at sejabrumley.com.