Tumbleweed has blown across this blog for the past couple of days as I just haven’t been able to think of anything to write. Nothing spiritual has happened. Meditation every day is the new normal as is the occasional luminous glimmer of present moment awareness. I’m neither sad nor happy. Just muddling along as per.

Apart from visits to my Dad and a couple of networking meetings, I haven’t been anywhere or seen anyone and my main occupation has been clearing up after the teenagers. Wotsits smashed into the sheets, discarded underwear that I won’t touch without donning rubber gloves and not a flushed toilet in sight.

My spiritual mentor Marion has urged me to see the spiritual in every day life, but sometimes this escapes me. Let me tell you, there is nothing spiritual about the size of my washing mountain or the carrots that have turned to slime at the bottom of the fridge.

Apparently mundane activities are often the most effective doorway to present moment awareness. The idea is to pay absolute attention to every single thing you do, no matter now dreary. I’ve tried to do this a couple of times, but somebody usually appears and barks questions at me.

I have a call with Marion and two of the women on my mentoring group this evening. I wonder how they’re getting on? We’ve had a month off from the usual spiritual work. It is supposed to be for rest and integration and perhaps I’ve been quietly processing all the stuff I’ve figured out in the past four months.

Marion asked me to fill in a review form last Friday and in it, I said I felt a if I was getting nowhere, but when I look back, I see that I have come a long way. Here are the things I have learned so far –

• The best ideas pop into my mind during still and quiet times. Racing around in a panic is not conducive to creative thought. When I have a problem to solve, the best thing to do is slow down and be as close to trees as possible.
• Meditation is a must. I don’t manage to quieten my mind every time, but just taking 20 minutes out to sit in silence each day, is incredibly calming.
• The more I meditate, slow down and get close to nature, the more in touch I feel with my gut instincts/higher self/cosmic energy.
• I create my own reality and negative self-talk has got to go.
• Being kind to people is the best natural high on earth.
• Silence really is golden. I aim to get as much as I can.
• When you read a lot of spiritual literature, whether it is 2000 years old as in the  bible, or a book that’s just been released, you notice that everyone says more or less the same thing.
• I am not my feelings.
• Fear will not kill me.
• Everyone and everything is connected.
• Death is nothing to be afraid of.

So yes, four months in, I do feel different. I’ve slowed down a lot. I haven’t cracked the work/life/money balance, but that will come. Marion splits the year-long course into triads. I can’t remember what is supposed to happen in this second one. She’s sent me some exercises to do with money and a sheet about The Seven Day Mental Diet. This is supposed to change your life in a week. You have to be in high spirits for 7 whole days and in that time, you must only entertain happy/positive thoughts. ‘Mere physical fasting would be child’s play in comparison,’ writes the author Emmet Fox. Bring it on!