In our retreats and workshops on overcoming depression and burnout, we ask a central question: At this time in your life, what would bring you joy, peace, and a sense of being alive? Some choose silence. In their hectic pursuit of material results, they can never seem to make time for practices like meditation. They realize they have been like fish quivering and thrashing on the banks of the material world. How life-giving it feels to enter the waters of silence! Others want to move their bodies, do yoga, or go running. They realize the joy of nurturing their bodies, temple of their souls. A few want to listen to music or read poetry. They yearn for that connection with beauty that resonates inside. Some realign their life purpose. One retreat participant was forever changed by contemplating an insight from Rumi: "Give up this ten days of famousness and revolve with me around the Sun that never sets."
Walking This Practice into the World
Whatever makes you come alive, and feel joyous and authentic, make a commitment to incorporate that into your life. "I wish I could show you when you are lonely or in the darkness," exudes the fourteenth-century poet Hafiz, "the astonishing light of your being."
— Jamal Rahman in Finding Peace through Spiritual Practice by Don Mackenzie, Ted Falcon, Jamal Rahman