Request for Service - East Coast Blizzards

Good time zone brothers and sisters. I come to you today humbly asking that you join our efforts in the Clergy to promote awareness to the impending storms that are set to hit the eastern coasts of the continental United States. As we move forward in the next couple of days (potentially weeks), let us be mindful of all the happenings around us and the actions we can do to reduce suffering. It has been brought to my attention that military service members and public servants doing their very best to help citizen's who are unfamiliar with these extreme conditions prepare for what may come including: potential power outages with sub-zero temperatures and traffic delays and accidents due to closed bridges and roads.

Only through our awareness may we understand the next actions to take. So I ask you today to join us in a "Whatever You Do" event. Let us come together as a Temple, like brothers and sisters in a family, and cultivate that awareness and compassion to the people who will facing the brunt of this storm. If you pray, please pray. If you meditate, cultivate that inner compassion and apply it towards their suffering through whatever means necessary. Positive thoughts, positive mind, positive actions! In whatever it is you do, please join us.

Steamboat28 will be offering a guiding meditation that will be available and attached here shortly after this is posted. I invite you, my fellow Jedi, to share your methods with others so that we may stand strong for this population in need.

Thank you for listening and May the Force continue to guide us all.

In times of trouble, safety is comfort and comfort is safety. This meditation will hopefully help you to center yourself with this calming energy, or to send that comforting energy to others.

Take up a position comfortable to you, whether sitting, standing, cross-legged, or lying down. Any position will work so long as its one you feel comfortable meditating in. Next, slip into your meditative routine. If you don’t have one, you can take this time to count your breaths, recite a mantra, or perform a repetitive task until you feel comfortable that your conscious “monkey mind” is sated. Allow any errant thought or external distractions that come up to simply exist—pass into your mind and back out of it—without ever taking up residence there.

Think of what safety means to you. Is it a place? A person? An activity? What makes you feel most secure? Meditate on this until you get a good picture of it. Let that mental feeling wash over you, completely wrapping you up in the sensation of the safety you enjoy. Focus on this until it feels real to you, or as real as it can. Add details if that would help. Immerse yourself in the comfort of safety, and center yourself there.

Once you’ve done so, in your preferred way, send that feeling of safety and comfort to others—the elderly, the sick, the young, emergency teams, construction crews, anyone who might need it. Send it to them in your own way, because they’ll receive and understand it in theirs. Send this feeling along whatever pathways you choose, or imagine laying it directly over an area, helping every person within it. Visualize this with the same strength that you visualized it helping you, and send that good energy wherever the Force wishes it to go.

When you’re finished, come back down from your meditative state by re-engaging your conscious mind, perhaps by reversing the process you used to slip into it. Come back out of your peaceful state, get out of your comfortable position, stretch if you need it, and add your actions to your thoughts. Do something that will help you, or the world, feel more secure through peace, love, and understanding.

This is something that has worked for me in times of anxiety and stress. You don't necessarily have to do yoga to do it, you don't even need a mat. You also don't even need to me laying down, it can be done while sitting as well. I highly recommend this to anyone who suffers from anxiety and panic attacks:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shavasana

As someone who lives in VA, I will be doing this a lot during the next few weeks!! Stay strong, East coasters!