This year I am choosing to focus on only one practice: to really get to know that space in me after a stimulus and before a response. I want to discover what that place is like and what thoughts, feelings, and physical sensations visit there. I want to sit with these thoughts, feelings, and body sensations and get to know them in their own right. Once I sense that they have said all they have to say, I will thank them and continue to wait until a clearing comes. And then? And then, I’ll see.

Even as I write this, the thoughts come: “You can’t do this after every single stimulus.” “You’ll never get anything done.” “This is going to slow everything way down.”  The feelings are excitement edging toward anxiety. And the body sensations? My lower body is at rest, but I feel alot of agitation in the area of my heart and throat. I will sit with these and other visitors until a clearing comes or until I choose to say goodbye for a while with a promise to return if not to that particular stimulus to another one. My commitment is to the practice itself  not to an outcome.

This year I choose.