Picked up a random poetry book From the crowded shelf. Quick easy hour read: Delight and wonder. Then, Found…
12 Days of Mindful Living: Day 3 “Three French Hens”
Happy Day Three!
Yesterday, I asked you to create a three-column chart identifying your meet-able needs, goals, and unmeetable needs. Did you complete this? What response did you have? How are your unmeetable needs interfering with your goals? What is holding you back from living the life you want for yourself? Have you considered how easy it can be to let go of your negative needs?
Guilt, jealousy, fear, anger,… all of the basic human emotions that are healthy until they become our go-to responses for every difficult situation. Left unchecked, these can lead to addictive habits such as smoking, drinking, drugs… I know I have fallen prey to using alcohol to deal with stress and anxiety. I have learned that my soul is threatened every time I allow my negative reactions, or triggers to take the lead on my reactions to others and stressful situations.
Consider Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs:
We need each of the steps of the pyramid in order to be rooted and whole. What we are humans tend to do however, is let our ego interfere with negative reactions to situations. Our ego is what drives us, but can focus too much on trauma and forget our hope. We often blow things out of proportion to protect our egos without realizing we are poking holes in our steps of the pyramid.
My husband shared this picture with me today, and, coincidently, it fits perfectly in with our 12 day theme:
Success starts with hope (from day 1- what do you put your hope in to keep you rooted?) and is sprinkled by self-actualization or meeting the needs of your sovereign self to fully achieve your long term goals.
Now for Day 3, the “12 Days of Christmas” continues by saying, “On the third day of Christmas, / My true love gave to me three French hens…” (The 12 Days of Christmas lyrics © Walt Disney Music Company).
Historically, “The three French hens symbolize the three theological virtues of Faith, Hope, and Charity,” (Reyes), according to the Catholic Church at any rate. In my own Protestant beliefs, I see how the Catholics have identified the hens in this song to these tenets of Christ’s teachings. I picture the three hens in this aspect as the head and hands of Jesus on the cross, who sacrificed himself to save us all. “Faith, Hope, and Charity” then are the traits of ultimate sacrifice for us to live a meaningful life here on earth.
Let’s look at it another way though, as related to your sovereign self.
The three French Hens to me represent the heart, mind, and soul.
Your heart wants to be heard and loved. You need to take care of your physical and emotional levels of your heart. There are times you will feel fear, anger, grief, etc., but when you have too much of one emotion that leads to others, then you have muddied the waters of your heart. There is no balance to control your emotions.
Your mind uses linear order, language, and visual images to sort out your daily life. We use our reasoning mind to be productive at work or school, to communicate with others, and to meet our basic needs. When our ego takes over and displaces our ability to respond logically to some situations, then our minds become damaged like a little kid stomping on ants. When our mind is not functioning correctly, we can not function at our peak.
Your soul is the part of you most overlooked or misunderstood. It needs beauty, order, purpose, fruitfulness, and reverence. The soul is the part of you that yearns for something bigger than yourself; that is, your Hope from Day 1. Without something to put your hope in, your soul is left wandering in the forest of life with no purpose.
Today’s assignment:
I want you to spend three minutes of quiet, independent time reflecting, or meditating. Turn on some non-distracting music, or find a mediation video on YouTube. Spend these minutes trying to connect to your heart, mind, and soul. What are each of these special parts of you telling you? How can you respond to feed each one better? What promise can you give yourself as you enter a new year to better reach your heart, mind, and soul?
In your journal, underneath your chart from yesterday, write down or draw pictures of what you felt in your three minutes of mindful reflection/meditation. Keep these things in mind as we move forward to tomorrow with the Four Calling Birds.
References:
Reyes, Alicia. “On the First Day of Christmas.” 2002-2018. https://www.traditioninaction.org/religious/h003rp.ChristmasCarolAlexis.html.
White, Stephen A. Sovereign Virtue Aristotle on the Relation Between Happiness and Prosperity. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1992.