The Spiritual Practice of Freecell

If you've never played it, Freecell is a form of solitaire, except all the cards are spread out, face up, in vertical columns. You have four open "cells" at the top, which are used to shift cards around. The goal is the same as solitaire - untangle all 52 cards and pile them up by suit and number, in order.

It’s also a pretty powerful spiritual practice.      

Freecell is teaching me to work with what I have in front of me. The game has many moves, some of which seem like progress, and some that seem like backtracking. It’s not linear. I cannot simply do what I’d like to do. The card I want is buried beneath three cards for which I have no use. I have to deal with a chaotic and seemingly arbitrary jumble. Each tiny step leading me further along my circuitous route…just like life.

Just like real life, there are no jokers, no get out of jail free cards. There’s just raw material and a little bit of wiggle room. You have to shift it around until the chaos is transformed into order. If you fail? That’s it…or you can hit retry. That too, might be like real life, but none of us really know that answer. But back to Freecell.

The game has a certain flow, yet it’s also balanced by longer termed strategy than simply putting a card anywhere it can fit. Looking ahead a few moves, that’s the key. But then, one can easily overbalance in this direction and take on too much. Unbridled ambition doesn’t work in Freecell. It tends to just eat up your free cells and leave you a crucial onemove away from perfection.

It’s also showing me how it doesn’t matter if I can see where my step will land. The most unlikely moves can sometimes lead to the most brilliant streak of flowing, easy scores. It seems like such a bad idea, but I have to do something. So I take a chance…and then, eureka!

Freecell reveals my blind spots. I never knew it, but sometimes I am dyslexic with numbers or colors. I think I'm seeing clearly, but the reality is different. How like life, how like Yoga!

Sidebar: a Yoga teacher I studied with recently told me that asana (yoga poses) reveals imbalance and asana corrects imbalance.

Koans everywhere!
 

Anyhoo. I find that I make a lot of mistakes. I think I’m on a roll, maybe I’m just a wee bit too excited about that fact and BOOM! Saw the color wrong, went too fast or overlooked one crucial thing. At other times, frustration will lead me to act recklessly. 

I also find that I’m capable of some brilliant flow. I get into a fugue state and it becomes effortless. One move leads to the next in a harmonious rhythm. It feels the same as when I'm in an altered state creating artwork, when my martial arts mojo is strong or when I'm paddling well on a river. Flow is a whole other topic…I'll write more about that later.

To sum up, it's helping me:

• Use what I have.
• Take one step at a time.
• Look a few moves ahead.
• Balance effort and non-effort.
• Learn from blind spots.
• Flow.
• Trust.

Give it a try, and as always, tell me about your experience! Are there any mundane seeming things you use as a spiritual practice?

The Spiritual Practice of Saving Money

What’s holding you back from having the life you want? If you’re like most people, the answer is stress. But what is truly stressing you out? Is it your job, your spouse, your children…or is it money?

We can’t change the fact that life hands us constant challenges, nor should we. These are growth opportunities, whether positive or negative. The growth comes with how we choose to meet these challenges.

But what we can change are all the niggling things in the background. When you can’t sleep at night, what are you thinking about? Commonly, it’s the events of the day. But often enough, it’s that nagging worry about money.

Money. We all have issues with it, seemingly no matter how much or little we earn. But consider this: money is simply energy in material form. The energy of the work that you do is exchanged for the money that you earn.

Nothing more, nothing less.

But that also means that money, as a form of energy, is a part of our spiritual practice. I think followers of most spiritual traditions would agree that balancing all the aspects of our lives – physical-emotional-mental health, spiritual practice, relationships, a clean and pleasant home, career, and community is important.

I’m not sure that many people include finances on that list, but it absolutely should be. How can we have the resources, materially, emotionally and mentally, to live our lives in a healthy manner when our very survival is in question? Of course that sounds dramatic, but most of us don’t live in the woods. Money is essential.

So. Consider efforts toward putting your financial affairs in order as a part of your self-care routine, as a vital part of your spiritual journey to wellness.

Here’s a simple idea that most of us can afford: the 52 Week Money Challenge. This is an image that I came across here on the internet, and it made me realize something: saying that you’re going to save money isn’t nearly as effective as setting dates, amounts and dare I say it, some accountability.

Maybe you’re already a financially responsible citizen. If so, I salute you! Maybe you’re like me, a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants kind of person. That’s ok too. Either way, you can benefit from this challenge.

Is there a special project you’ve always wanted to work on? A trip that just won’t get out of your head? Perhaps an offering to your community, church or favorite charity that you’ve always wanted to make? Or would an extra cushion of savings help decrease your stress?

Here’s your chance. With each week that passes, you will be showing yourself that you are valuable. Your dreams matter. Your security is important. Join me – let’s do this thing!

Cleaning: Secret Spiritual Weapon

I’ve always had resistance to cleaning, for a variety of reasons. Traditional gender roles irk me, for one. Personal stuff, for another. Also, I like to begin projects, not clean up after them. I’m a creator, not a maintainer!

But lately, I have realized something. The Universe has been sending me messages in a variety of ways. A myriad of different contexts and situations have been presented to me, and with a tiny, unheard CLICK, it finally came into focus for me.

Cleaning is how you finish things, physically, emotionally and mentally. It’s the last step in the processing of an experience.

A clean and organized life sets the stage for happiness and peace.

From a warrior’s perspective, having your life in order means that you’re ready to die at any time.

Being ready to die doesn’t mean that you’re fatalistic. It means that you’re at peace with your past.  It means that you’re living in the present. It means that you’re fulfilling obligations and living your dreams. It means that you’ve lived every day to the best of your ability. Whether or not you are a physical warrior or a spiritual one, the same principles hold true.

And doesn’t that sound a lot like the goals of the Yogic path, or the Buddhist path, or any number of spiritual traditions?

But back to cleaning. I’m using the term ‘cleaning’ broadly: it’s not just sweeping, dusting and vacuuming your home. But also organizing. Decluttering. Dealing with emotional issues. Doing file maintenance on your computer. Getting tax or business records in order. Paring down your email inbox. Cleaning out voicemails. Doing estate planning. Spiffing up your vehicle. And once you’ve got it clean, why not make it beautiful?

All the extra energy that we expend when we can’t find something, don’t have the needed supplies or have to work around piles of junk…we now have available to me to move FORWARD. To meditate, to create, to dance, to worship, to explore, to…do everything you have been putting off because the miasma of things undone and things festering and things procrastinated about were keeping you paralyzed!

Perhaps even more important than that, getting your affairs in order is a profound act of self-love. Every time you file a record, fill a vase with flowers, or bring out the good tablecloth just because it makes you smile…you are showing yourself and the world that you are worthy. You deserve to be happy, peaceful and prosperous.

How did it take me so long to see this? Now I understand why my sensei was so meticulous. Why there were always a few extra touches at the dojang.

It could be that my sensei’s inner world was orderly, so his outer world reflected that. It could be that he knew that by keeping the outer world orderly, it gave him the space and support to deal with his inner world. Or maybe he knew that the seemingly prosaic act of cleaning is a highly spiritual one. Scratch that. Probably all of the above, knowing my sensei.

I have been cleaning, decluttering and organizing like mad for the last few weeks. Getting the energy flowing again. Throwing off the funk of winter. You know what? It feels AMAZING!