In the past I would always end up feeling very frustrated whenever I was doing the ironing because I never achieved a ‘perfect’ result. Somehow I could never get all the creases out or fold sheets up neatly in rectangles. I often began with a meditative feeling while ironing, but inevitably the frustration with my own skills used to creep in.
Therein lies a very important point when I say meditatively: I now realise I was choosing a state of unconscious checking-out from the actual task, so not really paying attention to what I was doing or how I was doing it. No wonder I became frustrated!
Recently I was ironing a pillow case and noticed that the way I was ironing had changed. No longer was I subsiding into a semi-conscious state and dawdling, nor was I rushing and driven to ‘get it done’.
Instead I laid the pillow case gently on the ironing board, smoothed it out, and aligned its corners. As I lifted the iron I was very aware that someone, myself or my partner or a friend, would soon be laying their head on it at night.
I felt, as I started to gently lay the iron on the material, how my gentleness and tenderness was a respectful and loving way to prepare for the laying down of those heads for a reposeful night’s sleep. And so I began to iron the pillowcase with true care and a focused attention.
I started to feel how loving this was for myself, to treat myself tenderly as I ironed and prepared the recipient for a beautiful night’s sleep. Something within me had brought about the change and was enabling me to move gently and flowingly. I felt a deep love for myself I had never felt before. In that moment time did not matter… in fact, it took no longer than before, maybe even less. I enjoyed the doing of it because I was in the how of the doing of it. The how was the gentle quality of energy that came before I even knew I was going to iron.
That morning, and many mornings and evenings for the previous few days, I had been listening to Serge Benhayon’s Gentle Breath Meditations on the Unimed Living website. The consistency of practising my gentle breath along with these audios has had a direct effect on the quality of my life, the way I move, and the way I express.
It allowed me to choose to be consciously present when I was ironing, without effort; and when I ironed the second pillowcase I found that I was even gentler and went back and re-ironed the first one. This is infinitely more rewarding than the old feeling of ‘getting it all done.’
This beautiful lesson applies to everything I do, and as I begin to experience moving in a new way I can feel how the quality of my whole life can change, as one task is not separate from another but one continual flow.
This is written with deep gratitude to Serge Benhayon who showed me, through the Gentle Breath Meditation, the way to re-connect with my inner-heart – and from which I can choose to live my life consciously and reverently.
And for the simplicity of a pillowcase!
By Joan Calder, Frome, Somerset
Further Reading:
Checking out – are we sowing the seeds of our own dementia?
Driving With Presence
The Truth about Serge Benhayon 
Joan I love the simplicity of this blog and yet it is so profound. It is in that quality we bring it to everything. The integrity in just simply ironing a pillow case matters, in that someone’s head is going to be laying on it, it is so loving. And that just goes to show, that integrity is in everything we do or be, not just for ourselves but others around us.
Joan, thank you for talking about the ‘meditative quality’ and how this was really a check out and not really a true loving quality to be in. I can relate to this too where I have allowed myself to be in a state of ‘meditation’ but one that does not allow true presence and body awareness with the task at hand. And this is really a state of escape rather than one of embracing life and all it brings. This is something I am thankful now of being aware of – it is after all an opportunity to let such ways of being go and instead live life with feet and all in it!
This ‘meditative quality’ can occur at the snap of a finger, because we have allowed thoughts to consume us that tells us this. We can also change this by choosing differently too. Then there is no meditative anything…
I am very familiar with the ticking the box approach of getting things done and still fall into this. To clarify, there is nothing wring with completing checklists or getting jobs that need to get done, done. But what Joan is presenting here is to feel the quality of how we have completed something, and though I am aware of this and love the quality aspect, I still can find myself slipping into old patterns and hardening up my body to get a job done, rather than feeling the quality of something and choosing quality to complete the quantity.
A gorgeous sharing Joan, and one that does so gently remind me too of how important the quality is that we do things in and with.
How we do anything in life is everything … how we are with ourselves, with a partner, a friend, a colleague, how we walk, how we clean, how we write assignments. And from experience the more I surrender to the love within and am present in and with my body then everything else just flows .. there is no trying. It’s really beautifull and I know that this is just the beginning there is so much more to unfold.
The gentle breath meditation is a wonderful resource, ‘ The consistency of practising my gentle breath along with these audios has had a direct effect on the quality of my life, the way I move, and the way I express.’
Great appreciation of ironing a pillow case and smoothing out the creases in life in how we are with ourselves.
I know I would rather sleep on a pillow that had been ironed with the care and tenderness that you are describing here Joan, then a perfectly ironed pillow that may be creaseless but may also be loveless!
Being present with ourselves -the greatest present we could give anyone this Christmas.
To live in the quality described here is to to live in the flow and harmony of the Universe.
It is not what you do but the quality in which you do something that is important.
Yes I agree Jstewart51, it is very important but so much of what we do often lack the quality of love because we tend to settle for what is pleasing to our eyes and leave quality out of the equation.
Yes, and for me where I can drop the quality is out of the drive to achieve the desired outcome and then the love is not there either.
We can get so caught up in what we are doing and how much we have to do that we don’t even see that no matter what we are doing there can be joy in every moment when we become more aware of how we are in all we do. Every detail matters.
True, staying aware of how we are with all we do is important, ‘This beautiful lesson applies to everything I do, and as I begin to experience moving in a new way I can feel how the quality of my whole life can change.’
I love that tasks etc. are done without any effort when we feel the purpose and the bigger picture of it all.
I know what you mean Annelies, when we do anything with love, it becomes easy, the flow and spaciousness in there and the most mundane task can feel magical.
I love this blog Joan, recently I experimented with ironing my bed sheets, it was amazing to feel how differently I got into bed with more presence and care with my movements. To bring this level of care and quality into everything we do in life we certainly feel the flow on effect of this.
This shows me/us how much there is to learn about life and ourselves when we open our eyes, hearts and minds to the possibility that we can learn so much for anyone, anything and at anytime – even ironing a pillow case.
The eternal student – a humbling experience and yet deeply enriching.
The quality that we move in can be deeply nourishing and harmonious or leave us full of crinkles and hard edges that need ironing out.
Our quality is always super important, the quality in which we do things throughout the day.
I have always found ironing to be far too much hard work, so much so I make sure all my clothes are iron free. Your blog Joan has inspired me to revisit the ironing board and approach it in another way.
ha ha same here – I have not ironed anything for many years and this does not inspire me to start ironing as the quality Joan speaks of can be applied any and everywhere!
It is interesting to read how, what perhaps many would consider a ‘good’ thing – that is, to be in a meditative state – has actually created in your body a state of unease… but what’s more fantastic, is how you were able to recognised this – showing your great education and lessons in awareness that you have received form Serge Benhayon.
Well said Shami – meditation if used as a check out and a way to escape life, does not support us to embrace and live life in full, and this I now know too. But in the past with my understanding of it, I too though that that was a great thing to check out and escape from what I was having to live. I deeply appreciate having come to this understanding as it has supported me in so many ways to embrace life but also at the same time learn to live with gentleness and tenderness and so many more qualities that come from the essence of who we are (which goes deeper within than physicality).
Love is a feedback mechanism.
No task is too small or mundane when we do it with true care and presence, and the ripples are felt far and wide.
When we bring ourselves fully to each activity, nothing seems like a chore.
Hello Joan, I haven’t read your blog in sometime but the joy of expressing your love as a quality in your ironing is palpable. It’s given me pause to stop and appreciate the many ways I now express a loving quality in what I do. One of my ways is every morning when I hang the towels back after bathing, I do so with love and tenderness. I chose that one activity as part of building a consistency of quality as it’s something I always remember to do. It’s been a great starting point which has now moved into other areas of my day. The loving quality we express is so beneficial for our own body and being, for those around us, and also for the entire ocean of energy we live in.
I love how the deeper the love for yourself, the more that love ripples out to others naturally, without effort as it is flowing through our veins.
Whenever I checkout things go haywire and I end up doing things in a way that I do not like. Like burning the nuts in the oven this morning. It’s important to not personalise these experiences and see it for what it is, an energy that is not who we are that we have let in.
Love is a verb that conjugates in the present tense.
Wow, what a beautiful example Joan. I often go into a drive to get things done and then I find myself feeling frustrated. But when I choose to connect to the quality of how I do things instead of aiming for a result, this changes everything. By bringing more love and gentleness to what I do, I feel great and I enjoy what I do and also, I tend to get more done.
This has just reminded me how I have been carried away by the doings of the day, taking the how for granted, and how enriching it is to be in connection and appreciate and confirm that connection as we move through our doings. Thank you, Joan.
Yes, and as we deepen we can feel quite moved by how we are moved and which energy is moving us!
I absolutely love ironing. And I love how the quality and care of ironing is then felt when you put on the freshly ironed shirt the next morning 🙂
“No longer was I subsiding into a semi-conscious state and dawdling, nor was I rushing and driven to ‘get it done’.”
You have hit the nail on the head with these two states – so many of us go into these two when we are cleaning or doing what we consider a menial task (or possibly a bigger task as well!). Your blog is a great real life example of how it can be another way – one with full conscious presence and a deep love for yourself and for humanity.
I never iron my pillowcases but Joan your blog is so gorgeous I am feeling inspired to iron with love and presence and feel the difference this quality brings to my sleep.
I’ve tried to iron out every crease but it never works, I’ve tried not ironing it but then it feels uncared for. All this trying to be satisfied with an end result I completely ignore how I feel while ironing or not ironing. When I focus on that then it doesn’t matter what I do with the sheets because how they feel when I come back to them is less disturbing.
That’s a great point Leigh. We know we can never do everything perfectly if we have an image of how it should be when it is finished. It is the quality and presence we do it in that can be perfect.
Love had no creases 🙂
Joan this is a great blog illustrating the simple fact that whenever we rush to get things done to tick that proverbial box off it will always be at the expense of quality.
I’m not much of an ironer. In fact when my new housemate moved in he was astonished at my ironing board and iron and how ineffective they are. For months the tops of my bed sheets have not been flat and straight and one day I got out the iron and ironed them. Oh the joy of making my bed and seeing my sheets so beautifully flat. Not only did I love the process of ironing I love that lasting effect.
It’s loving to make sure we have the correct equipment to support daily activities. I recently invested in a new iron and now quietly enjoy ironing items that need it and the quality we put in, feeds us back.
Thank you Joan for a reminder to bring tenderness and loving care into all that we do, and as we do it one thing then naturally flows onto the next – the powerful effects of doing the Gentle Breath Meditation.
The care and tenderness that you ironed that pillow case with Joan is palpable. I could sense the love that I would feel if I placed my head on it and it felt delicious. I’m booking in a night at your place if I’m ever in your part of the world!
Ironing bed linen always used to be a chore that I delayed thus ensuring the wrinkles became harder to remove. When I now iron honouring those who will sleep with the energy I have prepared myself with the ironing I am aware of my responsibility and purpose in every move. Ironing bed linen is no longer a chore.
Whenever we bring focus, attention to detail, and love, to anything, there is the opportunity of a new foundation.
This makes me want to iron 🙂
It’s rare that anyone irons a pillowcase at all these days – the pace of my life is such that a job like this usually wouldn’t even occur to me. Recently I decided to iron a pillowcase inspired by this blog and it felt beautiful to appreciate myself and my movements while I paid attention to the task at hand. I can see that moments like these can be far from mundane if we bring all of us to them.
Thank you Joan, it’s these little moments, seemingly mundane, that can become exquisite expressions from the love of our soul that enrich not only our own lives but the lives of those around us.
When we are able to start relating activities with purpose and purpose with people we are on our way.
Moving in a way that allow our soul to be with us makes everything delicious.
Yes ironing can be such a satisfying thing to do… Talk about leaving an imprint 🙂
The moment we can connect to the greater purpose of our doing we enter a space that is void of any personalised issue but instead fills with the love that we are and magnify by our movements.
Every task we do in our day no matter how small takes on a whole different meaning when we undertand how the quality we do everything in effects everything around us.
Who would have thought that we can experience such joy from ironing or in fact, any household chore? I for one would have poo-pooed it and always felt hard done by for having to do all the household duties, but now I know that as you have stated Joan, even ironing can bring such joy to the body and depending on the energy we do our cleaning in, everything can bring a deep sense of satisfaction to the body.
I love the moments hanging out the washing with the early morning sun and the birds and stillness of the day – it’s a beautiful moment to stop and connect and be with me. Plus I have fun in how I hang the washing out and playing with colours, pegs and order.
I love the smell of ironing..the satisfaction of seeing the wrinkles smoothed out … simple , but true ..:-)
When we do things in presence and with our whole body, time no longer counts as we experience and move in spaciousness.
I used to think doing things like ironing pillowcases was just a waste of time. But the only time we waste is the time when we are not with ourselves. We can do many things being absent minded or in a state of function. It does not matter what we do but the quality in which we do it.
When we are consciously present, everything is enjoyable, no matter the job.
Being consciously present in all we do brings a quality that is beautiful for all to feel.
Anything we do when we are with ourselves in our body has this feeling of completeness and wholeness, and how lovely when we discover ourselves like this, living in harmony.
There is so much to be learnt within simplicity, both within and without.
I watched someone ironing their pillowcases just the other day. I had never thought to do this and took note of how beautiful it would be to do this, knowing that how I ironed would be the quality my head would rest upon to sleep.
I just love how the simplest things can reveal the most profound revelations.
This is a very wise lesson in how the quality we choose to move in makes all the difference to how we feel, our experience of life and what we prepare for….we can prepare for a supportive way of living or we can be ill prepared and reactionary, we get to choose.
This is a great reflection for life – how we are can be quite lovely when we simply are in the moment of it enjoying whatever is there before us. Then we can get stuck on how we want things to be and we lose that loveliness.
I have not used an iron once this year and don’t remember using one last year either. I have clothes that don’t need ironing but I can certainly relate to this in terms of making my bed in the morning. I do it in such a beautiful way so that loving imprint is there to greet me when I come back in the night and also to leave my side of the bed looking beautiful and harmonious for my husband – he does the same when he makes his side of the bed!
Bringing purpose and presence to all we do is so important as you show in this blog Joan.
How can we not love the task of ironing then it is done so tenderly knowing that we or others will be using these items.
Still not inspired to take up ironing, unless it is a item that really has to be ironed, and then I wonder how did that get into my wardrobe…
Everything matters, but as you point out Joan, its not the task itself that’s important, but how we are when we do the task. Its the quality we are in that makes the difference.
Nothing is irrelevant is it?? Just through ironing a pillowcase we can see that everything we do matters to another person. “I can feel how the quality of my whole life can change, as one task is not separate from another but one continual flow”
I can relate so well to being in a ‘meditative state’ when in fact I was checked out. Realising this and now connecting with and being present in what I am doing is true meditation in action.
Very beautiful Joan, what I feel is that you connected to both your presence while you were ironing and also the wider purpose of what you were doing, that it’s being prepared for someone to lay their head on, it a great reminder that we affect so many things and how our care can really support both us and another.
I love how even in the simplest and most mundane of tasks there are divine lessons awaiting us if we are open to them.
Naturally we breathe fire and move in light so tasks when done without the love of who we are or a life when lived without the breath of the divine, is fruitless and futile, barren and cold.
I like the ‘without effort’ when we stay with ourselves and in a quality that serves us all. There is no effort in love.
Seeking ‘perfection’ is such a killer! I find if I go into that kind of mindset that I get myself stuck and create a struggle with what I’m doing and loose connection with my body, whereas when I stay in connection with the whole of me and how I’m moving whilst I do what is there to be done it totally changes the quality I bring to life.
“… as I begin to experience moving in a new way I can feel how the quality of my whole life can change, as one task is not separate from another but one continual flow.” This is beautiful Joan. There is no separation in life in truth. When we take all of us – and quality – into everything we do – life becomes a flow.
Such a simple and beautiful reminder Joan, often we can rush through our tasks wanting to complete them but the awareness you offer here is gold – to bring quality and presence to everything we do and how this loving imprint confirms and benefits others in a powerful way.
Chores in life can get very boring and empty if we don’t do them with purpose of people and quality. This emptiness than makes the result more important like you were wanting the perfectly ironed pillow-case without a crease (which is nearly impossible anyway…). If we make the chore about purpose of doing it in a quality that is going to bless the next person that is receiving the end result of the chore life gets magical and meaningful.
Being consciously present does truly alter our quality of life, how we perceive it and how other people experience us. I used to live in my head, so many thought chugging in and out distracting me, but what was the quality of those thoughts…I still have thoughts but they involve less stories and drama and I live much more in the here and now. Inspiring to read of these experiences that are simple , but so rich in what is there to be learnt.
From all that is said this is the key, “This beautiful lesson applies to everything I do, and as I begin to experience moving in a new way I can feel how the quality of my whole life can change, as one task is not separate from another but one continual flow.” We don’t choose to do something at the point we pick it up as we may think. We are the sum total in any moment of all of our movements prior. Live in a way that has a true deep care for yourself and everything and one around you, then in your next step all that care will be alive at your fingertips.
We have so many opportunities during the day to either be conscious and present and to feel the moment, or to not,… And the difference in the quality of life that comes from the choice that we make here is profound.
I could feel how much you enjoyed ironing as you wrote – thank you so much. I will enjoy my next ironing session just a smidgen more.
This is beautifully expressed Joan! I will never look at ironing in the same way again, instead realising there is an opportunity to lovingly imprint that pillowcase or indeed anything at all that we may choose to iron.
I love this blog Joan, it’s a wonderful reminder that no task is mundane if we bring love to it.
Well said – we extend our joy by sharing our presence in all that we do.
When I read this I can feel how absolutely divinely designed we are to support ourselves and each other. It is our divine right to do it for ourselves and each other.
I loved re-reading this blog Joan – a wonderful reminder that everything we do is affected by the quality we are holding as we work with any task. Then there are no tasks only conscious presence filled with love and joy in every moment.
Joan – you have made ironing a pillow case about the all – aware that another will rest their head on it. How beautiful this is and asks us to be responsible and look at the bigger picture in every movement.
When we bring conscious presence to any moment the ripple effect is felt long after. That care and tenderness is felt within our body in each movement, this feeling a true confirmation.
Our ability to convince (manipulate) ourselves (and others) and make us (and them) believe that we are doing Y when we are really doing X is fantastic.
The quality of the stillness you have shared Joan whilst ironing the pillowcase cannot be forced. The body is the marker and when we are absolutely connected, this quality comes into everything we bring ourselves to. I too, celebrate the Gentle Breath Meditation and how simply it brings connection to our body.
Great point Christine. This truth really stood out to me too. I often observe myself ‘trying’ to be still and present when it suits me but the quality I can bring is always informed by every step that has preceded the moment before me.
What I love about this sharing is that it highlights how the power of love is an all-encompassing interconnected quality that transcends time and space, and offers alchemy in every moment if we are open to it. In your willingness to connect to love you not only allowed love to then guide you and your movements, but also your loving imprints then become an act of love, a blessing for those at a later date to receive when they lay their heads down on the pillows that were lovingly and respectfully ironed by you, by love. Awe-inspiring Joan – thank you.
A great reminder that how we experience what we do depends on the quality of energy that is moving us.
I ironed my pillow cases for the first time in my life a few weeks ago as well as the top part of the sheet. I always thought it was a crazy thing to do but it felt so glorious to not only get into bed, but also every time I saw my bed.
wow that is amazing – feel free to come over and do mine 😉
Sure, I’ll make the commute 🙂
Thank you for this amazing testimonial on the beneficial effects of the Gentle Breath Meditation and the deepening love for yourself which is then carried into everything you do.
A lovely reminder of how aligning to purpose allows for a flow with whatever activity we are doing in that moment.
Beautiful to feel the true loving care and quality you were able to take to your ironing. A great reminder that our presence and quality should never waver, no matter what job we are doing.
This was such a beautiful reminder of the importance of the way in which we do everything, big or small, and the profound effect this can have, not only on ourselves, but others through the deep care they will feel in the quality that we have done things in.
Very true Samantha, I have enjoyed making beds ever since realising this. Making my own bed knowing how much it supports my husband and I each night, making other beds in the house on the odd occasion that I know what is happening for them in their day. Sometimes it is a gift that costs nothing but can support someone at the end of an unexpected day.
The quality with which we do things is all important. I used to ‘just get things done’ – but that has changed since attending Universal Medicine presentations when I learned about how energy comes first with everything we do, say and think. How we do even the mundane things affects not only ourselves but everyone, like unseen ripples spreading out into the world.
I have applied this same way to folding clothes and using tenderness in my hands to smooth them out before folding and putting away. It is true that the QUALITY in which we approach doing anything, makes a huge difference in how everything feels harmonious on the shelves or in drawers, ready to wear again + holding the same quality when being put back on the body.
“I enjoyed the doing of it because I was in the how of the doing of it. The how was the gentle quality of energy that came before I even knew I was going to iron”.
There are so many opportunities to learn about life through everyday tasks. I loved reading this Joan. I know I have a preoccupation with time. When I am in a place where time doesn’t matter, I know I am also free of anxiety and simply being with the moment. Reading your blog has brought a deeper awareness to how I am typing and sitting in my chair and I know that this choice to be gentle and present will flow into my next one.
When we have ‘checked out’ our mind has wandered off and we are not present nor connected to what we are doing. How can we possibly bring quality and attention to detail to what we are doing if our focus is elsewhere?
A great point and question Suse, I certainly can’t, ‘How can we possibly bring quality and attention to detail to what we are doing if our focus is elsewhere?’
I love how one move meant done in gentleness then leads to another then another and so on.
I agree it just takes one movement in gentleness to lead to others, and before you know it all movements are in gentleness.
Definitely it is a cascading affect that takes us to stillness.
For more on stillness go to;
http://www.unimedliving.com/search?keyword=stillness
Because we shut down from feeling the beauty there is in every movement we invent activities where we can feel something, to the point now where we have extreme sports that are actually more like an assault on the body. This progression is like self harming where often young people cut themselves in order to feel, having shut down from feelings they did not want to register. How far we have come away from our natural innate quality and how inspiring to read that you are doing the exact opposite and coming back to meet yourself in this and allowing it to nurture and support you.
How gorgeous, living this way brings joy to every micro moment – priceless!
An avid ironer I enjoy the process of taking the time to put care into each garment I iron from shirts to pillowcases and tea towels. The flow is created with the first piece and only gets better with each garment. I am always amazed at how much ironing I get down in a short period of time noting now that it comes with a love and making space to enjoy the process.
Wow Natalliya, I am impressed you iron your tea towels. I have seen people do this and I couldn’t imagine myself doing this as we go through 2 tea towels a day. But what I noted was how loving it would be to put much care and love into everything we do, including ironing.
Even if you’re not into ironing the love is there is the folding and hanging of the tea towel, a way to express our love and delicateness in every moment and every movement.
We can do life in a way that just flows… simply by being with ourselves – our breath and our bodies. Or we can choose otherwise. Either way, we can choose how to be in every moment.
I have never ironed a sheet or pillowcase in my life and am inspired at the idea but can’t see myself doing it! However, I certainly relate to the joy of presence and purpose in everything I do.
Hear! Hear! You will never catch me ironing a sheet or pillowcase, but I can certainly relate to being with whatever movement will bring the greatest level of stillness to my body.
I once ironed my sheets – well not the entire sheet, just the top part that I fold down over the doona (or duvet as some may say). It was all wrinkled and each day when I made my bed it bothered me a little. So one day, I ironed it. It was a first. And I loved the result. Then every time I looked at my neatly pressed sheet on my beautifully made bed, I felt all that love and care coming back to me.
That sounds fantastic Nikki, feel free to come over and iron my sheets and share your love around – I am ready to receive.
“I enjoyed the doing of it because I was in the how of the doing of it. The how was the gentle quality of energy that came before I even knew I was going to iron.” When we apply the gentle ‘how’ with ourselves we iron out many of our ingrained wrinkles.
ha ha Mary – yes love and presence certainly iron out a lot of wrinkles.
Ha, ha, great one Mary, I like your comment and I agree it certainly does.
We can bring conscious presence to any process, action, movement or really anything… And whenever we do, everyone benefits… But mostly ourselves.
I love the fact such a simple breath technique can bring about a significant change that translates into your whole life Joan, thanks for sharing… a beautiful reminder of the power of the Gentle Breath Meditation.
Thank you Joan for this deeply gorgeous sharing. It offers a powerful reminder of the responsibility we all have with how we are in every moment, as the energy we choose to align to, is quality we bring to the world through our movements. When we are in connection with our inner-heart we become the expression of Love through our every move and as such offer the blessing of Love through all we do.
I love the simplicity of wha you have shared Joan. Yet this simple message is life changing, to begin to bring a quality to everything we do.
I am the same, while I have never ironed a pillowcase I can appreciate the quality that you speak of, that however idle you may find the task, how you are with it is what makes the greatest difference.
I clicked on this blog knowing full well I have never ironed a pillowcase in my life, but you have got me considering what other little details in my life are there that may need some attention. I agree that when you move connected everything you do feels amazing.
This reminds me that love is in the detail and how there is a quality in how we can do things in that changes the result. Simply being present is a huge shift in quality. I love this example of ironing and not checking out whilst doing so.
As I read your sharing Joan, I could still feel your gentleness coming through your words. A truly lovely reminder of the need to be lovingly present , when we do any task throughout our day.
A deeply beautiful and powerful blog Joan. I run away from the gentle breath meditation on a regular basis and you have reminded me what a gift it actually is. I also love the way you describe the difference between being in a ‘meditative’ state and being naturally and effortlessly present with yourself. How lovely this was to read.
The message I take from your blog Joan is to bring love to everything we do; and what a powerful, true lesson it is. When we do bring love to everything we do it is so healing and transformational for ourselves and for others. Beautiful thank you.
Thank you Joan. The amount of love that we can pour into anything we choose to do is really quite amazing to feel. I love the fact that you connected to such profound truth through breathing your own breath and ironing a pillowcase, it shows that true wisdom is available to us all and it is always simple.
It’s very healing when we do things with this quality of gentleness and remain connected to what it is that we are doing at the time.
‘As I lifted the iron I was very aware that someone, myself or my partner or a friend, would soon be laying their head on it at night.’ How awesome would it be to take this same intent and awareness into everything we do knowing that the quality we do everything in affects those in our wake.
Subsiding into a semi-conscious state; what an apt description of when we check out, thus not being present. On rereading your blog Joan I realise just how often I can drift into a semi-conscious state to complete tasks, especially everyday so called menial tasks.
I am inspired to be more aware and appreciate the quality of my presence in everything I do. Thank you for sharing your experiences and wisdom.
To actually enjoy the quality of how you do something brings a whole new depth and dimension to what you do.
I often start a task with joy like yesterday cleaning the bathroom, but then soon feel that same frustration or mundaneness that you described as well. Reading your blog I realised that at the beginning of a task I am present and therefore enjoying it but later on I let my presence slip and start to move differently which immediately changes how I feel in myself, what thoughts I have and therefore how much I enjoy what I am doing. Feeling the purpose (having a clean bathroom for everyone) and the original impulse (the joy of cleaning the bathroom!) is a great tip and something I am going to take with me in my days.
Thank you Joan for a really inspiring blog for me to read, I at times get caught up in the having to get done mode and with that forget how the quality of my doing affects every one in its ripple effect. I am reminded to come back to presence and gentleness, with this life has a beautiful flow to it, no more rushing, and anxiety.
What a beautiful blog for me to read this morning. It inspires me to be more aware of when I go into the drive of , ‘I must get things done’ instead of moving with gentleness and awareness I tend go into getting things done with a push which then affects how I am with others interacting with a sense of frustration. I have been noticing this more and more, so it is awesome to have reminders like this, to choose gentleness in everything I do. Thank you Joan.
I have been watching Serge Benhayon these last few days as he moves around in complete consistency, always with the same energy flowing through him, so that turning on a light switch is given the same respect, and space in the action, as anything else. This consistency is how Serge lives his life on every level.
When we choose to have conscious presence, to be with our bodies, and not in the perpetual distraction, anything we do will be done with a sense of grace purpose and harmony, for the benefit of ourselves and all those around.
Joan thank you such learning in the details of simplicity.
Joan what you share here can be applied to all that we do in life. As you say – it is the quality in which we do things in that makes such a difference, and I am learning the the more quality I bring to the everyday things; walking, cooking, how I go to sleep – supports me to really appreciate how gentle we can be with ourselves and then with others.
Thank you Joan I just loved the care and tenderness with which you ironed the pillow case in loving regard for the people whose heads would be laying on them, just lovely to bring this level of care to all that we do during the day.
Such a simple action that has a profound realisation on how we live, which then affords the opportunity to change how we approach everything.
Joan thank you for such a beautiful reminder of the power of choosing quality in everything we do. Sometimes I get into the rush to get things done and miss the opportunity to be present and feel the joy that each moment can bring and how this level of connection inspires everyone arounds us as well.
One task is not separate from another but a continual flow. Once we realise this, the quality which we take from one task to another, from one moment to another – and also the quality we hold and carry in the moment between two tasks – becomes a choice. Your ironing experience is a great example of the fact that it’s not what we’re doing but how we’re doing it that makes the difference to the outcome, to others and to ourselves.
When we bring quality to all of the details in our life, we figure that we can learn something in each moment, and the movement of Joy in moments is what allows divinity to live as it should.
Thanks for sharing, Joan. The way we move and do things makes such a difference to our overall energy and our thoughts. Giving importance to the way we even do mundane things like ironing pillowcases, can bring us so much understanding of how our every move effects the way we feel and the thoughts we have. Building a rhythm and consistency of these loving movements is what allows us to live an overall steady and joy-full life.
Thank you Joan for sharing your experiences and for highlighting that the most simple of lessons are a powerful reflection for everything we do in life, as you say one continual flow;
“moving in a new way I can feel how the quality of my whole life can change, as one task is not separate from another but one continual flow”.
Sometimes the simplest of things, whether it is moving or speaking or interacting, can have a connection and presence that deepens our understanding and experience of life and our connection with the divine.
There is a new way of being… Well actually it is ancient, but humanity has become so mired in the illusion of this three-dimensional world which it thinks is it, that it cannot, it seems, light the fire within that shows the way to this new way… However it simply takes one who has lit the fire within to open their eyes and the light that shines out is enough to light the way.
Beautiful Joan and thank you. I have never ironed a pillow case before things for me are about to change.
Thank you Joan, I could feel your presence and tenderness that you brought to ironing the pillowcases. This quality we can bring to every aspect of our lives, simply beautiful.
Thank you Joan for such a simple and beautiful reminder to apply to all areas in life – it is about the quality of our movements that supports a deeper connection to love.
Yes Anna, and I am feeling that the quality of movement comes from the quality of energy we choose, that of coming from our inner hearts where our connection to truth and love dwell as a never ending source, and that is simple and beautiful, We only have to choose, although we don’t always do that. I am realising how neglectful of myself and everyone else that is, and very irresponsible when we know the loving choice leads to harmony between us.
This really is a beautifully simple yet powerful lesson Joan which applies to everything we do.
Not what we do but how and the quality of our presence in every moment; thank you for presenting such a poignant example.
Yes Shirl, I can see and feel how if I choose the quality of presence it leads to my expression in movement, thought and action. It is that simple choice that allows everything else to follow. If we choose mental complications and emotional as our quality, then that is what we walk into and live, but if we choose to connect with our most innermost essence, our soul, then what follows is the beautiful simplicity of living life in the moment we are in, with presence, — bringing all of us and living it in the present.
After reading your blog, Joan, I started paying even more attention to what energy I am in while doing the task, how present I am. Apart from that I noticed that when I iron shirts I put my left hand on the shoulder or heart area thinking of that person with appreciation. It feels amazing!
Your comment shows how valuable it is to share these moments when we truly connect Elena. From something truthfully felt and acted on and then shared comes the reflections from others as they take it into a deeper understanding and experience, and so it magnifies and goes around. I love all the reflections coming to me from what I shared, and that enables me to not stay static, but to continue to evolve.
Beautiful appreciation elenalight. It is little wonder that when we are in love with ourselves when we do what we do we will naturally express that love to others.
Joan this is powerful and beautiful: “I enjoyed the doing of it because I was in the how of the doing of it”. You show me how to be consciously present in the most mundane task. Bringing a focused and deliberate attention to everything we do is an act of love towards ourselves and others. I love your tenderness in picturing the heads that will rest on these pillows and ironing the latter with so much care.
Well you have introduced me into considering ironing my pillowcases Joan! And the frustration I also can have, and sometimes feel when I cannot get it perfect.
Ironing and hanging clothing outside to dry are two of the daily moments where we can have a profound connection with ourselves and our love and with those that will be caressed by it. Stillness in action.
Just gorgeous Joan, how such a simple thing as ironing a pillow case can change depending on our approach. I was struck by what you noted about that check-out on a task, almost like auto-pilot that we can go into, I know it well and yes when it doesn’t go as I expect I can get frustrated. No surprise really as I’ve approached the task with wanting to get it over and done with, rather than fully engage with the task itself. What I feel you offer us here is how everything changed when you engaged with the task and took your focussed attention to it, and brought you and your quality to it. It’s a many staged process, starting with turning up, being there with grace and an understanding that we bring our lived quality to it, so there is no one task, it’s an on-going thing, so the quality of how I am in this, typing right now will lead into the next thing and I choose the quality. If we feel out or off, we can stop, connect back to us and the quality of our breath and come anew to the task in hand. Each task is but an opportunity to bring the grace and love of us to it. And of course we impact everything so ironing that pillow case knowing we are creating a space of rest for another and that it will impact them is huge – it shows there are no small or menial tasks truly and that everything does indeed impact everything. Thank you Joan for your reflection today.
You gave expressed it so beautifully Monica, “Each task is but an opportunity to bring the grace and love of us to it.” and also significant is the “wanting to get it over and done with”. This is what stops us approaching any task with grace and love, the eternal tick list and our eyes on the clock of human time. From your comment I have the feeling of the huge potential of the loving and respectful way we can live our lives, approaching every task, every person, every object, with true attention to the quality we bring to it/them, and with that comes immense appreciation of ourselves,and all else around us. Bringing all of ourselves and appreciating that is the key to a truly loving way of life. I can feel the expansion!
I feel that expansion you speak of also Joan, how there is no such thing as a mundane task but another opportunity to connect with us and God, to allow the expression of God and soul through us. I feel such a huge appreciation reading your comment and how each of us is but a choice away from that magic always. Super confirming to read.
When I finished reading your blog Joan I wanted to iron my pillowcases (which I never do) The next time I get my iron out I will think of you Joan ironing with so much love. Thank you for sharing.
That is so deeply true Brendan. Everything matters. Everything we do leaves an impression, an ‘imprint’ that is felt by ourselves and others.
I used to find cleaning the toilet, for example, a task I didn’t want to do – my jaw would tense, I could feel my mother’s old and familiar frustration around the household cleaning (and how I’d taken it on myself!)… And then I started to bring conscious presence to what I did, and a gentleness and care to the actions required. It took time for my jaw to stop tightening completely… but I stayed attentive to it, and now the tension no longer returns. Cleaning toilets is a task I actually love doing today – case in point of your statement above. 🙂 These are no small things to trifle over, for our every action impacts upon our bodies, our being and ripples out to affect all. If I clean my toilet in frustration, how am I going to be in the next moment when I speak to someone, or answer an email…?
What you have described here is true meditation in action in your ironing Joan – how awesome to experience this. This is an important distinction to make as the earlier reference to approaching such a task ‘meditatively’ is not representative of true meditation at all – in true meditation we would never check out from ourselves and what our body is doing.
It’s awesome to discover, through such simple tools as true meditation and its attendant conscious presence, that we can actually be with ourselves in all that we do, isn’t it… I’ve found that housework tasks have completely transformed with such loving attentiveness – that things that once engendered deep frustration and a pushing through just to ‘get it done’, can be approached totally differently now and are actually joyful to do! All via the awesome awarenesses that Serge Benhayon has brought to us, and very much brought home by the modality of Esoteric Yoga, founded by Serge Benhayon, which supports us to have such a relationship with our bodies so deeply.
In reading this Victoria I get reminded that I used to get very annoyed when I vacuum the floors, not really sure why. Now I don’t feel that anymore, something must have changed. What you mention and Joan also is the gentle breath meditation which I’ve also felt to be very supportive and the esoteric yoga goes even deeper in connection, at least that is my experience. So perhaps when we go deeper than the felt frustration we get to feel that it’s just the top of something and beneath is the true qualities we are really looking for in life, but it takes the willingness to go there and it really is a choice. Being more and more tender and supportive of myself has helped a lot in making that choice to go deeper.
haha Matts.. I went through a whole process of recognising how my jaw would tense up when I washed dishes, cleaned the toilet… Took a steady awareness, commitment to being consciously present with my body, and a deep letting go of frustrations I’d felt since childhood – associated with cleaning tasks in particular. I simply just kept acknowledging what was going on in my body, offered myself a ‘re-set’ if you will, and over time, the tension let go. Committing to being gentle in my movements was the key.
Now these things are a joy – yes, truly!
One thing that I also feel sometimes is that when I get more relaxed and then more still there can be lots of sensations coming up in my body such as frustration and anger, which I experienced before. At first I reacted and went all angry and frustrated but when I felt that I could just feel it instead of acting it out it slowly faded away, with a few backdrops as perhaps expected. So when we say that he or she or perhaps I are angry persons it might just be that we chose it. Great to know that it doesn’t have to be there forever though.
That distinction is so important Victoria ‘in true meditation we would never check out from ourselves and what our body is doing..’ as to do so is to dismiss ourselves and our bodies and how can we connect to God while ignoring an instrument of God? It exposes how much we’ve been educated to ignore and overcome our bodies, to fight them as the enemy, and how insidious this programming is. Our bodies need to be with us every step of the way and deeply connecting to and feeling our bodies as we do in esoteric yoga is the way.
Hear, hear Monica. It’s important to be very clear here about how words such as ‘meditation’ can be, and have been, bastardised – to represent anything but the depth of lived connection of which you speak so powerfully.
Yes Victoria, and in bringing that clarity and making those distinctions we are reclaiming what the true meaning of the word meditation is, it’s a service for us and everyone, that all have access to this understanding, that everything comes from that lived connection.
It really doesn’t matter what we are doing, what matters most is how we are doing it. So be it cleaning the toilet, or preparing dinner or going to work – if we just make sure that we are with whatever we are doing and not somewhere else daydreaming it makes all the difference.
So true Rosie, whatever we are doing, whether it be work, rest or play, the more present we are with ourselves, the more we love to do anything, even the more seemingly trivial tasks are so enjoyable because, as everything is energy then there IS no trivial job anymore, everything is important, because it is the attention to detail that truly counts as everything is part of the whole.
“I enjoyed the doing of it because I was in the how of the doing of it.” Wow Joan I love this sentences very much because this is a different way to look at things at all. With that perspective I could easily understand that even ironing a pillow case is something very beautiful to do.
Your blog Joan has made me aware of how I am not with myself in the small details of what I am doing and that I have a pattern of just getting on with things. This has exposed much of which I can bring my attention to and deepen my commitment in. Humanity benefits when each of us can bring true surrender and appreciation to every moment. Thank you Joan for the presence you bring.
I love your practical example of how making the focus about the way we do something completely changes everything, rather than trying to make something perfect.
Thank you Jane for sharing this great moment , you have reminded me and inspired me to take that moment with everything I do and the depth of joy and loving grandeur that it is.
It’s beautiful Joan how we can take such care to support ourselves with such simple things. We can take this care into anything and feel the results of our own care coming back to us.
A number of years ago I was at a retreat in Vietnam and I happened to see two Vietnamese girls making my bed with such a practiced precision, yet done in a very playful and joyful way. I just knew I was going to sleep well in that bed.
That feels so gorgeous Kevmchardy, the expression of the care that was taken to make your bed. You can really feel how lovely sleeping in that bed would have been.
It makes so much sense doesn’t it, if we do something in a certain energy or attitude, then when we return to it, we would get exactly what we left there. Better to give whatever we are doing our full loving attention and then enjoy it and leave a gorgeous loving imprint that nourishes us and confirms us back.
The way we do everything has an impact on how it feels. I know when I make my bed with fresh clean sheet lovingly and focused and present with ever part of the task every moment I can’t wait to go to bed that night and I sleep well. On other occasions where I don’t even make my bed just pull the donna up over myself as I get into bed it feels awful and you can bet I’m going to have restless disturbed night’s sleep.
Beautiful caring and inspiring Ruth thank you a real guide and reminder of self care and how we can be forever more and more gentle and loving with ourselves with everything we are ,do ,touch and communicate in different ways. It is all part of building a body of love and something we can all feel and deeply appreciate.
Your article reminds me of the importance of being present with myself and whatever I am doing including jobs that may to many be seen as mundane. The love and care that goes into such activities as ironing can be felt by the person who wears the clothes. When we are consciously present in whatever it is that we are doing the effect on everyone around us is profound with them feeling the love that we are and the love that we put into the task at hand.
Joan it is a very important connection you make between Checking out and frustration. Yes it is no wonder things become awkward, etc. because we aren’t paying attention in the first place.
How gorgeous it is to not judge one task as holding more importance over another but rather bringing all of me to whatever it may be and the joy that brings in doing so.
Agree Giselle, “to not judge one task as holding more importance over another” is the key to our day flowing seamlessly and is often overlooked as we are usually constantly judging one thing to be of more value than another thing rather than allowing ourselves to be impulsed in every moment.
There is no love in effort.
“In that moment time did not matter… in fact, it took no longer than before, maybe even less. I enjoyed the doing of it because I was in the how of the doing of it” There have been many times I have been aware of this, each time I love it as it confirms the truth for me, that space opens up when we are consciously present and there is plenty of time to get everything done that is needed, what a great learning. For example yesterday when I looked at a clock and realised it was much earlier than I thought, I had been very present with myself and everything I was doing, and there was no awareness of time, the day just opened up and so much more work was done without any stress, drive, or motion.
I have to say drive is a horrible way to live – it creates tension, hardness, frustration, constant motion and a feeling of inadequacy – which is not our true way to live. Appreciating ourselves and simply enjoying the task at hand, whatever that is, is light and freeing.
When we are consciously present in any action, the effects are profound, for ourselves and for everyone around us.
Reply
Such a beautiful and simple message Joan. Everything matters, even the ironing.
Ironing in the home is a task that, traditionally, has often fallen to women, part of a routine of domestic drudgery – not all women feel this, but many do. Your article has completely re-imprinted the way ironing can be undertaken. I have to admit it’s not enough to make me race off to iron but it is a beautiful reminder of the approach we can bring to all we do. What I love is the quality of stillness you evoke. It is this women need most and it can be brought to any activity at any time.
The phrase ‘everything is expression’ and ‘everything is everything’ as presented by Serge Benhayon is something that becomes a clear fact of life the more I choose to take responsibility for the way that I am in every moment.
Joan can you come and iron my pillowcases please?!! What you have expressed is absolutely delicious… such a great illustration of the depth to which we can go in all we do, and in total service. I love it, thank you.
Doing that what is needed with full presence brings a true joy to everything we do.
Joan I never get tired of reading your gorgeous blog. Today what has come to me is how the love and tenderness we choose benefits everyone spherically. I’ve also noted the consistent rhythm you had of nurturing yourself with audios and meditations.
The thing is it’s not just a story about a pillowcase! It is symbolic of how the much the detail in life matters. When the daily details (that some sadly find boring) are completed with regular and natural order, precision and care a deeply healthy life is formed, like all the moving parts of an old-fashioned watch, working together in perfect rhythm.
Brilliant Dean Pirera – ‘everything is everything’ as Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine present.
Dean, love your analogy, “like all the moving parts of an old-fashioned watch, working together in perfect rhythm”. This is a great representation of what life can be like when we are consciously present with every little detail in our daily life and enjoy all that its there to be attended to. Time then calibrates to our rhythm and there is space to do whatever is needed.
Bringing gentleness and tenderness into everything that we do makes such a difference. It can be felt by everyone and reminds us that there is more to us than just flesh and blood. We are Divine beings who are super sensitive to everything that goes on around us.
What a revelation ironing can be. In the past I never knew why I liked to do the ironing in moments when I felt out of rhythm and needed to relax. Having read your blog I understood that ironing was my way of coming back to myself by focusing on the task, on not burning my fingers and on achieving a proper result. Getting my thoughts that were wandering around centered and committing to what I did. Thank you for this revelation Joan.
Joan, what a remarkable experience you describe and have shared here, in particular that this came about gracefully at a time when you had been consistently practicing the gentle breath meditation. The stand out word here being consistency.
Joan- What a beautiful reminder that the quality of how we do things is so important eg in ironing pillow cases if done with gentleness and love this helps the person have a more restful sleep which then impacts on how he starts the day etc.
This is true lorettarapp. There is something quite simple about this blog, that I find profound. Feeling the responsibility of each movement and word. What I leave behind is what other pick up
I love your blog Joan. I love to iron my sheets – to get into a freshly made bed with ironed sheets feels so gorgeous. I can feel the loving way with which I have taken to iron them, they feel beautiful against my skin. The smell of freshly ironed linen embraces me so that when I get into my bed I can feel the deep level of care I have taken which is very nurturing. I am now inspired to take this level of care to more and more that I do, thankyou for the reminder Joan!
What a beautiful description of getting into bed and feeling the clean sheets Sandra, I feel the same, and it brings with it a huge feeling of appreciation for a job well done with Love, care and consciousness of all. That appreciation, without going into elation or self congratulation but with a beautiful warm glow from inside, expands what has already been impulsed, and the night and day follow in the same energy.
“In the past I would always end up feeling very frustrated whenever I was doing the ironing because I never achieved a ‘perfect’ result.” We can apply this to any task we do where we are always seeking for perfection but never achieving it because we are not truly present with what it is that we are doing. It is only when we fully develop conscious presence in the task at hand then can we feel that something is complete. It is not about the end result of what it looks like, but what it feels like. With conscious presence there is love.
When we choose to be conscious and present in any action, the benefits and effects are manifold, both on ourselves , and those around us.
The quality in which you do a task leaves a marker behind in the space you’ve done the tasks in and the items you came into contact with. This is so simple and yet many people are unaware that when you put down a pen gently and with a focused awareness there is something different about that pen to how it could be if carelessly dropped onto the table when finished with it. Houses where people live with this level of awareness and dedication to quality consistently are gorgeous to be in and invite the people who enter them to let go of the defensiveness they generally walk around in. Simple yet very powerful.
I felt to read this again this morning for the grace it offered and then I found that it was about frustration which is something that has been with me a lot recently. I realised even more deeply how so crucial it is in a conversation that is tricky to constantly re-connect to the love that I am – and really re-connect and to feel the loveliness of that – allow love space whatever the other person is doing or saying and to stay firm in this love, this spacious love.
This blog is a great example of how easy and fun live can be when we connect to our inner essence and not allow any other energy to come in and complicate it. Such a simple exercise, Ironing a pillow case but can be done in 101 different ways. To me what jumps out the most is that it is simply a choice in how we go about life – to connect or not to connect to the Love that we are. This is one that I am bringing a lot more focus and presence is a huge part of this that supports the Love that I am.
So true Natalie for when we bring love and equal attention to detail to all that we do no job or responsibility can ever be considered more important than any other.
Joan I remember hearing that the aspect of a meal that effects us the most is the energy that it is cooked in. So more than the nutritional content and even more than the quality of the food we are effected by how the meal has been prepared. The same can be applied to anything and following your example then it would be better to lay my head on a cheap polyester pillow case that has been ironed lovingly than a silk pillow case that has been ironed in anger.
Joan what you have shared is really big. We often forget the bigger picture and therefor do not feel how everything is equally important. But when you bring your care and presence to the things you do, you automatically can feel how every detail counts. And as a ripple effect touches many lives. Ironing the pillow cases with love supports someone to have a beautiful restful sleep and this person goes out in their day with this quality, where he/she meets other people who feel this quality within the person….etc. etc.
Wow talk about the roll-on effect Diana1975! I agree, there is a purpose in everything that we do…and in this case, Joan you ironed with your universal purpose – to support another to be in their fullness, by you being in yours 🙂 .
It can be so easy to forget the bigger picture in the busyness of the day, but as you share diana1975, everything is equally important and every detail counts…..
What if we always took deep care with everything we do, always keeping in mind that what we touch will be touched by somebody after us and thus this somebody will receive our touch (in the quality of how our touch has been).
Absolutely Esther. If we always took deep care with everything we do, we would leave more loving imprints on earth for others to be inspired by.
It is amazing to me that you enjoyed going back and ironing the first pillowcase the second time and even more amazing that you genuinely enjoyed doing this. I am so used to getting things done and crossing things off my list that the quality of what I do is often he last thing I consider. You allow me to see that I am missing out on a whole lot of joy when I choose to operate this way.
Love this blog Joan. I absolutely love to iron my pillow cases and you have brought so much more love to it, thank you for sharing.
Wonderful how you take into your ironing the fact that someone is going to sleep on it. That gives ironing and any task or activity a focus and deeper purpose. Actually all we do is for someone. I have been making my bed for months in a very loving way for myself. Every time I go to bed it is a delight to walk into my room and find my bed nicely made up waiting for me. I realize through your blog that I can extend that to many areas. Even the way I type this comment, it is for someone else who will be reading this. So yes, how I write it matters, up to the detail of how I sit whilst writing. This is a deeper level of responsibility ever expanding.
Caroline – I love how you share here that we have a responsibility to every single person, and that we have the choice to be aware of this or not. But regardless, the fact is that how we do things for ourselves therefor influences how we are with others – we are all connected to each other no matter how ‘personal’ we think a gesture is. You make your bed in a loving way – but this helps to support you sleep deeply which means when you get up the next day and go out to the world, they are getting a more vital you simply because you made a self loving choice in the privacy of your own home. Everything and everyone is connected.
“Recently I was ironing a pillow case and noticed that the way I was ironing had changed. No longer was I subsiding into a semi-conscious state and dawdling, nor was I rushing and driven to ‘get it done’.” Ironing is one of those jobs that really highlights if we are going into auto pilot, yet as you have shown Joan, being aware of how you iron, bringing gentleness to how you pick up the iron and place it on the pillowcase all contribute to what the person will receive when they lay their head on your lovingly ironed pillowcase.
Your appreciation and gentleness comes through your words like a warm inspiration Joan. While reading and now I feel the silky precious feeling of doing something without wanting to get it done but being connected with all I am and what I am with. This quality comes so clear when you wrote about returning to the first pillowcase : ). For me this quality always unfolds, when I sew a button, feeling the appreciation for the garment that holds me warm and clothes me, for the great invention of the button… and letting this feelings of appreciation, stillness and love unfold through the movements of hand-sewing. Thank you for reminding me of this precious feeling and quality of doing.
Years ago I used to really dislike ironing and the pile of clean washing I constantly had to get through. Then after some years I discovered I did not have to iron at all, so stopped! Looking back it feels like my dislike was because it was a time I needed to be present and as my relationship with myself was non existent it was this I didn’t want to face. Now I very rarely iron and ironing is done on the odd garment as and when it is needed. However I find now this is done because I want to do it I enjoy the stop and opportunity to feel the flow of me through the action and even will iron as a way of reconnecting to myself as it demands my presence:)
When we are avoiding particular situations more often than not there is an avoidance and/or reaction to what we feel in that situation and like you say I have also experienced that often it is because I have brought the lack of love to that situation. The reaction and avoidance is just a game to delay saying ‘I did that / I chose that, but I can change it/re-imprint it’. But how cool is it to approach things we don’t like in this way? that maybe we have had a hand in creating the very situation and feelings that we don’t want to experience? and that we have the choice to approach those unpleasant situations with presence and the love that we are.
So many people complain and moan about their jobs every day, and the highlight of their working week is Friday because it is almost the weekend. And they count down from one holiday to the next. I wonder how different everyone’s experience would be if they applied the same level of care and being consciously present in every action they did?
Great point Golnaz. It is the lack of connection with self and from there with everything we do that makes it complicated to be consciously present at work and to deliver what is being asked from us as our service to our society, as what work actually represents for me.
Love the question you pose here Golnaz, “how different would everyone’s experience be if they applied the same level of care and being consciously present in every action they did?” Possibly people would not need holidays as every day would flow lovingly and the body would be in a rhythm that was energising rather than exhausting!
This has certainly been my own experience Anne. In being consciously present with what I am doing in my day (without perfection, but certainly a great deal of the time), I actually have far more energy and am capable of ‘doing more’ than I ever have done. Not that such an outcome is what its’ about… but truly, the lack of presence and quality of ‘how’ I went about all that I did, was draining. Today, tasks are approached joyfully and with a lightness of heart and body. This transformation has been nothing short of amazing…
It is true what you say Golnaz, and I used to fit the picture you describe. But I can say that with the quality I am living now the way I feel about my job has changed tremendously and this is also felt by my colleagues. There is no difference in a weekday or a weekend as long as I bring me to everything I do.
Good question Golnaz. I have been taking extra care at work to pay attention to the energy I am choosing to move in, and have been enjoying myself immensely! When I take care to respect my body and respect everything I touch my day feels so different and I feel so yummy. It doesn’t matter if I am at home or at work, as the energy is the same. This is very different to counting down the hours!
And Golnaz the interesting thing to consider with all of the people who really dislike being at work is the knock on effect to everybody that they come into contact with. One person who is unhappy at work not only effects everyone that they are at work with and everyone that they email and phone but if they are providing a service then their negativity goes out into the wider arena through their products. It is clear to therefore feel how we have to take responsibility for how we feel as it is effecting so many other people other than just ourselves.
This is a very good point Alexis, the wider implications of our attitude towards work affects everyone, even further than our own work place. How different the work place would be if people had this realisation and took the responsibility seriously enough to look at their behaviour, along with open communication when someone is off and not feeling up to working.
Like Christmas Day! If the same level of preparation and care was given to each and every day of the year, without stresses or pressure to ‘do’, the world would be a much more joyful place.
I wonder Golnaz that with that level of attention and care would then allow them to feel the joy that is there to feel everyday.
Great question Golnaz. I know that my greatest days at work correlate directly with how consciously present I am.
the connection with ourself brings a greater joy to everything we do. I experience this a lot some days are like you describe counting down to five, but more often I am feeling amazing and conscious with what I am doing, which brings an enormous joy to work, and time isn’t really there at that moment.
Awesome point Golnaz, it is evident to me that when we see the joy in every moment, action and deed, life itself becomes a joy.
Very gorgeous and deeply supportive “I felt, as I started to gently lay the iron on the material, how my gentleness and tenderness was a respectful and loving way to prepare for the laying down of those heads for a reposeful night’s sleep.” How about considering what a difference these choices make in life. Wouldn’t we all rather lie on a pillow ironed with love and respect, I am pretty sure most of us would say yes…and so this simple and beautiful example shares how energy and intention in everything we do and choose has an impact on everything in life.
Of course most of us would say we prefer to put our head on a pillowcase ironed with love and respect and I love your observation Samantha about how this confirms that we have a great responsibility with our energy and intention in every moment of the day, because it has a very clear impact on everyone and everything in life.
Yes I agree Samantha and Golnaz, it shows us quite clearly the impact of our choices and the responsibility we each have to bring loving intent to all that we are and all that we do.
Recently through various blogs I can see how I am not so tender and loving with myself, from buying underwear and clothes, to putting make-up on in the bathroom instead of the bedroom and now also how I do not take loving care with ironing my bedding. In fact currently I do not even iron it! I feel a few changes are about to happen 💕
I am always noticing ways I am not tender with myself too. I have recently realised I am far more caring and careful when folding my husband’s laundry than my own. This is because he cares very deeply about how neat his shirts are and likes them that way. This deep care is reflected in how I treat his clothes. I seem to fold my own laundry with a disrespect, the same way I treat my clothes when I remove them. Easy to disregard something when that’s how other’s treat it.
Great point Suzanne – it is the level of regard you have for yourself that almost commands how other people can treat you and your belongings. And then if – as you say – are taking better care of other people’s things, than you are of your own, it provides a moment to reflect and ask yourself why is that?
Really interesting to observe these qualities within ourselves, you have me pondering Suzanne and Vicky how I too could take my self-care deeper and by doing so totally re-imprint how I am with me. Thank you for the reflection.
So true Suzanne, “easy to disregard something when that’s how others treat it”.
So the way we treat ourselves, will be the marker for how we are treated. If we treat ourselves with love, care and deep respect we will be treated differently than if we treat ourselves with disregard. Simple really.
Joan, and it all starts with listening to the Gentle Breath Meditation by Serge Benhayon on the Universal Medicine Website. This meditation has been profound for me as well; as it has been the first meditation ever that didn’t leave me in doubting that maybe I cannot do meditation or I cannot do it right. The Gentle Breath Meditation brings to us what true meditation is, with simplicity and ease, and what it’s purpose is; to help us re-connect to our bodies, and then live from there. And what Joan described is the result of living more from the body, considering the all, rather than from the head, and just considering …. oneself and a list of chores.
Your approach to ironing, in particular your awareness that someone could be influenced by the attitude and energy you ironed the pillowcases with is very touching. It is the responsibility and love that you brought to what could be considered mundane, meaningless or even pointless that reminded me how every little thing can and does count.
Joan, thank you for what you shared, it’s very inspiring to bring so much more of who we are to the ‘mundane’ chores, which can make up our lives; and they are totally turned around by the quality we bring to it.
The pleasure in simplicity…. whether in a pillow case, making a cup of tea, or sitting feeling the warm sun on your face, can not be underestimated.
What a gorgeous expression, jacqmcfadden. I love the confirmation that simplicity and appreciation of the stillness can be in activity or “sitting feeling the warm sun on your face”.
Joan this sentence says it all – “It allowed me to choose to be consciously present when I was ironing, without effort; and when I ironed the second pillowcase I found that I was even gentler and went back and re-ironed the first one. This is infinitely more rewarding than the old feeling of ‘getting it all done.” – When I look back at how I used to also be about ‘getting things done no matter what’ regardless of the quality that I am doing it in it makes me shudder. The Gentle Breath Meditation is an amazing tool to support us to come back to our natural rhythm and not to override this. Sometimes when things are getting extra busy at work I can feel that old way slipping in so to keep coming back to feeling my breath as and when I am doing things which really supports the consistency of being who I am naturally designed to be, in harmony and not in tension.
Everything we touch can turn to gold if we remain consciously present, loving and tender in all that we do and express. Even the pure intent is enough to begin the process of alchemy.
Joan, this is a very simple and yet deeply profound blog you have written. It is a great example of the microcosm within the macrocosm we call life.. as you have shared ‘experience moving in a new way I can feel how the quality of my whole life can change’. How we are in any moment is how we are in life, thank you.
I’m not the type of person to iron a pillow case, and I don’t think I ever will. But I totally understand what it feels like to do something in a deeply connected and honouring way because it feels so great. When I engage in an activity like this it is always perfect, not the way it looks or how it is complete, but the way it feels.
I agree Danielle, it does feel great to do something in this connected and present way. And I find it naturally comes to a point of feeling complete and whole, whereas a drive for perfection makes things feel like they are never good enough.
This is so true Fiona and it’s important to feel that we actually all express very differently for everything in our lives is from this Divine connection. For example for me I love the feeling of folding my clothes and bed linen when they are warm out of the dryer or crisply yet softly fresh from the clothes line. I love the feel of how the material folds especially when it is warm from the sun and smelling like the nature of my garden. For me to think that this article meant that ironing pillows and sheets was it and that this meant someone was committed to expressing in full in their connection, the essence of the topic at hand would be totally lost.
Joan what I noticed as I read your sharing is how gentle my own breath was. Dare I say that even as you wrote these words and reconnected with your experience of ironing the pillowcase, the energy of this and the marker it now is in your body has transferred to your writing. My body felt this and responded. Everything comes back to energy. Magical. Thank you
I am finding the more that I am choosing to be with myself in what I am doing, the more I am enjoying the feeling of being in my own skin and being right there with myself during the simplest of things.
How beautiful, beautiful Joan, and your last words ‘And for the simplicity of a pillowcase!’ really resonate with me. Ironing a pillowcase is such a simple and beautiful task and you have brought a new depth and beauty to this simple act, as I could feel the pleasure and tenderness that you brought to your work. I look forward to doing some more ironing – and to whatever I am doing today as I bring a new depth of understanding and tenderness.
I love the way your writing gently flows Joan. It allowed me to feel some tension in my forearms as I type this morning. Each moment offers a choice to be present.
Thank you Joan – I have a small pile of ironing I have been avoiding with the excuse that I’m too busy to do it at the moment and, of course, what happens next is old patterns creep in and it gets put on the long finger. Reading your blog has inspired me to commit to addressing this delay and consider why would I deny myself such a beautiful opportunity.
I have have always blamed my frustration with ironing on my cheap and basic iron. Perhaps I should take a deeper look.
Nikkimckee not only did I have the cheap and basic iron, for many years, when I did iron, which wasn’t very often, I ironed on a blanket on the floor. Thankfully I have upgraded the iron and the ironing board and hopefully my conscious presence, but I still don’t iron very often and never the pillow cases. Perhaps I should take a deeper look.
Joan, you make ironing sound like the latest hobby! Awesome – I love how you have connected to the purpose of why we do many ‘chores’ and how you made it about the love and care for the person who was/is going to lay their head on the pillow case.
When I was a teenager, there were times when I used to iron my dad’s shirts. There was something about the ironing that I used to love – like a moment to myself and with myself and at the same time it was about hanging out with my dad through his shirt! I only just recalled this when reading your blog. Chores are not chores when you do them with love and presence, but they can quickly become ‘heavy’ chores if you let them – by thinking of them as a bother, by rushing through them or by losing the purpose behind them. But make it about people and you have a flow that feeds you back.
“As I begin to experience moving in a new way I can feel how the quality of my whole life can change, as one task is not separate from another but one continual flow”. I can really resonate to this Joan as I have found that when we imprint one thing lovingly and with conscious presence then this can spill over into the next thing and before long there is one continuous flow of loving imprints in everything one does. This does not happen overnight but gently unfolds depending on our level of dedication and appreciation.
I love simplicity, and your simple, yet powerful blog reflects that it’s all about the energy in which we are. If it’s ironing or anything else. Thank you, Joan, for reminding me to be, to the best of my ability, consciously present, loving and tender in all that I do and express.
Beautifully said Natalie and a reminder for me to be consciously present, loving and tender in all that I do and express too.
A great reminder of how easily we slip into “…a state of unconscious checking-out…” while working, and how much more loving it is to do these things in conscious presence.
I agree, and for me it is about surrendering and letting go my striving for perfection which supports me to be more gentle and, as such, consciously present (my mind with my body).
Yes Peter, the Energy is straight there for us to choose to check out while working. Doing the work in conscious presence instead is so uplifting, because it’s a true expression of who we are.
Wow. Who knew ironing was such a science.
How amazing that something so simple as ironing can bring an enormous revelation.
Just by reading this I can feel more gentle myself. You talk about quality, and the how of doing things, very very useful.
This is such a beautiful simple and ever inspiring sharing Joan thank you. It has stayed with me in my days this week to reflect on with everything I am doing with more love, care and appreciation for myself- everything. It also highlights how things around me stand out as not loving without this care and presence with understanding and choices.
This is such a beautiful blog Joan. The way you have written it feels open, light and warm and such an honest sharing. The simplicity of the revelation is very powerful. Thanks for writing.
It makes sense Joan, that the way we do everyday tasks affects our well-being and results in us holding our body in a certain way and then everything we do there after is done in the same energy. For example cooking whilst resentful, this would have an effect on how we cook the food and we then have the unseen, but still felt ingredient we didn’t bargain for – is it any wonder that we can cook the exact meal, and one time it will taste amazing but then another it lacks something.
I agree Julie I too have experienced this difference in flavour and quality with cooking.
Wow Joan, this is amazing, ‘I had been listening to Serge Benhayon’s Gentle Breath Meditations on the Unimed Living website. The consistency of practising my gentle breath along with these audios has had a direct effect on the quality of my life, the way I move, and the way I express.’
I’ve just melted reading how you ironed the pillow cases Joan – you have forever changed my view of ironing and the importance of how we are doing it. Like everything we do, it can either be with consciously being present or letting ourselves be taken over by the doing. I am on a computer for the majority of my day and there are lots of times where I am not even aware of how my fingers are typing or how they feel, but when I do stop its like an instant surrendering to being gentle, because I feel every stroke and how it feels on my finger tips and how my arms relax.
Well said Aimee, coming back, re-connecting with how the fingers are typing and how they feel, helps clearly to do these things with loving presence.
I love taking the washing off the line and folding my sheets lovingly too. It just shows that everything we do is an opportunity of love for all. Thanks Joan.
It’s so lovely to love and care for yourself in this way, and then when you go to use the pillowcase, that same love and care meets you. It is beautiful to know this because before we were coming back perhaps, to the rush and frustration that maybe we were in. No wonder some days we felt out of sorts and nothing was helping, not even resting in our beds. Now we are supported by the care we take of our things and the love we are in for ourselves.
Joan, how inspiring that in that moment you chose to be present with yourself, you immediately understood the responsibility you had.
This is such a lovely blog Joan. I smile as I write this as I have had a basket-full of ironing waiting to be done for several days now. I left it in the hallway today so I couldn’t ignore it but found much more urgent things to do! Now I will approach it in a much more loving way, thinking of those who will lay in the beds, with beautifully ironed sheets and pillow cases welcoming them – and me too. I love freshly ironed sheets, just haven’t enjoyed ironing them before. This could change from this day on! Thank you Joan.
What came to me when reading the title again was the fact that everything’s indeed energy. We can deny it until death, but it doesn’t change the fact. And everything that we do with the connection to ourselves contributes to the harmony around the space where we do what we do. Because we’re doing it. So denying the fact that everything is energy is in fact denying the fact that I do matter. Because if energy doesn’t count, I don’t count as everything I do is done with energy. The quality of that energy comes from the choices and the connection that I choose. Isn’t this fascinating. It is indeed a merry-go-round if we choose the denial. Because we’re looking for answers or solutions within the very same energy that is not who we are. In fact, doing everything to avoid the fact and the acceptance of the fact that we are energy. It’s our energy that can run through our bodies and if it’s not ours, we’re actually saying: “please, take over this body of mine and do with it whatever you want”. Even writing this is confronting myself, realising how often I’ve chosen to not take responsibility. And on top of that thinking that I can get away with it.
Floris,
The deep healing that I have received when writing comments has astounded me and I often find myself revisiting comments that I have previously written and they again hold another level of healing for me, as they are directly from the fullness of me.
Your sentence “please, take over this body of mine and do with it whatever you want”. Is deeply healing for me today. It is bringing to the fore for me the feeling that my body is mine and belongs to me. It is my choice what I allow into it and what I allow to drive it. Showing me that the only way to fully claim my body is to love it in full. I now know that I do have more than a say I have a responsibility to use my body in a way that is deeply loving and caring, moving with tenderness and allowing the world to feel this.
I couldn’t agree more, Joan. When I do something with an awareness of the quality I bring and the purpose of the activity, there is greater dexterity in the task at hand. And when I am distracted or checked-out, things never go according to plan. Your simple revelation is very powerful and says a lot about the difference we can make when we choose to be present.
Doesn’t this just show too how when we do something with our quality and awareness we are already holding a purpose that feels so gorgeous and within this an integrity and responsibility that confirms we are always about brotherhood, as what we do affects everyone else. It’s natural to want to provide love and true care for another to feel, experience, be held in or as in this article also lay their head on.. So very beautiful.
The deep respect and tender loving care we can offer through the simplicity of ironing a pillowcase is amazing and, a beautiful example of the depth and power every moment holds…the choice to be right there in the quality of all our loving intent.
Yes Anne, a choice in every moment and one that comes from the depth of knowing and wisdom that is naturally in our body.
I find that by never being a perfectionist, you open up the world to discovering new things. I have and sense of order that allows things to flow where I feel the perfectionist attempts to force things to flow and we all know how well that works…not.
sjmatsonuk. Perfectionist energy held me is its clasp for a very long time and in this I was constantly living a life of anxiety and it definitely didn’t work. Finally I came to a place where I realised that I was not and could not ever be perfect. My choice has instead become to live with the love and tenderness that I feel within myself and I too enjoy the flow and simplicity of living this way along with the immense joy of being present in my life.
Very true sjmatsonuk. Forcing anything completely changes the whole experience and not to mention all the complications that can be created at the same time.
I find it interesting how everyday events can bring such realisations and quite often it is in these domestic ‘chores’ that I get to ‘see’ life in another way, which helps turn the jobs from chores into magical moments 🙂 Thank you Joan for the inspiring reminder.
Turning domestic chores into magical moments – that feels like it could possibly be a great title for a blog!
So true, jsnelgrove36. It is all there in the magic of the everyday for us to learn and discover more about ourselves and our true nature.
Some of my biggest moments of understanding and awareness have come while I’m sweeping the floor or hanging the washing. While I’m in the simple joy of the task and in the presence of my body and the quality of how I’m completing the task, there is clarity and wisdom often presented. These are magic of God moments.
Great point jsnelgrove36, it is the everyday events that give us an opportunity to gauge where we are at, as it is something we come back to doing day in day out.
I’ve noticed that we can rank the various tasks that need to be done in order, often household duties can be last and considered a waste of time or a burden. The problem here is that the quality of the way these tasks that are then attended have within them this same energy and it compounds much like compound interest. The reflection back is of course the same energy.
If I notice that there is something that I do during my day that is not holding the quality that I know should be there, I look at myself and the fact that at some point I am not self caring towards me or I have let myself slip somewhere, allowing an energy of laziness or disregard to creep in. When I deal with that, it addresses the rest. It is immediate and such a self-management way of maintaining the quality of everything in my life.
A great point and strategy Matthew. I love how you you take the responsibility to check your quality of energy, and then if it is less than you accept you immediately back track to see why and address it. From there you can return to the quality of energy you choose.
Joan, how beautiful, lovingly ironing knowing that someone is going to lay their head on the pillowcase that you have imprinted with your love. An amazing opportunity to support them during their sleep.
EVERYTHING changes when we consider that whatever we are touching, doing or preparing will affect someone else. My body instantly becomes more tender and caring and the mundane becomes quite special. When I get caught up with myself and the task, I can leave behind frustration, rush, anxiousness etc. But when I feel other people, I instantly have greater care.
I agree Fiona, it can be something as simple as walking up stairs holding something in our hand, drinking a glass of water, walking to the kitchen, sitting down on our office chair, anything.
That is a widespread condition Fiona, I know so many people who find it easier to consider others above themselves. However, we are just as worthy of our own love, tenderness and care at all times as much as anyone else. On the other hand I hear you, when you know your choices affect everyone else it adds a totally other dimension to responsibility, we must just remember that we are included in the everyone.
Yes Fiona, I have the same experience – when I make it about people rather than it being a task I need to do, I have a different focus and an awareness that brings much greater care.
That is such a great point Fiona, the difference is quite remarkable. When we look at the bigger picture, of how we do affect each other by how we are and HOW we do what we do, it brings back the beautiful responsibility we have for the ALL.
And with ironing, I have found the more care and attention and preparation of the item that you take, the quicker it gets done. Preparing the item seemed to prepare the body for the right touch to the iron and the sensitivity to feel any potential wrinkle and adjust. Isn’t it interesting how when you iron a wrinkle in, it takes ages to get it out?
That is such a valuable perception Simon, as that also applies to everything we do, from a small physical task to the whole day or month or year. Preparing for the way we are going to live our lives is in the choice to pay attention to carefully preparing and carrying out of the smaller every moment ones.
I never even considered ironing a pillow case before I attended Universal Medicine presentations where I realised that the quality of energy you do any thing in has an impact on your well-being. So that got me thinking if I iron my pillow case with loads of love then I lie in this same love. Made sense to me to start ironing my pillow cases and that lead me on to ironing my donna covers and sometimes even my sheets….who would’ve thought I am the same person who once upon a time did not own an iron.
That does make sense Mary-Louise, the quality in which we do any of our activities, choosing the most loving things for ourselves in any moment. I have to admit that I would have never have thought to iron a pillow case, and not sure I ever will, but I can certainly make my bed in a way that is so loving, that it just feel so delicious when I lay down for the evening.
I agree Jennifer I probably won’t start ironing my linen any time soon but I can truly appreciate what a moment like this offers that can be brought to all the moments and tasks of the day.
I have not ironed for years … and been proud of it but suddenly I have been buying clothes that need to be ironed! From reading this blog and comments I can actually feel how loving it is to do this for myself ….ironing pillow cases etc, so thank you.
That is inspiring. As I recently made my bed and put on fresh but crinkled doona covers I felt like ironing them! This is something I’d like to do.
I can relate to this as after I read this blog I ironed my pillowcases as I was pretty inspired! Next stop the doona (duvet) 🙂
Wow what a loving bed you rest in every night marylouisemyers, this is something I knew some people did but I never considered it for myself.
Beautiful Mary-Louise, ‘So that got me thinking if I iron my pillow case with loads of love then I lie in this same love’, Since attending Universal Medicine courses I have found that I now really enjoy ironing, I enjoy being very present and lovingly and gently moving the iron, i have not yet ironed my pillow cases but am feeling very inspired to after reading this blog and your comment.
This is a great point Mary Louise, without Universal Medicine there are so many actions and situations in life that I just never would have even considered, by that I mean that I wouldn’t consider there is any significance to the way in which I complete a menial functional task such as ironing it is simply a tick box, however through the Universal Medicine presentations I have began to understand the way in which there is a quality to everything, which consequentally affects everything, and in every moment we can choose to be present and connect to how we are doing something
I have never ironed my pillowcases. Ironing has never really been my thing as I have mostly lived in clothes that didn’t need ironing, and I don’t know if I ever grow to make that a part of my daily thing, but I really appreciate the deliciousness of returning to confirm an imprint of loving choice you previously made, and I am very much inspired. Thank you marylouisemyers
Joan- what an amazing difference in quality that can be felt in the body when we come from conscious presence and breathe our own breath.
I agree Loretta – and I am finding that breathing my own breath, bringing me more to a conscious presence is the key commencement point, and the re-connecting point during my day. I find I am soon reminded if I have lost that sense of presence, when I bang my arm, or nearly trip on an uneven footpath etc. etc. – uh oh! – loss of presence, and as Joan has said our daily lives are full and more beautiful when we remember to come back to our presence, even when engaged in such an innocuous momentary occupation as ironing the pillowcases. As we are often reminded by a very wise man, Serge Benhayon, expression is everything – and from my own experience if I make the choice to not ‘check-out’ during that activity of ironing, I know I can consciously be in presence.
To the simplicity of a pillow case and all the everyday situations and occasions, big and small, that can offer so much by way of reflection – what would we do without them?
We would live in convenient unconsciousness Gabriele Conrad, sustaining our pain, suffering and struggle – that’s what we would do!
Yes we would jeannettegold. Mmmm…pillowcase or sustained struggle? Simplicity, I’m yours!
Yep Elizabeth, it’s a bit of a no brainer. Yet many struggle to make loving choices and that is why the support of Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine is so indescribably valuable.
Gabriele in truth much of our daily life offers this simplicity and this reflection if we stay present with what we do and do not create complication. Simplicity is the key.
Joan, I love to iron our pillowcases, you have bought a much deeper awareness to me and what I am bringing to the ironing.
It does enable, almost like permission, one to bring more awareness to the specific task (like ironing) after reading a blog like this.
The way in which we complete each task and even do every single movement will add up. If we do it with frustration, frustration is what will accumulate in our bodies and will be taken with us to every movement that follows. If we choose to go about our days with commitment and love, this is what will add up and be carried forth, allowing us to deepen it along the way.
So true Michael. And this applies to anything that we do. We have the power to create the quality that we live with in every day life. The choice is ours.
Great point Michael, how we are with ourselves is so often the reflection that comes back to us! The reflections I used to regularly get back were resentment, tension, frustration and stress, and it took me a long time to take responsibility for the fact, that this was often what ‘I’ was putting out! I much prefer commitment and love as a reflection, especially as I’ve now experienced the more I am with myself in this way, the more of this I get reflected back!
Very true Michael Kremer – the reality is that simple, we either heal (we live love and express love) or we harm (we live and express with anger or other emotions). Either way will be magnified by the energy we choose to live.
Michael you’ve really highlighted the choice we’re presented with in all we do – do we accumulate in our bodies emotions that aren’t us and interfere with who we are or do we live who we are and allow that to deepen and become our everyday joy?
I agree Michael, I love the way how you have described this simple truth. It is all about the quality we are in and not if we have finished a task or ticked box.
’I now realise I was choosing a state of unconscious checking-out from the actual task, so not really paying attention to what I was doing or how I was doing it.’ It is crazy how we seem to not be present in the body while we are doing things – one of the things I used to do in my life was to sit behind the wheel of a car from A to B and yet having no idea how I reached point B, I had been completely checked out while driving.
For sure Eva, it’s quite scary how we can check out doing any activity because our heads are in a different place with distractions. Even the most mundane tasks like cleaning or ironing can be fun when we focus on them.
Joan this is a great blog on the quality we choose to live in our day to day living – Thank you. ‘This beautiful lesson applies to everything I do, and as I begin to experience moving in a new way I can feel how the quality of my whole life can change, as one task is not separate from another but one continual flow.’ To be consciously present with all that we do is indeed a game changer.
I love those meditations on the UniMed Living website and the fact that they are available to all. They are a God-send. It is great as well that you share the fact of the way in which we do things has an imprint/effect on another (another much needed lesson brought to all by Serge Benhayon). Imagine what the world would be like if we all lived in this way.
In the striving for perfection we loose sight of Divinity and our power in being present as who we are. Thank you to Serge Benhayon for presenting the truth that there is no perfection here… we are perfectly imperfect in fact – so why beat ourselves into a fitted state of anxiety trying to reach an unreachable target? Learning to enjoy myself as I am and the quality I bring is wobbly at times but beautiful when I appreciate my imperfections.
I was dodging this blog a) because I don’t iron and b) it seemed boring… boy was I missing out! There is such simplicity on offer here with what you have written and your pillow case experience Joan. No task is more important than another and I love how you say ‘…I can feel how the quality of my whole life can change, as one task is not separate from another but one continual flow.’
Wow what a light bulb moment and while you doing what is often considered a mundane chore. It just goes to show it really does matter what we are doing or where we are as long as we are taking responsibility engaged and present with the purpose and energy we choose to the task at hand.
I can feel the care you applied when ironing Joan, and when we apply that same energy to everything we do it makes all the difference
Being aware that somebody will be lying their head on that pillow case, I love that. This makes it not just a pillow case, like a piece of cloth, but you make it about people. When I have to check the meeting rooms at work in the morning, I always touch the chairs and just move them a bit, with the awareness that it is not just a chair, but a place that somebody will sit on later that day.
Thank You Joan for reminding us all that even a simple task like ironing is asking us to be present so that we are connected to our body and not checked out.
I spent most of my life ironing for others with resentment and then I found a solution to my big issue. I made sure everything went to the ironing shop or a lady in my area. It was only AFTER I came across Serge Benhayon and applied what he was presenting that things changed. My understanding is that the “quality” in which I choose to iron leaves an imprint on the garment and that imprint is felt whenever it is used. So this means I have a responsibility about the quality that I choose when I iron. I no longer iron when I am tired. I iron in daylight and when there is time and space. There is no pressure or demand and that helps. My ironing is simply amazing and I have ironed for others and they have deeply appreciated the quality of what I bring because I pay attention to the detail – no different to any other area of my life. So the way I clean my kitchen sink is no different to ironing. The task receives my deep love and care as I really do see things, even clothes and a dustbin like they are precious. Laugh if you want but its true and I love living this way.
A beautiful, simple, yet powerful blog. I have been practicing the Gentle Breath meditation for several years now as I find it so supportive especially first thing on waking. It helps me to connect to my body before I go about my day.
It is very sweet to read how the simplest of everyday tasks can bring so much to life.
Joan, I was struck by your use of the word ‘reverently’ which I used to associate with priests and religious obligation. But when I read it in your blog I got to feel the true meaning of this word as the deep honour and respect that you felt for yourself as you ironed a pillowcase for someone to lay their head on. This gives work a whole new meaning and takes away any sense of one job being more important than another. It doesn’t matter what we do if we do it reverently, for we then bring a depth of quality to whatever we do and we don’t then need any approval from the outside because our love is being confirmed while we are being ourselves in the doing.
“I enjoyed the doing of it because I was in the how of the doing of it. The how was the gentle quality of energy that came before I even knew I was going to iron”.
It is amazing the difference in how we feel when we are consciously present; in everything we do.
Thank you Joan for highlighting this very important fact is such a simple yet powerful way.
Joan, I went into a form of mourning last year when I returned from the UK as, while I was there, my sister ironed all of my clothes for me. I could feel the expression of her love in the clothes I wore and so I missed the physical connection of being wrapped in her Love when she was no longer present to iron. Reading your blog confirmed this experience and I also shared it with my sister, who is in complete acceptance and now claiming of the fact that she does express her love through ironing, after reading your blog. Incidentally, your blog was published on her birthday, which is when I first read it: how awesome is that!! Thank you, Joan 🙂
Thank you for sharing that Coleen, it is such an affirmation of how when we express the truth of an experience we have lived, it supports others to recognise and appreciate something in themselves. Beautiful constellations in your experience all from me sharing mine, and mine was about being aware of everyone else!
It certainly did support my sister in claiming and appreciating her love, Joan: she has now offered to iron any birthday or Xmas clothing gifts she sends over here to Australia: how divinely sweet is that! I agree completely that the constellations of this experience were absolutely awesome – only divinity could’ve accomplished that! It has also inspired me to drop any residual concepts of tasks having a hierarchy of importance: there is no hierarchy of importance when one is expressing in love 🙂
It is actually so important for everyone to know that “one task is not separate from another but one continual flow.” If we knew how the quality of every thought, word and action determined the quality of the next and so on and so on, then we could take total responsibility for the quality of our life. I love what you are sharing Joan.
Beautiful when we find ourselves being so tender especially when doing what would otherwise be such mundane tasks.
Firstly the fact that you iron your pillow cases at all is very impressive. I can’t imagine how it would feel to get in an ironed bed but getting in one that was ironed with such care and love as you describe is making me want to get on the next plane to Somerset and have a slumber party at your house Joan! By the way, the name to hold on the sign at the airport is BALDWIN. Kidding but totally loved the blog, beautiful reminder of the importance of presence.
Ha! Too funny Sarahraynebaldwin… Everyone is getting blessed with the care Joan has put into her ironing and everyday tasks – even if we’ve got our heads on her pillows or not! The differences we can make with a little more care in our day and the ripple effect it makes – great blog.
Yes I agree Rachael, with the amount of washing I do having 5 kids I think that ironed pillow cases maybe something I only experience at 5 star hotels, unless Joan accepts my slumber party offer that is…. but I can definately be inspired by the love and presence that Joan takes in each moment.
Every moment we choose presence matters, and is a gift for others too. Thank you for this care full and crease free presentation, Joan.
It is amazing how the most mundane of things can be done with much love and care. I love the connection you make Joan between your ironing and preparing for someone to put their head down and have a restful sleep. In effect you contributed to their truly resting by your presence when doing the task.
“And so I began to iron the pillowcase with true care and a focused attention”. This can be a revelation when it happens Joan. Imagine what life would be like if we did every little thing with ‘true care and focused attention’ – it would be life changing!
I had a similar experience washing the dishes recently I noticed that I would move between checking out or pushing to get it done, I then made the choice to connect to what I was doing and felt like there was time and space to enjoy making the dishes clean.
I wanted to avoid you comment Nicole! I struggle with the dishes and very much make it about getting them done. I even feel the resistance in me thinking about changing this!
Yes it’s a big one and something we do everyday! – So many simple opportunities for reflection and evolution.
Joan, conscious presence would have to be the single morst important state of being for us all, yet, I know for me, I have made many things more important. However when I am being consciously present I feel totally in my body, colours are brighter, sharper and my eyes focused and clear. Very different to the fog and heaviness when I am not being present with myself.
“…one task is not separate from another but one continual flow.” I love this. I experience this more and more everyday and it feels amazing. There is no fight, no resistance and no trying or pushing. It’s Heaven really.
I agree robynjones11, to consider how I write this comment would effect , what I do next and then that will effect the next thing, bring home the true impact of our choices.
I love that equality that conscious presence brings to the task at hand, each getting equal importance to those before and those to come.
Absolutely, Fiona, there really is no task of greater importance than another, because how we do everything impacts on everyone and everything equally.
What a wonderful blog Joan, the next time I iron it will be a whole new experience, and not just ironing, you have inspired me to be more aware of expressing love and care for myself and others in whatever I am doing.
Totally awesome Joan! I had a revelation reading your blog! I realized how frustrated I sometimes get when “I want to do it my way” or “it should be done this way”, similar to you Joan with the order and how neat things need to be. There is nothing wrong with order however, I realized this is a form of stimulation ‘I see’ that all is ordered correctly. If things are out of place it actually upsets me – I want or project how I want to see things. I can relate this feeling to the world how mostly everyone and everything is ‘out of place’ or order. I counteract with me not willing to feel this by having everything neat and ordered to settle it in my mind, but not allowing myself to feel my sensitivity in my body as a strength to lift others and provide another way.
More powerful to energetically order from my body than to physically order just so it looks good.
Hey Rik, I like what you are saying here. ‘More powerful to energetically order from my body than to physically order just so it looks good’. I know from having been a mum that when I felt a sense of inner equilibrium my children would play together happily but if I was off centre it was hard to bring them back to order, and trying to impose order on them made things worse. If I reacted to disorder in any way it compounded it – the only way to restore harmony was to come back to myself and speak from my authority. If they made a ‘mess’ when they were playing together it never seem disordered, but if they were at odds with each other then it would annoy me. It was not so much the actual mess but the energy that had disorganised matter by putting it in a disharmonious configuration. I see now that I had a choice to not react and I wonder if reacting to disorder might also be a distraction that takes us away from inner harmony.
Ah Rik, the “looking good” seems to kill any gentleness, stillness or Love. it is invested in to be awarded “Brownie Points” by others, and even from ourselves, like “I’ll feel good about myself if I make this look good”, rather than coming from that feeling inside that arises from the inner heart and knows our true selves and does not need any medals. To be in gentleness brings about a connection with the texture and form of what we are touching, it is as though everything expands and we feel the quality of energy in it, around us and in us. That seems to me to be “energetically ordering”, from the inner place, as you say.
I love how you are bringing it back to the simplicity of conscious presence Joan and the simple task at hand. The mind likes to bring in complexity and with it comes the frustration, the anxiousness and weariness. Our body is the one that knows the simplicity of life and the joy it can be lived with.
Thank you Judith, I agree, when we eliminate day dreaming, complexities and emotional outplays, and be focused on ‘conscious presence’, then there is a “simplicity of life and the joy it can be lived with.”
‘as one task is not separate from another but one continual flow.’ Beautiful Joan. Thank you.
Such an inspiration to ironing next time! Thank You.
Joan, your blog reminded and inspired me to bring more focus and joy into cleaning and organizing my house, thank you!
Joan, I can feel your tenderness in this sharing. It is beautiful how you are supporting and nurturing yourself in reconnecting to you with the Gentle Breath Meditation and from there follow your impulses. It is so simple.
Thank you for the reminder and inspiration Joan.
often when I am ironing, I found I have began feeling very lovely, still and in that meditative state that you have described, but during the process I find I become distracted in my thoughts, start to feel anxious and then get sick of ironing, this says a lot about my commitment to being still. Although I have found that more often than not, when I become bored with something its because I’m not expressing with my body how it naturally would, I’m in effect holding back joy, love and expression which can be there in all the tasks that we do.
I too can easily get bored and go into my head when I’m ironing but having the awareness that someone is going to lie on the pillow or wear the clothes once ironed, changes everything. There is a purpose and meaning; I am inspired to be more present the next time I iron.
Thank you Harry. It is great to reflect upon why we may get bored. It is quite a crazy concept that we can even get bored as there is so much going on at any one moment to observe and feel. Being bored feels like a checking out, an inability to feel and as you say a holding back. There is magic and communication happening in every moment and to be bored is saying I am missing all of that.
Absolutely Harrison, using an ironing board bored me until I stopped daydreaming and became as present as possible, and not holding back the love ‘which can be there in all the tasks that we do.’
Glad to hear Greg!
Hear hear Harrison!
Thanks Joan for your blog, a great reminder that it is the quality we are with everything in everything we do. I sometimes can get trapped in getting things done, even knowing it is not adding any quality to it. You add a lovely element to it like with the ironing of the pillow: to envisage that someone is going to lay on that pillow. You bring purpose to something so-called simple and daily. It shows everything we are involved in can be done with purpose or from a checked outness.
I so enjoyed reading your sharing with us Joan. It is so easy to go into fine details of ‘trying’ to get it right that a simple job can become a chore – which so changes the energy that is then worked into and with to achieve results. For all to feel!
Your sharing Joan really shows how to appreciate that beautiful stillness within and the gentleness that you consciously worked with. Now for me to apply this to all my household jobs not, just with my ironing!
Joan what a gorgeous reminder that no matter what we are doing when we are present and loving with ourselves, it can be a lovely experience. I particularly loved making what we do about another person as I am starting to understand everything truly matters.
Thank you Joan and Sharon, I agree, ‘everything truly matters’; what we do affects everyone. As Serge Benhayon presents, ‘everything is because of energy’, so when I am loving to my self others feel that.
What a beautiful blog – so simple and something I can relate to on every level. Joan, I love how you approach the ironing of the pillow case – not just as a task to ‘get done’ but a true honouring of the person who is going to lay his or her head on it for repose. With conscious presence, the simple act of ironing becomes so much grander as it serves humanity. This truly is infinitely more rewarding than the rushing and cursing that I am so accustomed to and something you have inspired me to work on. Thank you.
This is so gorgeous Joan, thank you for sharing. I had this really funny image after reading it whereby each time you ironed a pillowcase the depth and quality of you gentleness and tenderness deepened even more so you’d have to go back to the ones before and re-iron – and endless cycle of reimprinting. But now I can see that this is exactly what we are doing all the time as we deepen our quality of love and expression. Life is a constant evolution and in that an constant reimprinting – in effect, we never stop re-ironing pillow cases 🙂
So clear that Lucy, that “life is a constant evolution”, and I feel that really supports us to allow everything to unfold naturally and not try to get to an end, (useless, as there never is one), and end gain by having to get it done or be perfect. Re-imprinting whatever we do at a deeper level of energetic awareness is never ending, there is always more to feel.
Just gorgeous, Joan. I had a smile all over my face reading your blog! I have two pillowcases to iron today and I am going to iron them in the knowing that it is (as you say) in preparation for someone to lay down her/his head on them -I have never done that before and I know what a difference that will make.
The feeling of gentleness as I lifted the iron came simultaneously with a thought that arose in my mind about others lying their heads on the pillowcase Anne. To always be aware that the way we choose to touch everything will affect everyone else is an enormous responsibility. It certainly does make such a difference if we are aware of the ALL all of the time, with us included but not separated from it.
This is exquisite Joan and also incredibly important. The quality with which we do anything is left behind after we have long gone, so I absolutely love that you were taking this level of responsibility seriously but not in a heavy way, but in a deeply loving and tender way. I have no doubt whoever sleeps on those pillowcases after you’ve ironed them will receive a blessing from the love and care you have imprinted them with. I feel very moved by this.
Thank you Joan, I too have found the meditations by Serge Benhayon to be an amazing support to reconnect back to the stillness within me and to know that that is me regardless of the situation I am in.
Thank you Joan and Francisco, I agree, any time and any place. Also the Universal Medicine clearing symbol on the pillowcases, along with Joan’s ironing, ‘support reconnection’.
When we connect with the purpose of what it is that we are doing, it changes everything as we see and feel the interconnection between all and how everything matters.
Couldn’t agree more Donna Gianniotis – purpose is the forerunner for all we do. Making it about honouring, supporting and developing Love and Oneness is a real game changer – our levels of responsibility skyrocket in the most divine way to include everything and everyone and it is an utterly lovely way to live.
Joan, I did some ironing on Sunday, remembering your post, and as I ironed my blouse felt that how I was with the iron and on moving across certain areas of the item, could feel the healing effect I was having – ironing up the spine, across the shoulders, alongside the outer walls of the chest. I was able to feel how I was future-supporting myself with love whenever I would be wearing the top. Ironing never felt so beautifully restorative!
I want to wear that blouse!! The way you have described ironing it is gorgeous, Zofia. Like the pillow cases that Joan ironed for herself and her family. The care that is taken in the process is loving to all, as everyone can feel the imprint in the pillow cases and your blouse. Imagine everyone who walks past you at work or on the street. They aren’t going to know what hit them! But how very cool to offer them the quality that you ironed your blouse in.
Heck, I want to wear that blouse! But since I can’t, I’ll just have to go iron my shirts with the love that you have inspired, Zofia.
Sounds like a plan, Naren. Ironing will never be the same!
“Future-supporting”, how important that it is Zofia, I love that way of describing how all we do and the choice of the energy we do it in always comes back to us, and everyone else too. How beautiful to feel that our choices of the way we express in any way and in every moment can enhance and support the unfolding of our lives.
Gorgeous Zofia. How amazing that we can give ourselves this gift and support ourselves in this way. If we take care with our quality as we prepare things for ourselves we cannot but feel the effect of our own love.
Wow Zofia, that sounds incredible.
Joan how beautiful this sharing is, reminding us of that connection we have to all when we perform any activity or task with conscious presence in our day. I may take up ironing pillowcases again!
What an absolutely touching blog sharing Joan. I was glad you used the word reverently, as this is what your article felt like, a gorgeous reverence for self and all in presence with task at hand. On a practical note, I know this is not what the blog is really about, but you have totally made me want to iron all my pillow cases, and bring this same care to all I do in everyday, and to let myself feel it when I do, as you did here. In appreciation.
I love the smell and feel of fresh sheets on the bed, as well as clean and fresh pillow cases. Just sliding into bed is a joy on the nights that I have just changed the sheets. It is the small tasks done with love that bring such joyful moments to reflect upon at the end of the day.
I did it last night robynjones11, and it was grand. I had made my bed lovingly and it felt the beautiful to feel the love coming back to me.
I agree, jeannettegold, to wrap ourselves up in the beauty of fresh sheets is divine!
I love a freshly made bed but I have to be honest and say that whilst I have often wanted ironed pillow cases I’d labelled that as an indulgence and waste of time. After reading this blog I can feel how the love brought to it can have a huge impact.
Joan, what you present confirms how our own quality and everything we do, leaves an imprint loving or not that is felt by others.
Once upon a time I may have dismissed that there is anything at all to learn from observing ourselves doing tasks such as ironing pillow cases. Today however, I see clearly and boldly it’s another indicator or chance to feel our quality; for all parts of our lives are connected.
For something normally so mundane as ironing a pillowcase Joan, you make it suddenly very appealing! Broadening this to everything we do in life and you have nailed it… purpose and responsibility is key. And no more perfectionism in sight as it becomes about the energy it’s done in, and not the way the end result looks anymore. A beautifully simple example thank you.
“…no more perfectionism in sight as it becomes about the energy it’s done in…” So well said, Jenny. It certainly does become about the energy we go about our day in and nothing else. No outcome, no result, no achievement. So at the end of the day, our day feels complete, because of the quality we went about it in.
I agree Jenny, especially about the perfectionism which can stifle just about anything in sight.
Yes too right… and goes hand in hand with never feeling good enough. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy that we expect perfection, which is impossible, hence giving us constant feedback that we’re still not enough. A perfect foil to being fully ourselves and ‘enough’ in the world perhaps!
That was an important point in this article Jenny, no more perfectionism, I have for too long avoided doing things due to a judgment I have on myself for not doing them ‘well’. Ironing is the perfect example of that, I have labeled myself a bad ironer so I have avoided ironing my whole life. After reading this blog I might pick up the iron again and try doing it in a different way.
It is a great point you make here Sarah and how we can hold ourselves back by labelling… etc.. It is great to feel you breaking through this and how easy it actually is.
Yes it’s easier than we think to break through/ let go and inspiring blogs like these assist us all to identify with what might be holding us back and help us realise it.
Perfectionism has been a big part of my life. The need to want to get things right and therefore wasting so much energy, time and money has left me quite exhausted to say the least. What I have come to realise is that it’s not about perfectionism but a lightness and a flow in my body while doing a job and a letting go of the expectation of what the end result should look like.
Beautifully said Caroline, love what you have come to, its what I am slowly realising too.
Absolutely, Jenny, on all points! Making what we do about the energy we are in changes everything about how and why we do something. It is a total game-changer in the best way possible, by offering us the opportunity to take responsibility for what and how we live in our lives.
Yes Naren, and to realise that this is what changes the world… person by person, imprint by imprint. If we keep doing what we’ve always done, we’ll keep getting the same result… as they say, but the key is in the quality we keep doing it in… rather than the what we keep doing.
Absolutely, Jenny. It is so very easy to assume that as long as we keep doing the same things that everything will continue to be the same, but we have all experienced that moment of asking ourselves ‘why is this not working anymore?’ The key you have revealed here is the answer: quality, quality, quality.
Haha yes so true, the personal growth equivalent to real estate’s: position, position, position!
Taking the perfection out of something changes everything. If I’m not trying to do something perfectly I can simply enjoy the process. But as soon as I have an invested outcome and put pressure on myself, the game has changed and enjoyment is much harder.
Yes Nikkimckee, and not just taking the perfection out of something, but putting our SELVES back into it. The quality we do anything in is what is ultimately what makes it fulfilling. And not because we need to be fulfilled, but because we are naturally FULL and feel at our best when this is being expressed…. no matter what we are doing.
Yes, if I am with myself while I am doing something, any outcome is irrelevant. Being with me itself is fulfilling.
Joan who would of thought that ironing a pillow case would be a moment where you have a huge realisation. You can never pick it! The simplicity of this is gorgeous and no matter how many times you listen or are explained that it is about the quality of the way you do things – until you feel it for yourself and this is where the Gentle Breath Meditation is so supportive as you get to feel the immediate impact that it has on you and all others. You start to realise the quality you choose is the first place we start our day, through out the day and until the end of the day where you lay head to rest on an exquisite pillow case.
Yes, Natalie, the simplicity here is gorgeous and confirms how simple it is to allow tenderness and what kind of effects this has on the life one lives.
I agree Natalie, you can’t assume that just because something is simple it can’t be made life changing when you change the way you approach it.
Yes you never know when the embodiment of the learning will hit! Until we actually get to experience our connection and create that spherical gentle quality it can not be a lived experience, but comes from knowledge. The inspiration that is created when we get to feel this for the first time when doing an activity we normally are invested in or have tension in is profound. I love Joan’s sharing – totally gorgeous.
Everything changes when we allow ourselves to connect and be present… we move, speak, connect, love and live in a whole new paradigm.
I love how you shared about adding love and purpose to what could be a mundane robotic activity and showed the joy and the presence that this brought to the moment. What a gorgeous way to live every moment of life.
Joan, I could feel the flow within your words as you told of your experience of ironing a simple pillow case with love and gentleness. It is possible for this to be the way with everything we do e.g. dressing, showering, shopping, cleaning. It is a matter of choosing the energy we want to be.
There is such beauty in the formerly tedious tasks when they are done with attention, presence, love and care. I know my whole body engages and I enjoy the flow and ease that comes from it. Sweeping the floor for example has become one of my favourite things to do.
Joan what a delightful blog and the message is so true for so many reasons. The quality in the way we do ANYTHING does make a difference and the more we care for ourselves the more we care for others. It’s an energetic thing. Beautiful 🙂
The expansion of love that is felt when we allow the heavens to flow through us, is the great feeling of oneness. We begin to see that we are moving in a great ocean of energy where our every thought is a ripple not just our movements. Beautiful lesson Joan, on how we share this love with all.
That is a beautiful lesson that can apply to anything and everything that we do, making it about the quality and way we go about things first. It’s interesting how it took no longer and possibly was even quicker to iron whilst being consciously present.
Thank you for sharing this Joan, how a simple domestic task can bring such clarity & wisdom to your living way – a beautiful imprint for your head at night & the “flowing” affect you have with your body in everything you do. I too can recall being more present with ironing a very enjoyable task – I love ironing pillow cases.
What a sweet reminder this is. There is so much joy to be felt in everything we do if only we stop and connect. Thank you Joan, I love the awareness that the pillow case will be on a pillow that will be a support for someone’s night’s sleep, just like the clothes I fold are to be worn and the quality that is done in will be so supportive to my children as they go about their day.
What a great reminder, how quality is more important than quantity. I still get caught sometimes in the doing it instead of being 100% present and without a rush. Thanks for reminding me that there is nothing more important than being in the moment.
Joan this is amazing. You’ve reminded me of the everyday miracles we can deliver through connecting with love to the purpose of what we’re here to deliver. Like I’ve found this to be true with words but why I’ve limited it to just this. Isn’t this in all we can do, like every movement and action. What a beautiful reminder. Thank you.
“As I lifted the iron I was very aware that someone, myself or my partner or a friend, would soon be laying their head on it at night.” This is a great example and image of how whatever we do leaves an imprint that the affects the quality of the end product and that quality is felt, even if it is not noticed, by the user of that product.
Thank you for sharing this learning experience for there is great wisdom .
I love your attention to detail, Joan, and the love you bring into your life in paying attention how you iron your pillowcases.
It just goes to show that we can bring love to everything we do, that there really is no on or off switch.
This is wonderful Joan Calder, and what a gift to your family and friends if you ironed every single little items of clothing for them, putting as much care and loving attention into every stroke of the iron, how blessed they would be. And like you say, this gentleness and being present with ourselves applies to everything, even how we put the toilet seat down… every detail counts!
Lovely how just being present with and exploring this one task can bring much deeper understanding and appreciation of yourself Joan. I’ve also noticed that this then builds the way I can be with the next task.
There is nothing better than a bed with fresh clean sheets. Its a true delight in life, and even more so when the bed is made with love.
Now I can’t say much about the ironing mines been broken for quite sometime although I can totally relate to it, by the we have all those “other” small jobs that we just get in to because we have to, the getting it done syndrome. I noticed this drops away so much more when you bring back the quality of yourself and we are not off day dreaming about the next thing to do !!
I know this is just one simple everyday task which can be done in resentment or with love, but this little blog shines a light on our responsibility to do all of our everyday tasks in such a way. Awesome.
This was pure perfection for me to read at this moment Joan. Reading it was such a healing in itself, and allowed me to appreciate so much how our actions ~ when done with the quality of love ~ can have such a profound effect. Thank you for sharing this beautiful experience.
It seems there is an evolutionary shift in the writing going on with blog sites affiliated with Universal Medicine and blogs like this one. The deep appreciation for the detail of our everyday lives is really exquisitely being presented as our relationship with the finer detail of God. I love how it is answering the call to bring true religion into daily life – in very simple daily tasks. Absolutely divine!
This is so excellent Joan, the way you changed and ironed with more gentleness and precision could be tangibly felt, it was amazing! Imagine if we did all of our tasks and walked in this way, how powerful our livingness would be.
Tea towels and then pillow cases were the first things I was taught to iron when I was a young girl. I loved the matching corners and the simplicity of the task and they have continued to be my favourites in the ironing pile ever since. This blog now adds an extra dimension of awareness to the task that where I am with myself at the time really makes a difference to whatever I am ironing, as the garment is going to be worn by someone I want to be wearing ‘love’ and most definitely not the opposite.
In the past I too would iron to just get it done now I love ironing my clothes with the greatest amount of care knowing that I will be wearing the garment sometime soon and that the quality of the energy I iron in will be in the clothing I put on.
Great blog Joan. It is in the most apparently mundane of things that we can truly feel the joy of being present in what we do in my experience. Such as walking up the stairs, or indeed, doing the ironing. The simple joy of being with ourselves is very beautiful whatever the task in hand. I agree that the Gentle Breath Meditation is a wonderful support in being present – something I have been doing for several years now – thanks again to Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine.
Wow Joan this is beautiful a true lesson in ironing with love.
This is very inspiring Joan, I must say that I avoid ironing, I do it only when it is really needed, like for social events. Thanks for your reminder.
It’s very special how we can change the energy of a mundane job so easily when we realise the deeper feeling underneath the process. Whoever lays their head on your pillowcase will get a very different feeling when they go to bed from the previous way you used to iron. It’s very much a win win situation for you both.
This is lovely Joan. A super simple example of what can happen when we stay present in the knowing of how we do something effects another. When we keep everyone else in mind we can connect more deeply to the love within and develop in the appreciation we have of ourselves. Thank you Joan.
What a beautiful teaching you provide here with such a commonplace activity, one most will understand.
I have ironed many a pillow case and I can tell you it is deeply therapeutic. The part later when you get to put your lovely head on that lovely ironed pillowcase-cased pillow is just a glorious bonus. Same goes for underwear… yes you heard right, underwear.
Thank you Joan , it is very beautiful doing things in the way you describe, it changes everything and is fun. It reminds me of when I was changing the sheets and covers on our bed the other day, ( a job that I realised I usually rush a bit) so, I made sure that took my time and enjoyed every movement I made. By the time I had finished the energy of the room was so beautiful, but not only that, it carried everywhere I went ,and with everything I did. A great reminder of how absolutely powerful we are.
What a beautiful story and I can feel how much every single moment we can bring a quality of care to whatever we are doing.
God is found in the most simplest of things. Thank you Joan for this steadfast reminder.
I love you sharing your experience and know exactly what you mean. I have felt that Joy and pleasure in the seemingly menial tasks of cleaning and mopping! I have also felt myself being pulled to commit to regular meditation so this is further inspiration to take that next step xX
What a beautiful symbol Joan, the pillow case, the place people rest their heads. The way you attended to this simple task in such a loving manner, in connection with yourself, and your awareness of the energetic responsibility feels gorgeous.
Wow Joan you have touched on something very important here about meditation. So often we think meditation is escaping from the moment or not actually being present with what we are doing but your lovely description of gentle deep care and focused attention or presence for me is much more real and authentic than the blissed out version!
I’m a little unusual in that I’ve always enjoyed ironing my shirts – not typical I know, but there is something very satisfying about the process (when I don’t try and rush it), as well as the imprint I am leaving for the next time it gets worn. So I can totally relate to what you are saying about pillowcases Joan… although I have not quite made it to ironing mine.. something to consider for the future!
I can’t believe I’m writing this but I actually want to iron my pillow case after reading this!
My mother was made to iron all the sheets every weekend and she made us do the same as we grew up. I can remember how lovely it was to sleep in crisp ironed sheets, but it was done with resentment most of the time. There are so many routines and chores that are taught to be done because they have to. If they were taught to be done with the awareness that energy affects us all, I’m sure the activities would have a very different quality.
I’ve never been a great one for ironing but I can understand in what you share how much it changes things when we do a task without being in a rush to get things done and have the intention to take care in consideration of others. A completely different approach ensues when we have others in mind I find, then we are much less likely to let any emotional feelings fuel what we are doing and can simply let it unfold, much like the pillowcase.
A great reminder to us all of the extent to which our life can be change if we are able to take that level of conscious presence to other areas of our daily life.
So beautiful how you have shared how the consistency of your Gentle Breath meditation practise has changed the way you are with tasks such as ironing. Your commitment to you has expanded your awareness of the flow and interconnectedness of life and is such a gift. You have inspired me to commit to listening to the meditations regularly. Thank you Joan.
Yoga while ironing…
Beautiful Joan. I have had a similar experience when making my bed. Not rushing through to get it done but feeling that I was actually creating an amazing space for my wife and I to rest that evening. I felt the importance of creating this space in the love that I wanted to lay down in. How amazing if hotel workers felt like this when they made the beds for their guests.
What a simple beautiful example of how we choose to do things has a direct impact on those around us. The quality we choose for any to be in, for anything we do no matter how seemingly small, has massive impacts. Imagine if you had ironed the pillow case in frustration or in the desire for perfection, what quality would this have offered the person that then slept on that pillow case? How would this have effected their nights sleep not to mention the quality they would wake up in and have as a foundation for their upcoming day.
I’ll never forget a presentation I attended by Serge Benhayon a few years ago about philosophy. He said a chair is never just a chair, it is someone’s chair. It’s so obvious, but I had never thought of it that way… when you realise just how much you effect everyone else life becomes so precious.
Exactlly Meg, priceless. I remember this as I am making juice and smoothies on my weekend job, that someone is going to drink it and I would them them to have something made with care, and the quality of love.
Yeah! I used to do that when I worked at the checkouts at a supermarket, every piece of food that passed through my till was something someone was going to eat, it made me so much more careful and considerate.
So true, Meg. Every moment has a purpose and every object is relevant.
Absolutely – it really made me consider how important every single moment and every single thing I do is.
It really brings a whole new way of seeing all that we do and the quality we do it in, doesn’t it?!
It does, it’s a completely different way to see the world, I find having that focus on how things will effect others also makes me less self conscious – which is pretty cool!
That is very cool! I too feel the focus come away from me, me, me when I feel the rest of humanity and feel how the quality I operate in impacts not just me but everyone and everything.
The Gentle Breath Meditation is such great tool for bringing you back to your body. I really love the simplicity of it and also the fact that once re- connected there is no purpose in staying in meditation for hours, we can simply take that connection to everything we do in life.
This is really beautiful Joan, ‘as I started to gently lay the iron on the material, how my gentleness and tenderness was a respectful and loving way to prepare for the laying down of those heads for a reposeful night’s sleep’, I can feel the love with which you ironed these pillow cases, and as you say this can apply to everything we do, this is a wonderful, joyful way to live when we choose this level of presence, focus, tenderness and care.
Seeing and feeling the purpose of our tasks brings such clarity to our behavior. I have enjoyed reading your experience with this Joan and have lately been considering more deeply the effect I have on others when my behavior becomes about just ‘getting it done’.
I love the idea of living life consciously and reverently Joan and that this is a moment to moment choice, between myself and God.
As I read your article Joan I was appreciating how everything we do in life reflects the quality of the energy we are in, and how the simple act of ironing a pillow case offered you a beautiful insight. The power of being consciously present with the details of life…
“..how was the gentle quality of energy that came before I even knew I was going to iron.” So key Joan, we have indeed chosen this gentle quality long before we come to the task, If we live in a way that constantly honours how our bodies feel then tasks like this become great confirmations of all that we are.
“I enjoyed the doing of it because I was in the how of the doing of it” is really the key message for me here, a beautiful moment of conscious presence and the felt benefits of that space and time in all its preciousness.
Joan, I love simple examples like your pillow case example of how important it is to be present with what we are doing and the difference that it makes when we are.
Gorgeous blog Joan. I love ironing it is a moment when I can be with me and have a gentle rhythm with each piece I iron. As soon as I start to rush and put a time restraint on it then I get agitated and the rhythm has gone. One of my favourite times is getting into bed with clean and fresh ironed sheets it feels such a loving thing to do.
Thank you Joan. The simple act of ironing the pillow cases was done for the others who would sleep on it and also equally in a way that honoured you. It was not just for yourself or for another, but all equally.
Ooooh that is so gorgeous – it was not just the presence but the purpose and responsibility. Imagine if you are ironing a pillowcase with an emotion, perfectionism, resentment or whatever then that is the imprint you leave and that is what you or someone else rests their head on at night. It is such a joy to connect to how EVERYTHING we do comes with an energy, and has an effect and the responsibility of that. It is the easiest possible way to let go of judgemental and irresponsible ways of being and then we reap the benefits of our loving actions just as much as everyone else does – as you have so clearly shown in this blog. Also interesting that you iron pillowcases – something I have never done in my life, but I am only 58 so I might get to do it yet!
I agree Nicola, the purpose and the responsibility is felt in the simple task of ironing a pillow case bringing home the message that everything we do leaves an imprint that will be felt by someone, in this case the person who lays their head on the pillow case. Absolutely everything counts!
“It is the easiest possible way to let go of judgemental and irresponsible ways of being and then we reap the benefits of our loving actions just as much as everyone else does”. Understanding the simplicity of our actions and behaviours and the rewards that we all reap from being free of the emotional baggage we tend to bring, means that life itself becomes very simple and even the most mundane of tasks becomes a pleasurable joy.
I find the responsibility that understanding that everything is energy is very empowering; what a difference I can make in my every move!
Yes I agree Suzanne it is not only empowering it is fun! For example if your job is to do the post at the office, the person opening a letter will be affected by the quality that you folded and placed the letter in the envelope, or even if you visit a public toilet the next person will be affected by how you open and close the cubicle door. EVERYTHING we do or don’t do leaves an energetic imprint and the more aware we become of that the more we can feel it in the apparently smallest of things. It is like we are all swimming in the one ocean of energy and can feel every ripple. This responsibility when truly lived is immensely joyful.
I agree Nicola, “it was not just the presence but the purpose and responsibility.” As I read, I felt a reverence for the task and recipients of the finished product, this is how purpose and responsibility for the quality we bring comes into all our daily everythings, and Joan describes it so gorgeously. PS – I have never ironed a pillow case either, but am really keen to after reading this! I can imagine what it would be like laying my head down to rest on one of Joans lovingly tended to cases, almost like the warmth of the loving ironing would still be there to greet my head, crisp and full of care…yep, I definitely want to give this a go…
“It is the easiest possible way to let go of judgemental and irresponsible ways of being,” I love this Nicola. We can only be sure of not harming another by being truly present with ourselves in all we do, and by doing this we would certainly become aware of judgemental thoughts and irresponsible ways, and I can see this would have to be one of the easiest possible ways to let go of this unloving energy.
Well said Nicola. We can make life small, after all we’re only talking
about ironing pillowcases but, in truth we are all part of a much bigger
picture, a grand designing in which our quality of energy, our loving
intent and our true purpose make all the difference. I like to iron
pillowcases as a loving gesture toward me, my guests, and the pillows.
This is a gorgeous sharing Joan. I loved the presence and tenderness you ironed in and how this supported your sleep and time of repose.
Yes, by doing such a ‘normal’ task in such detail and care she has helped prepare for her sleep, beautiful.
Ironing pillow cases… not only is how you do it an inspiration, but the fact you do it at all! I love how you have brought in the care not just for what you are doing while ironing, but the people that will use that pillow afterwards.
haha Joel, I was tickled and inspired also by Joan’s ironing of the pillowcases, and may just give it a try, very lovely to feel Joan’s care and attention to detail.
Ha yes, my first chuckle on reading the start of Joan’s blog too… ‘ironing the pillowcases? Wow!’ And by the end… I wouldn’t mind resting my head at night on one of those pillowcases so I might just give it a try. A great reminder that everything counts however, that there’s no such thing as a small thing.
Good point Joel, its the consideration of another’s experience that can really bring home how even the simplest things are a service, and everyone can experience the love we are even in the smallest ways.
The beauty of an ironed pillow case cannot be underestimated! Fro sure it is worth the effort!
I agree Joan..”I now realise I was choosing a state of unconscious checking-out from the actual task, so not really paying attention to what I was doing or how I was doing it. No wonder I became frustrated!” And this happens frequently for me with Administration tasks. I judge them as a bore so I leave them to pile up then I have so much to do and the frustration doubles. If I can bring my whole self and conscious presence to the task it will make it easier and fuller- this is my new challenge.
The concept of checking out from the actual task is universal, it’s not just about ironing as you have experienced Irena with your admin. Isn’t this blog such a fabulous opportunity for people to look at life’s activities a little differently.
Me too Irena. At school I sometimes check out and start writing essays or doing tasks without paying much attention to what I’m doing, but then the quality of my writing can be pretty awful, and what’s worse is that I remember absolutely nothing from the lesson and when it comes to revising I have to learn it all again.
Irena, I too find conscious presence a challenge as for years my mind has had many thoughts running through it while I have been doing things. But with the gentle breath meditation which connects us to our bodies where gentleness and stillness can be felt the conscious presence becomes possible.
What you have written here Joan can be applied to anything we are doing. We are so used to being only partly there and accounted for; to be fully there and fully accounted for is a beautiful and fulfilling thing in itself what ever we are doing.
Yes I agree Kathleen, I love ironing as it provides me a space to connect with myself and be fully present if I choose to be.
It certainly does Mary-Louise, I do a lot of ironing and also find it a great space to be fully present . . if I am not fully focused I tend to burn myself as a wake up call. With myself or ouch! I know which I prefer.
The appreciation of attentive tenderness to what we are doing, and how that leaves an imprint of that tenderness is a lesson that could conceivably develop over years.
I agree Heather just from the appreciation itself the utter importance of leaving nothing but an imprint of tenderness is bound to develop.
I agree kathleenbaldwin. And when we look back at our pillowcase or whatever we have done we can feel the love we have taken reflected back at us.
Yes Jane, we can feel the love reflected back and even bigger than this we can know that this makes a difference in world as the more we are in harmony with life the more harmony in the world as we are all part of the whole. Also the more we are in harmony the less we are in disorder and disorder brings about dis-ease as everything effects everything all of the time.
Yes, Kathleenbaldwin this blog applies to everything we do. To be fully present and accounted for makes an inordinate difference to ourselves and the thing that we are focused on.
Absolutely rachelmurtagh1, I might add that this difference even goes beyond ourselves and things we are focused on as we inadvertently affect everything and everyone all of the time, this is the responsibility most of us do not want to accept and prefer to stay ignorant about.
” to be fully there and fully accounted for is a beautiful and fulfilling thing in itself whatever we are doing.” Absolutely true.
Yes Geraldine, true and essential if we want to keep out of the dementia ward and keep our wits about us well into old age.
I just love it when someone shares their experience of true presence with something that they are doing and how amazing that feels in the body. Each time it reminds me of how important and powerful choosing to do that is for everyone, showing us that the simplest of things done from being totally present with ourselves during the task, not only connects us back to ourselves and our own enjoyment of that, but what we leave behind in that loving move, ripples out and also comes back to us as a confirmation of our choice. Thank-you for you gorgeous sharing Joan.
Julie I totally agree. When we share the simplest moments and the level of presence and awareness that can be felt doing any thing it totally inspires me.
I agree Julie, the choice to be totally present with ourselves imprints our movements with a loving connection that can be felt by others. How gorgeous Joan, the loving care you have brought into everyday tasks through your commitment to being fully present and responsible for the energy in which you work.
I enjoy listening to the gentle breath meditations on the UniMed living website too. I find that there are different ones to support exactly what you need at each moment.
I loved the simplicity in which you have learnt of the power and beauty in living energetic integrity and how this has affected your entire life and the flow in which you now live. This was truly gorgeous to read and what a blessing for whomever lays their heads on those pillows.
A gorgeous blog Joan thank you. It inspired me to read about how you connected to your gentleness and the purpose of your ironing. I have also found recently how I am enjoying the simplicity and order of domestic tasks so much more, and I do love simplicity!
I agree Bernadette, the simplicity and order of domestic tasks can really be enjoyed. Where I once would have got tasks done as quick as possible and then hastily ticked them off my list, knowing they would be back on the list soon enough. Now they are done with tender loving care and I look back at the result sometimes and think, wow, that feels amazing, who did that?
With women still doing the majority of domestic tasks, finding a new way to approach them – with care, consideration and awareness – may well just make an enormous difference in society, as women everywhere begin their journey with energetic integrity – the knowing that everything we do affects everything. This will be a lovely society to be a part of 🙂
When I am doing things with loving responsibility in a gentle and caring way, I know I am leaving that imprint and that’s what I or someone will feel when they next are there, and it feels lovely. The difference that can be felt if I go into automatic to get it over and done with, having already moved on in my head to what the next thing is that needs to be done, then that disregard is what is felt.
I agree, Deidremedbury: I’m observing, too, the consistently offered opportunities to choose ‘get it done’ drive or a loving imprint for all to connect with. I love that these imprints are un erasable, too, so they remain for eternity, the imprints of Love: that is remarkable and also deeply confirming.
Reverence – yes, that is the exquisite quality I feel within your words and experience, Joan. “I felt, as I started to gently lay the iron on the material, how my gentleness and tenderness was a respectful and loving way to prepare for the laying down of those heads for a reposeful night’s sleep.” That is so deeply caring and also deeply appreciative and respectful of the alignment that can occur when we lay down our gorgeous bodies to rest. Thank you, Joan, for such a beautiful blog. I shall be taking reverence to bed with me tonight.
” As I lifted the iron I was very aware that someone, myself or my partner or a friend, would soon be laying their head on it at night.” – that is the key isn’t it Joan, how we effect others with the energy we bring to them, including how the pillowcase gets ironed. Love your blog, so simple and to to the point.
Dear Joan, it looks like you were ironing out much more than a pillowcase! How delightful to feel the direct effects of the Gentle Breath Meditation and your ability to be so connected and to imprint the pillowcases with such love and care. This is not just about ironing, but about the power within each of us to change the world in every moment simply by being the love that we are. Very inspiring, and another testament to what Serge Benhayon is truly delivering to humanity. Beautiful to read, thankyou.
I love the simplicity and beauty of everyday moments in life Joan and therein lies the magic of love and connection with all.
I even love seeing my sheets on the line on a beautiful sunny day… It is a true joy, for me anyway.
Beautiful Joan m. I loved the simplicity you presented this one in.. With the pillow case and how you went back and ironed the first one again as you were feeling more gentle. I also loved the example you gave about how everything we do has an effect on another, pretty much cause we aren’t the only ones on the planet. Whatever we touch, another person is going to touch too. Awesome to be aware of the quality we touch things in, to pave the way for another person. Really beautiful.
It’s a great reminder that both you and Joan have given me around the ‘footprint’ I am leaving everywhere I go that is having an impact on others who are connected in some shape or form with what is happening.
It seems that these day to day tasks can bring us insights into the way we are in other areas of our lives can’t they? I was reminded though, that it definitely isn’t about going slower, it is about knowing that how you are doing something has an impact on the thing you are doing it to, long after you have finished doing it. So your ironing was different because you brought responibility to how you were doing it and in order to do that you had to address if you were lacing the ironing with ANY energy, be it frustration, niceness, you had better appreciate this, resentment, rush, anxiety, perfection…the list goes on from what I have discovered in my experiences!
Oh yes the list of emotions that we can lace tasks with is something I can really relate to. For me the change has gradually come the more I appreciate myself the less need I have for recognition from others which changes the energy in which I perform everyday tasks.
With every expression, spoken or unspoken, we are leaving an energetic footprint – bringing awareness to this, sharpens our focus on how we choose to be in our day to day.
Often the most profound lessons come in the simplest things that keep repeating in our life, such as getting frustrated with ironing. What a great example. The Gentle Breath Meditation is great for supporting our ability to feel what the situation is teaching us.
And I love the example you gave of imagining that you, your partner or a friend would be putting their head on the pillow case for the night – when we add the qualities of love and serving others to the mix, it takes our relation ship with the task to a whole other level.
This is so true Golnaz. There is so much power in the simplest, daily, repetitive, seemingly mundane tasks that we do that make up what we call living. Being aware of the quality that we actually do these tasks and making a choice to bring more tenderness, love and stillness to these tasks can actually heal us and those around us on a very deep level.
I’ve found that too Joan, that when I’ve changed how I am in in one part of my life it impacts all the rest of it as well.
That is a point worth pondering… So many of us, me included have a long list of “what to get right”, but what you offer here can support affecting change without all the trying and list ticking.
I love the use of an everyday item such as a pillowcase to demonstrate the fact that everything is everything. Nothing is insignificant and if we all paid a little more attention to our every moment, the difference and the impact we would have would be out of this world. That’s not to say many aren’t already doing this and building on this. I, myself am working on it all the time, remembering that nothing should get left behind and that rushing and getting frustrated actually take more time to deal with than letting things be. Interesting how counter-productive we are when trying to save time.
‘Everything is everything’. love that Elodie,nothing is too small for total consideration, nothing too large to avoid, when approached with simplicity.
I agree, Joan. Everything we do is an opportunity to consider just how we are going about doing it – an insight into our true quality in that moment.
And the true quality cannot be faked – it comes from how we are living and then affects all the interactions, big or small, no matter whether we try and hide it or not.
I agree Simonwilliams, whenever I have reminded myself to move gently it always feels false because it is instruction from the outside. The truly gentle and beautiful moments are when it happens naturally from the inside because of the loving choices we have been making for ourselves. This then affects everyone else and everything else, for Love expands.
“And for the simplicity of a pillowcase!” – indeed Joan, and with it comes great Truth. Love how you went back to re-iron the first pillowcase feeling the difference in the depth of gentle quality with the second one…and just goes to show the layers of presence are ever-deepening by the way we hold ourselves and others in life, with love.
Yes, and I also love that this came so naturally and effortlessly – with no ‘trying’ whatsoever.
It always amazes me how powerful and profound these moments are that come about through the simplest of acts, and from us focusing on the finest of details. The presence we bring to these moments allows the revelation and changes everything…how would life be if we lived every moment this way!
I love that focus on the finest of details, too, Paula: in the details we become whole, because Life itself is made up of a myriad of details that we can bring presence, love and glory to, if we so choose.
I feel we don’t need to live every moment this way – that is some time in the future and perfection is not possible anyway. Our life transforms when we connect deeply and they transform every time we do it. We don’t have to do it a lot – that comes on its own accord, it is enough to connect and be present whenever we remember – we can put little reminders here and there, that can be helpful.
Thank you Christoph, I feel a deep love and caring for ones self in what you have expressed.
Absolutely!
Hello Joan Calder, classic, you iron the pillowcases? Said from someone who is allergic to ironing, well you know what I mean. Regardless, I love the message you share here and the connectedness of life, “This beautiful lesson applies to everything I do, and as I begin to experience moving in a new way I can feel how the quality of my whole life can change, as one task is not separate from another but one continual flow.” Speaking of connecting, how do I airmail my ironing to you?
Haha, allergic to ironing! I remember when my son was around 5 I pulled out the ironing board to iron a dress and he exclaimed ‘What is THAT?’ I think I was allergic to ironing back then too:)) Thank you Joan, a beautiful reminder of choosing quality in all that we do.
Hello Sara Harris, this maybe a side bar but relates to ironing. When I was about 10 years old I asked my Mum to teach me how to iron my school uniform. From then on I ironed my school uniform at the beginning of the week. I just loved how it looked and felt and how organised it made my school week. I’ve never ironed the pillowcases but from how it felt with my school uniforms back then I’d be willing to give it a try. Thank you Sara and Joan.
I agree Ray, as another ironing allergic, its actually great to read this and feel a little less resistant to doing it 🙂
How about trying ironing for yourself Raymond? You never know, you might begin to love it! Give it a go and do let me know how you get on…
Haha, thank you and for the record joanchristinecalder I do iron and have since I was very young.
Ha ha, love it Raymond!
I get the pillowcases but shirts is a whole different ball-game.. no seriously, bringing that level of love to everything that we do and in the holding of ourselves and all, brings a whole new quality and dimension to the world that affects everyone and everything.
Hello Annie C, now that is ‘seriously’ serious, but seriously a great point you have made and beautifully said, thank you.
How gorgeous for those people who lay their heads on your pillowcases Joan. I can feel the deep respect you have for them, for what you are doing, and for yourself too – which is very inspiring, thank you.
Wow this is so beautiful Joan. What a powerful message and reminder that life can be lived as one continuous flow of our connection to All, through Love.
Joan what a moment to bring a lived ” gentle quality of energy” to a mundane task and have such a beautiful reflection in how you are doing it and the impact it will have as you say on the recipient. It’s with seemingly small ah ha moments like these the gentle subtle changes occur in our bodies and in our lives.
I agree merrileepettinato, this makes it real.
“gently and flowingly” I love this word ‘flowingly’ – I know this feeling in my day and in my way and when it is not there it is missed. I throughly enjoyed the way you encapsulated such wisdom and grace with ironing a pillow case – even touching on the responsibility we have for others – your sharing is deep and rich. Thankyou.
Joan, I can super relate to your sharing. Ironing has been a chore for me as long as I can remember. What I disliked about ironing in the past was my lack of patience and presence and my need for perfection all exposed for me to feel, no wonder I did not enjoy it very much. This all changed when working as a fashion stylist, I had a job which I had iron many different men’s shirts as a steamer just wouldn’t do the job, and throughout the preparation of these shirts, there was lots of ironing to do, therefore time to reflect and be present, until towards the end I was really enjoying the ironing too—because I was beginning to feel and enjoy my true self.
In the mundaneness of everyday life there are always opportunities to grow and evolve, this breaks down the belief that evolution is a special thing and we have to be different when meeting it or that it looks special or grand. Evolution is in every day life and in all our choices, it is when we allow ourselves to feel the direction of where our bodies want to lead us and honor it. Ironing and evolution—why not?
So true, evolution lies in the smallest of tasks or everyday chores. When we truly connect to the rich tender love within our bodies, everything we do can be transformed into a task full of joy and purpose. Housework, laundry, ironing, shopping, all those jobs we pay little attention to how they are done are huge opportunities for evolution when we connect and respond to the wisdom in our bodies.
A simple yet profound tale; thanks for sharing Joan.
How gorgeous Joan, that a simple task such as ironing can bring great awareness and confirm how loving and gentle you are.
To come to a point of realising how we are in our bodies affects everyone is quite a deep revelation. To appreciate our living quality and it’s flow on affect is really quite profound and I can feel it now just from reading your blog Joan. There is so much beauty in our all-loving activity with God.
Suzanne,
“To appreciate our living quality and its flow on affect is really quite profound.” It is also extremely humbling for in feeling the affect we have on the world brings us so down to earth and simply says, you are needed.
I can see your point Joan, when something is done without really being present we soon become frustrated! I have certainly found this to be the case.
Susan, not only that doing something without being present frustrates us – I also get very exhausted. Doing something without having head and body together (and of course the heart :)) is not a wise thing to do.
Striving for the ‘perfect’ result keeps us away from the beauty and love that we are. It is only when we drop any expectations of something having to be a certain way that we can enjoy the beauty that is there in the moment.
This is beautiful Joan, and a pertinent reminder of the benefits and power of dedicating time for the gentle breath meditation each day – thank you.
A beautiful blog Joan, inspiring to read. I love how you described a simply task of ironing a pillowcase brought awareness and flow to your every movement. It is amazing you are able to bring this level of love and care to what you do, it is exquisite. You have inspired me to do the Gentle Breath Medication every day.
A great reminder of how it’s the quality in which we do something that counts more than the actual doing. I am very familiar with that ‘needing to get it done’ feeling, but have been more conscious of it recently. And every time I catch myself in that mode I bring my attention back to me and my breath, and almost at once the tension in my body that is brought on by that need for completion goes.
So true eleanorcooper79. I have come to realize the importance of quality over the years. Sometimes I get caught in thinking that I can’t maintain my quality and get the job done, however, this is not true. I have become more able to maintain my own quality and presence over time and I still get the job done, however, the importance I place is on the quality, not the doing. This is an amazing way to work.
It’s definetly a great reminder in the quality we are doing things. So stopping and connecting to our breath it’s a great way to connect and bring back the quality.
Joan I love how you have shared your loving care and connection with what is before you and how this transforms the what comes next…. It is a moment-by-moment choice to be present and so powerful to feel the deep potential we have in each moment.
There is great power in bringing our conscious presence to each movement in our day. As you have shared Joan, not only does the quality in our body change, but time appears to slow down. And with each new marker of gentleness, we can go deeper and unfold more of who we truly are.
It is the being present with ourselves and what we are doing that is the best service we can do for others. And this feels like a great example of this – by being fully present in ironing this pillowcase, and allowing the natural gentleness of you to come through – you then allowed yourself to feel what was needed and that was to iron this with as much love, gentleness and care for the next person to lay their head down upon the pillow. How beautiful is that. Thank you Joan for sharing this with us.
sarahflenley,
“It is the being present with ourselves and what we are doing that is the best service we can do for others.” The more that I choose to live present with myself, the more I know the absolute truth of this statement. Thank you.
This blog Joan has inspired me to make more of an effort with simple tasks like folding things and preparing myself better for tasks I have ahead that I know will directly effect myself and others.
I agree kevmchardy, while reading Joan’s blog I felt deeply the joy and love that could be expressed through simple everyday tasks, and feel inspired to be more aware that the energy I am in will directly affect myself and others,
What a beautiful blog, Joan! As you share this was a simple pillowcase, yet how you were when you ironed it would affect how you were in the next task, and the next. As Serge Benhayon has said ‘everything matters’, no task or moment is more important than any other – this is true responsibility.
absolutely Carmin and these simple acts will when consistently chosen to be done in presence and a loving way extend into everything we do, our livingness as a whole. I have found that building this foundation is affecting every aspect of my life including relationships and my ability to be with the world.
Carmin and Carolien,
I so agree with you both. Loving myself and what I am doing is changing my life in every way. Enjoying me has made a huge difference in how I interact and be me when I am with others. The drudgery of having to be with people is being replaced with this deep internal desire to be with people more, I am only beginning at the tip of the iceberg, when I feel how true and strong this wanting to be in our world is for me.
thats is great Leigh and also I have come to see that being myself in all I do makes it so It does not matter what I do, it all becomes the same when my quality is the same. Somethings are more my cup of tea then others but I am learning that even the things I used to hate and continuously postpone can be just fine when I am with me. Dare I say I at times start to enjoy doing my administration!. Looking at it from this angle sure breaks the whole search for the dream job or the job that is all about what we like to do.
Being consciously present with any task or job has taken me a huge amount of commitment over the years. It is getting easier as I build a supportive and loving rhythm in life. Doing a job, any job, connected and present feels amazing. That energy is left in whatever we have done and can continue to be felt thereafter. Contrasting how lovely it is do something while being consciously present to being on auto pilot and checked out is where accidents can happen, injuries take place, things can be done wrong and can lead to a series of unwanted events unfolding. I have many markers of doing things connected or checked out and being connected is something I will continue to chip away at as I deepen my connection to my essence and as I further understand the responsibility in the energetic imprint I leave behind
Hi Joan. I remember learning how to iron as a child, my sister and I were allowed to do the handkerchiefs and the pillow cases.
I like the point you make when you say “Therein lies a very important point when I say meditatively: I now realise I was choosing a state of unconscious checking-out from the actual task, so not really paying attention to what I was doing or how I was doing it.“ It is easy to check out whilst ironing and there is a lesson for me to learn here in other situations too. Thank you.
Wow I really liked the awareness you brought to the importance of what could easily been seen as mundane task, ironing. It’s a completely different experience when we realise that the quality of presence and love and care we bring to every task, makes such a difference as to how we feel doing that task, your blog has brought me a greater awareness of this Joan thank you, as someone who almost never iron’s things, I might even do some ironing myself!
Everything matters. I am only recently experiencing the difference in quality within me while being with me in whatever I am doing. For a long time I’ve tried to find myself in taking better care of myself to a very high degree. Which indeed supported me a lot, but now I am realising that if I don’t feel the Loveliness in what I am doing I am actually missing me.
Joan, the simplicity in what you have shared is very moving and a reminder for me about the absoluteness of being consciously present and the life changes which are possible from being this.
I appreciate the simplicity of your sharing Joan, i find it is often in the details of these simple moments that we are enlightened to the depth of our quality and the exquisite flow that comes forth from our connection to ourselves.
The beauty of simplicity hat can be found in any task at hand is one that can be felt by all. To be conciously present in all we do, be it taking out the rubbish or running a bath, to be really with ourselves whilst we move our bodies in that grace, then as you say Joan, each action flows seemlessly to the next, ever expanding the stillness with which we move in.
Joan, reading your blog one can but feel the shift you have made to a new level of conscious presence, all as a result of your consistency in practicing the gentle breath in the mornings and evenings for the preceding days. As you share, this “has had a direct effect on the quality of my life, the way I move, and the way I express”. Thank you for this powerful reminder that the whole quality of one’s life can change when we are prepared to go back to basics and build a strong foundation.
I just want to add that in reverence, nothing, absolutely nothing is trivial.
I love the word ‘reverent’ Joan. Far from the traditional religious overtones I once associated with it, this word now describes a way being that is deeply respectful to the all. It is a way of holding ones self in all that is done that is in complete regard for self and every other being knowing that they are affected by all that we do.
So it is possible to iron reverently, cook reverently, type an email reverently.
Lovely blog, thank you Joan. I realise that when I am doing a task such as ironing and I am really present with myself, the need for perfection drops away, for the simply joy of being with what I am doing is everything in that moment.
Joan this blog is lovely and confirmation of how the consciousness we choose has a direct effect on everything and everyone – either healing or harming.
How beautiful it will be for the person who rests their head on the pillow at night with the pillowcase on it that has been ironed and prepared with such love.
It feels lovely to respect and deeply care for others in this way Joan and the act of being present while you are doing it allows the love to be deeply felt by all.
Joan, this is just lovely what I feel as I read your blog is that active choice we all have in each moment in how we approach each task and after all it’s us doing that task so why would we want to add further pressure to us by doing it as a must or in resentment – ooh I can feel how I have made things overly complicated by not just simply honouring me, my body and the task in hand.
We just ironed with three of us a beautiful dress for a ball tonight. Doing that we could feel how the energetic quality of the dress changed by the tender very focused we one us ironed and the others supported. The joy and brotherhood we did this in will be felt when this dress will be worn tonight. I agree with your conclusion that a task never stands on its own, is not separate from another but there is one continual flow and it influences the other movements.
This is beautiful what you share here Joan. We are so used to do things and complete them with focusing on getting ‘it’ done. What I realized for myself is that getting ‘it’ done is not that rewarding in truth, it always left me to a point of not feeling enough. I have practiced too the gentle breath meditation by Serge Benhayon, and this has supported me to be in the moment and have a conscious knowing and awareness of how I breath, this helped me then to be with what I am doing.. I must say, that this is truly rewarding, I don’t need anything else.
It is beautiful to feel when we do something with our full presence, it brings the quality of our being with that what we are doing, which defines the quality of the end result.
Thank you for sharing this Joan – I know that for me the experience of ironing really depends on how much time I have to complete it and whether I feel rushed – in rushing to get ahead I’m also not present with myself as I’m effectively ahead of time but when I allow my self to be with me in each moment I Love ironing!
It always comes back to how we feel about being with ourselves. If I do not enjoy something that I am doing then there is always something about me that I do not like to be with myself in that moment and I need a distraction to not having to feel what is there for me to feel. Ironing I find is a great example, as it asks us to be just with us and being present. It has something very stilling with a rhythm to it. But when I am not willing to be in this stillness with me then ironing becomes a challenge and something that I find too time consuming.
Hi Joan, I am a big fan, there is a lot more to ironing than just getting the job done and as you point out it turned out to be an opportunity to connect with something very special and in a very tender way. All I can see is that I completely understand and know just how wonderful such a seemingly menial task can be when it is done the way you have.
Hi Joan, thank you for sharing this. it was for me a beautiful reminder of how little tasks like these can be approached with such presence and care to detail, and how this can change and impact so much around us.
I got a real sense of the ritualistic nature of what you were doing here Joan. And this made me realise that our rituals are simple acts that when practiced steadily and consistently build a rhythm that becomes the tune that we hum along to throughout our day. As you have so perfectly expressed: “…one task is not separate from another but one continual flow.” If we remain connected with ourselves, this tune remains harmonious, but if we disconnect, it becomes discordant and we get lost in the scramble of noise that is pure function.
I was amazed that you iron a pillow case :). Joan, you are right – when we do things with conscious presence they have a very different quality. What was surprising for me was that conscious presence over more than just a few seconds takes a lot of practice and quite a lot of readiness to be consciously present.
Beautiful Joan,
The simplicity of being present with the ironing that you have shared here carries a practical stillness we can all feel. Thank you, for it is sharings like this that bring forward the real ness of living gently.
Joan your blog is a reminder that we can retrain ourselves to move and live in a different way. You commitment to do your morning meditations meant you were able to bring that quality of presence to your ironing. The more we do something, the more it feeds into everything we do. I like how you describe that life can become a flow and not simply a series of disjointed tasks.
Ah Joan, I can appreciate the care you took with ironing the pillowcase. It really is about ‘how’ we do things and not ‘what’ we do, or the quantity of things we do. Thank you for highlighting the importance of bringing presence to every little task we do.
This is so beautiful Joan – I love how the simplest of things can bring us so much insight… and reading what you were feeling as you were ironing your pillow case felt so beautiful and nurturing… I wished it was me putting my head on that pillow that night!!!
The more consciously present we become the more open to life we are – including what’s going on around us and how we can support ourselves and others. With conscious presence our inner-heart becomes our focus and then from here our Love for humanity radiates out and this is how we can be of service to others – even when ironing a pillowcase.
I am not to bad in doing things orderly which gives me a sense of harmony and completeness, nevertheless at times I can become a bit rigid with the order and even want it to be perfect like in the case of ironing a shirt or a pair of trousers. I never have been able to iron anything ‘perfectly’, but that is only in relation to an ideal of how it should look like. What you present here, Joan, is a much more beautiful and enriching approach – to be in and do things with a quality that not only feels utmost lovely in oneself but also can be recognised in the task done, so that everyone else benefits from one´s lived state of being and expression. No perfection in external things needs to be pursued, only an ever deepening of the loving and caring quality we express with to contribute to everyone´s well-being.
Being in “the how of the doing” I like that, I’ll use that myself, thanks Joan.
I always find it incredible how when we stop to appreciate the true task in hand a greater responsibility becomes very imminent. Understanding the importance of how we do everything turns life around.
It’s one of those things that people call therapeutic. It might provide a moment of raciness, but as you point out Joan, if there is no conscious presence in the action, there is only a soothing effect. I find that when I move in conscious presence, it is a deeper than soothing because I am able to feel me in my actions and by this I feel the my essence and my love in action.
Joan, I feel an almost longing to lay my head down on your pillowcase! Your blog is exquisite and so insightful. Every single action has the possibility of containing love and therefore leaving a loving imprint in the world for another and all others to feel. I feel that when love is more truly felt by humanity, then the shops, restaurants and businesses that are genuinely run with love will flourish and those that are not will naturally die. We will naturally gravitate towards love because we will recognize that we are innately loving; we will only send our clothes to dry cleaners who can iron with the love and tenderness that you do, because we know that we are going to walk around in those clothes and get the love fed back to us!
Yes Joan, “…for the simplicity of a pillowcase.” Amazing I find how such a simple exercise can with awareness enfold the most revelationary insights and make a difference to all that we engage in. A reminder for me at this moment, thank you.
Simplicity breaks everything down to the very essence of things to clearly see and feel what truly matters.
I agree Roberta this blog brings value to quality and intention we bring to what we do.
A reminder for me also Roberta – and to observe how these simple tasks can be a marker of how we are in all other areas of our life…
It’s often the simplest things that bring it all home to us- I remember how I folded my kids pyjamas so carefully and lovingly one night after a course. My youngest picked them up the next day and said, ” thanks mum for putting so much love into my pyjamas!” It was a stunning moment that I cherish because it shows, everything we do matters enormously, nothing is nothing and everything is everything.
Joan – last week, for the first time in about 8 years – I ironed our pillowcases. I just felt to stop and take the time with this, even though I believed I hated ironing. But like you – I considered who would be sleeping on this pillow, how different it felt when I took the care to iron it, and how beautiful it was to take a moment and take my time doing this. It has completely changed my relationship with ironing.
Hi Joan, reading your blog I feel so much gratitude not only to Serge and the gentle breath meditation that is the cause of many changes in our lives but to you to share the possibility of a very simple life full of love lived as you said “consciously and reverently”.
I want to live like this permanently every day of my life, this is what I really want.
Hi Joan, reading your blog I feel so much gratitude not only to Serge and the gentle breath meditation that is the cause of many changes in our lives but to you to share the possibility of a very simple life full of love lived as you said “consciously and reverently”.
I want to live like this permanently every day of my life, this is what I really want.
Joan that Is So beautiful what you have shared, how we can really change the energy in what we do by bringing it back to our gentle breath and conscious presence. Your pillow cases are going to be amazing to sleep on. I am going to practice my ironing in the same way and bring gentleness to it.
What was interesting to read here Joan was in the one hand there was the ‘trying to be perfect’ mode in getting all the creases out and checking out from the task. To a shift in considering how will another receive such a pillowcase later on and how you feel while ironing. And if that was just from a pillowcase what if how we felt and choosing to be aware of the energy that will be received in by another bring from loads of every other everyday situations?
Beautiful Joan. The merits of being present continue to only but deepen – as demonstrated with your re-ironing fo the first pillowcase after having gone deeper with the second one. Understanding how we are in life effects all of those around us is profound. I love feeling this when I hang out and get the washing in. How I do this leaves an imprint for my family when they next wear the clothes. It brings a beauty, tender and deeper lovingess to all our actions including holding a far fuller responsibility with those actions.
I have always liked to iron. Shirts and sheets. I don’t like to iron women’s clothing… I have melted my share. Egyptian cotton percale ironed sheets are amazing to sleep on, could this be some past life re-experience thing? Loving ironed sheets to sleep on and shirt to put on the morning to start my day. There is no effort or chore in these actions that support me in the start and end of the day.
Dear Sjmatsonuk,
How beautiful. I too love the feel of fresh sheets and I love that you do what you love and feel how much it supports you. Thank you for sharing.
Haha ‘sjmatsonuk’ – I did not like to iron men’s shirts… to big and when you finished it, you have to start again.. Joke aside, I too love my clothes ironed and ready to dress for the morning. It just is the act of self-honoring and preparing for the day.
Joan- I remember in the past ironing clothes with a feeling of burden as the pile was endless; I didn’t enjoy ironing – I saw it as a chore. As a result the ironing had many creases – I then got more frustrated. However, since having met Serge Benhayon and learning the gentle breathe meditation, and the importance of being gentle in everything you do, I too have noticed ironing clothes a very different experience. I am actually seeing it as an opportunity to be still more and feel me. As I do this I naturally want to iron the clothes more gently and lovingly, knowing that others will be wearing these clothes, or in the case of a pillowcase- laying their head on at night.
It was out of a similar feeling about the endless piles of clothes and sheets that felt like a burden that my choice to approach the task in different way arose Loretta. Like you I found that my frustration and even resentment at having to do it was creating problems for me, and certainly very badly ironed garments. Recognising this as well as listening to the Gentle Breath Meditations and pondering on it, led to that day when I felt such gentleness I could do no other than be totally inclusive of all in the effect that my ironing would have. This was very humbling and beautiful, and I realised also how self loving it was as I was no longer grumbling or possibly doing myself harm.
To be ‘present’ and bring that to all we do is powerfully loving and healing for all. Every movement finds it’s way in and through us and so has an impact on the world around us. I loved your comment Joan- ‘As I lifted the iron I was very aware that someone, myself or my partner or a friend, would soon be laying their head on it at night’. Thank you for making it simple and sharing with us a way of bringing this into practice and supporting not only ourselves but those we love. This blog brings much clarity and simplicity.
So simple and so true Joan what a beautiful sharing of how our life can change with the little things and have a profound effect on how we live so beautifully with true connection with ourselves. The loving inspiration from Serge Benhayon and the gentle breath meditation certainly is a gift to us all.
Thank you for sharing the drive for perfection vs the truth of lovingly being present and the natural flow, openness, timelessness that comes with that. Taking everyday tasks that we currently see as a chore and re-defining how we approach them from the quality we’ve been until that point puts a very different picture on the way society operates today. Your example of Ironing a pillow case is one that so many can relate to.
What a simple, but exquisite example of the difference intention can make in any task that we do. When consideration of others becomes the focus and not self… to get through, or get done the quality we work in transforms. I find this so inspiring and will apply it to the marking of children’s work this weekend. I normally just want to get it done, but if I feel as you did Joan about the ironing, the children will have a whole new quality to respond from and I might even enjoy the experience!!!
The Beauty when make it about People…here lies our grace, wisdom and truth.
Completely sandra schneider, what crisp truth you state. And when we make it about people – the love of people – it makes the job all the more worth it and interesting or joyful too.
Absolutely making what we do about people makes a huge difference and inspires us to bring the greatest care to the smallest of details.
Well said Sandra.. The beauty when we make it about people indeed.
Exactly, when we make it about people and of course that includes ourselves too.
Yes Sandra and this is our true nature, there for us to connect to with our ever-present breath.
and when we make it about people then we also make it about ourselves and God equally.
I agree, it felt awesome just reading the blog. I got the care and respect and the preciousness of holding another.
Yes, by reading the blog I felt the change of the energy when it turned to be about people, who will lay their head on the pillow and not longer about the ‘pillow-thing’.
True Sandra, it is all about people, humanity and all of us together.
Ahh yes so much love in what you are describing about making it focused on people. It changes everything.
Thanks Sandra for this tender comment and thanks Joan for this delicate blog.
Joan, what an amazing lovely sharing! Who would ever thought you would write about ironing your pillowcase but in truth you are writing about the quality you choose to do things in. I certainly would like/love to lay my head on your pillowcases. It feels so natural to do what we have to do with conscious presence but yet we are checking out more often than we think we do, at least I do. Having the Gentle Breath Meditation as a tool to re connect to our innerheart is a beautiful gift from Heaven via Serge Benhayon.
I can so relate to having gone from hating ironing and avoiding it like the plague, to finding it a joy depending on how I approach the task. I used to think that it would take me forever if I took my time to be gentle and really present whilst ironing, but in actual fact time after time it has proven me wrong, as I seem to get more done in less time and felt great whilst doing it.
It is amazing how much can change from such a seemingly small, and sometimes considered inconsequential choice: To choose how our actions will impact on ourselves and others. If it has such a far reaching impact, then we must ask, is it actually so inconsequential?
Life is mostly measured by the efficiency of our doing on the cost of our energetic quality and with this the joy of just being with ourselves in any task we do. This is why we become so selective and separated in what we like to do or not, or what is exciting or boring as we have transferred our true quality outside of ourselves in terms of an entertaining outcome, that never ever satisfies. The consistent pursuit for happiness is the emptiness we feel when we live avoid of the “gentle quality of energy that came before I even knew I was going to iron.” Life is about the “how” and not the “what”.
After reading your blog Joan, pillowcases will never be the same again. You have inspired me deeply with your words to deepen the love, gentleness and deep care into my daily tasks. Thank you.
Joan I love your use of the task of ironing a pillowcase to describe the different qualities we can be in when we do things in life. I had to laugh at myself because I have been so driven in life previously and only intent on ticking the boxes that I would never have considered to do something as beautiful for myself as ironing the pillowcases.
Joan this is a great example of bringing presence to the HOW we come to something rather than the pressure and drive of “getting it all done”. Ironing has a natural ceremony and order to it that calls us to be consciously present. The recipients of your pillow cases are blessed by a beautiful invitation to sleep sweetly.
I love this Joan. It is so simple but so life changing!
Joan, this is so important what you outline here, it is about the quality we live our life, quality to the very detail. There are a lot of things on a daily basis which repeat and have to be done everyday and the ironing is just a part of this. It stands as a symbol for everything in our lives, work, family, our relations. How important is it to be very present in all that we do? If not what are we doing and for what?
I too never enjoyed ironing, seeing it as a drain on my time and like you said, feeling the pressure to get it done and the frustration at those pesky creases that wouldn’t go away. However I have found what you have described – bringing more awareness to how I do things and more care and respect to myself, makes a task, such as cooking, so much more enjoyable and makes me feel like getting my iron out 🙂
I am very inspired by your experience Joan and a light bulb went off for me when you explained that the quality you ironed in was a result of the supportive choice you made to do a Gentle Breath Mediation each day. Presence is something I need to address in my life and I am discovering that no amount of ‘trying’ to be loving and gentle when performing a certain task actually works. I am going to download a Gentle Breath Meditation stat!
Nice one Joan, once again the power of the Gentle Breath Meditation proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that it is the way forward, that and conscious presence, you just can’t go wrong.
Fantastic Joan, I love how you have exposed the ‘meditative’ state we can kid ourselves we are in, and how choosing a state of unconscious is actually checking-out from the task. I love how you say choosing to be present is “infinitely more rewarding than the old feeling of ‘getting it all done.” so very true – thank you Joan.
I love the word ‘reverently’ – well, I love the simplicity and profoundness of this whole article – but the word ‘reverently’ focuses me on the divinity and sacredness of every moment and the responsibility I have to approach each with respect and reverence. Really beautiful, thank you, Joan.
I love this life lesson and although talking about ironing it relates to anything we do. It seems that bringing quality to tasks is a current theme at present and one in which I am looking at closely.
Great call out Joan – I particularly resonate with the ‘how’ of the doing and how often this gets ignored for the perceived speed of getting the task done. What you have presented is the fact that we all have the potential to move in a flow that truly expands us and allows the ‘how’ that is the quality to build and build.
Joan what a beautifully simple and everyday task that you have chosen to be your marker for how you are present with yourself and the joy that has brought you. For me it just goes to show how simple and easy life can be with conscious presence.
Very beautiful Joan. How amazing to take your focus from one of ‘must get it done’ to one of true consideration for the next person who is going to use the pillowcase. That is a huge shift, one where we take the consequences of a job or action that one step further and when we do, how much it changes our whole relationship with the task in hand. What a beautiful focus to take into the day, to live and work with an awareness of how other people are going to engage with all we do, a real blessing, thank you.
Very inspiring to read you blog Joan, thank you! I loved reading how you ironed the pillowcase thinking of the person who will rest their head on it in the night, beautiful. This brings purpose and quality to everything we do if we connect with people.
“I felt a deep love for myself I had never felt before.” This is beautiful Joan. How amazing that something as simple and everyday as ironing can allow us to feel this. I am now working with new mothers and their babies and see the tender love they have for them. How and why is it we lose that beautiful connection – not only for ourselves but with others too? Choosing to come back to ourselves and reconnect with our essence, as presented by Universal Medicine, enables us to once again feel that love.
Lovely Joan, i can very much relate to what you have written, I have noticed that if I’m rushing and trying to get something done it feels awful, I usually end up dropping or damaging something and feeling achy in my body as a result, I’m learning to move and do things in a much more gentle and careful, loving way, this feels so different and I feel well rather than achy afterwards.
Joan I love the way you show that with conscious presence, we can transform ordinary and some would say mundane tasks, into beautiful expressions of tender, loving care.
It is a great point you make Joan than when we are in a meditative state we are not more connected to what we are doing but in fact the complete opposite. Such a gorgeous, simple sharing of importance of staying fully involved in the action one is doing.
Love the true simplicity and the connection we feel when we choose to be present in our day. Just a beautiful blog Joan.
Joan, a simple treatise on how to iron with joy. Thank you.
Simply beautiful Joan. The essence of the quality we are with ourselves magnifies in everything we do and can be felt in the body as you describe. The Gentle Breath Meditation by Serge Benhayon is an amazing tool to bridge us back to the innate stillness within.
“I enjoyed the doing of it because I was in the how of the doing of it. The how was the gentle quality of energy that came before I even knew I was going to iron.”
The gentleness and tenderness you bring to the ironing Joan, you totally bring to this blog too. Its lays here in a beautiful unfolding removing any creases I might have had, just in the reading. How beautiful is that love for ourselves flows on to another.
Your point Joan about realising that whoever lay their head on the pillowcase was going to feel how you ironed it. This raises a very good point in that it shows us how we are each equally responsible for our actions and our movements as they are always affecting others, even if we don’t think they are, they are.
I am really in love with this line about the continual flow. This puts in to simple words the mastery of energy in life and how possible it is for each and every person to have this as a regular lived way. Thank you Joan.
A beautiful article Joan, and one that highlights that simple fact that I have also discovered, working on the consistency of this is the next step in my book and seeing all the little areas that do not support the body in this simple way of being such as over eating, trying to do more then one thing at a time and letting myself get caught in drama throughout the day. Which are all things I thought to be normal until now and the understanding that you have very clearly demonstrated.
The Gentle Breath Meditation is a simple but very powerful meditation that, as you have shared Joan, permeates into all area’s of our lives. It isn’t just about doing the meditation in that moment, but about applying the connection that is developed in the mediation and taking it into all of our daily activities, such as ironing, washing, putting clothes on the line – the list can go on and on. The meditation can then become about all aspects of our lives not just a specific time set aside.
Joan, this is gorgeous to read, ‘as one task is not separate from another but one continual flow’ serves as a reminder that our whole lives can be lived with awareness of how we affect the people around us and the imprints we leave in everything we do.
Joan as I read your blog I felt my body become more gentle, I could feel the love and support you would be providing yourself or another by ironing the pillowcases with such care and now I feel like getting out all my folded pillowcases and lovingly ironing them because everything matters.
This is amazing Joan. It is a great realisation that when I do something in checking-out mode or to just get it done, the quality gets lost. This sentence: “As I lifted the iron I was very aware that someone, myself or my partner or a friend, would soon be laying their head on it at night.” just reminded me of when I feel that I am going in ‘just get it done mode’ I ask myself why I have to do it, when I feel then the true purpose in it, I can do it with a presence and quality because I know why I have to do it. Like with studying, sometimes I dread it but if I then see the subject is actually going to serve me and the people around well in the future in my profession, the studying gets easy and fun.
I could feel the love, tenderness and care in how you moved the iron over your pillow case Joan. And as you point out this gentle state of ironing, ‘ was the gentle quality of energy that came before I even knew I was going to iron’. A gentle reminder that everything counts and that each of our every move whether that be gentle or not so gentle impacts and effects our next movement, thus what a great way to start the day with the gentle breath mediation from Universal Medicine and Serge Benhayon.
I used to think ironing was a tedious chore and would allow the ironing pile to accumulate as I put off the task. Gradually, as I have put into practice the teachings of Serge Benhayon of the Gentle Breath and conscious presence to keep my mind focused on the actions of my body I now enjoy ironing as a time to be with me and, as you say Joan, to be aware of the care in preparing clothes and especially pillowcases for myself or others to wear or to lay their head on.
I agree Mary Alder with those tasks that seem to be always the ones you put off. Cleaning was one for me. Now it’s a part of my weekly rhythm which supports me to feel amazing in my clean house.
What a great example Joan on how the quality of our life changes when we choose to be with our bodies and feel our every movement. I have grown being more present and on the other hand I still choose to check out enough time as well. The quality of the time spent with myself and others in presence a lot more joyful and as you say rewarding on many levels.
Joan your example of how to bring qualitiy and love to our everyday activities is profoundly simple. It shows how the profoundest truth can be found in the simplest task, how time is expanded when we are present with what we do, and how the choice to be with ourselves will transform not only our day but that of others too. Thank you for sharing your inspiring story.
It makes such a difference when we do things in the presence and with love. In this case, it will definitely bring more warmth into the night 🌜Thank you Joan for sharing.
Thank you for sharing Joan – it makes such a difference when we do things with purpose – how much more meaningful is it when we, as in your case, do not simply see the pillow case as something which needs ironing but rather as something which will support someone to sleep and rest deeply. By bringing this focus to everything we do it brings a much deeper level of presence to life knowing that everything we do matters and ultimately affects others.
Joan, reading this delightful account of your flow with the ironing and how you attribute this to listening to the gentle breath meditation recordings on the Unimed Living Website, and your own dedication of course, I acknowledge what a remarkable resource this website is. I feel a deep sense of gratitude to Serge Benhayon in what he has presented to this world and to all of those that have made these presentations so easily accessible via the treasures of this website.
You show us Joan, that everything we do can be done in the energy of love or not and that we have a choice in that. The Gentle breath meditation does support us greatly in the quality of our being, and from there we are able to make the loving choices that are supporting us to be come more love and with that to build the love in our bodies. When we then Iron a pillow case we cannot else that take in consideration all that we are connected with and iron with al the love we are since someone will lay his head on that pillowcase and will either be harmed or healed, just through the way it has been ironed. That is the level of responsibility we have to consider in life in everything that we do or think.
Have you ever had the feeling that after reading a text your body feels different? Sometimes it can be exitement, sometimes anger, frustration, joy etc. depending of the energy in the text. After reading your blog, Joan, I feel more space in my body, I feel more of me. Isn’t that God’s magic? Thank you.
The timing was ‘just right’ for me to read this Joan because I’ve been feeling somewhat rattled and ‘jangly’ over the last few days. And as I read your article I could feel the tension leaving my body – a lovely healing from your words. What you share is so simple, yet profound and it showed me that lately I’ve been living in all sorts of places, except the one that brings the most joy…the present. Thank you.
Super gorgeous blog to read, enjoyed every word and how it inspired me to take much more care in how I do things.
Gold Joan gold!
Your post reminded me how I used to enjoy doing mundane, repetitive tasks claiming ‘it was therapeutic’. Once I got the mechanics of it, it was a perfect place for me to check out and I mistook that for calmness.
So true and important Joan: once we make it about the quality in which we are with ourselves instead of the expectations about us and our lives we felt we had to meet, we will realise, how simple and rewarding life is and what an influence lovingly caring for ourselves and appreciating what we are and do does have on us and so many others.
A beautiful awareness Joan, and on the topic of pillowcases, I recently received a silk pillowcase as a gift and have found the delicateness around my face and head has been very nurturing, not to mention the intact hairstyle when I wake in the morning. Real bonus!!
So I can really relate to your gesture of ironing cotton pillowcases to smooth out the wrinkles for our heads to nestle in and the conscious love in that movement. I am certainly inspired and will be doing that in the future for the other beds in our home.
Thank you for your beautiful sharing, Joan.
“I enjoyed the doing of it because I was in the how of the doing of it. The how was the gentle quality of energy that came before I even knew I was going to iron.”
It’s all about how we do what we do, the quality of energy we bring to what we are doing, how we are moving and expressing in every moment.
Such a gift, to be ironing your pillow cases with such love, for the lucky person who lays their head on it afterwards.