Laundromat Wisdom
I just returned from an amazing solo retreat in The Great Smoky Mountains National Park. This is one of my favorite national treasures here in the United States. The mountains vibrate with an ancient wisdom, the forests abound with beauty and diversity beyond measure, and abundance of fresh, flowing rivers cleanses my heart and soul every time I visit.
When I first set my intention for this restorative time in the mountains I envisioned my most profound insights occurring deep in the woods, while sitting quietly in the shade of an old tree watching a river roll by with power, grace and ease. Much to my surprise I ended up having one of my most profound revelations while sitting in a the Super Suds Laundromat on the east edge of Gatlinburg, Tennessee.
After loading my dirty laundry into the washing machine, adding the detergent, inserting the correct change and pushing the start button, I settled into a chair and entered a deep state of reflection. As I listened to the trance-inducing sound of the washing machine going through its prewash, scrubbing and rinsing cycles, it dawned on me that my solo time in the mountains had had the same effect on me.
When I first entered the mountains on Monday my mind was cluttered, conflicted, confused and racing about. Day one in the mountains was like the pre-wash cycle in the laundromat. Some rigorous hiking interspersed with some qi gong amidst the natural beauty, fresh air, and flowing rivers allowed me to mentally let go and begin to relax. It freed my mind of clutter the way the prewash cycle was loosening the crud from my clothes.
Day two acted as the scrubbing cycle. Most of the mental and emotional clutter and contradiction had been loosened up and released the first day in the woods. With my mind quiet and my emotional field calm it was time to sit still, enter the subconscious zone and do some deep scrubbing. Taking a seat in a secluded, heavily forested area along a beautiful river I was able to closely examine and clean up some old, worn-out, bullshit beliefs that have been stinking up the place. Oh how good it felt to off load this contradictory mental baggage and watch it float away on the mountain stream!
Day 3 –It’s time to rinse and reload. Now that I had successfully cleared a patch of my subconscious mind of b.s. belief and it was time to rinse it with some high altitude mountain breeze and reload it with some power-packed, inspiring intentions. For this stage of the process I chose to ascend a 6,000-foot peak of Mount Le Conte and allow my imagination to soar with the eagles. After an amazing six-mile hike to the top I found an incredible cliff overlooking miles of unobstructed rolling mountains and a clear blue sky. This provided the perfect spot to reload my subconscious mind with mental images of what I wanted to create. It was also a great place to begin carefully feeding and nurturing these seedlings of intention with laser-focused, white-hot desire. After an hour-long exercise where I filled the realm of my imagination with powerful, three-dimensional holographic images of what I intended to create, I found myself buzzing with an abundance of creative energy. I took out a note pad and began reflecting and writing about the types of thoughts, feelings, words and behaviors I would exhibit over the coming months in order to bring my intensions to life. Then I crafted a plan in enough detail to inform a set of daily actions I am taking take to support my objective.
While hiking the six-mile trail down to my base camp I began thinking about and choosing one action I would take before the sun set that evening to move my plan forward. I chose it and completed it by 5pm that afternoon. I’ve been persistently taking action each day since and the momentum is building beautifully.
Walking in nature has a way of clearing my mind, calming my emotional field, heightening my senses, and restoring my physical body in the same ways a Laundromat cleans my clothes and restores them for another round of wear. As always, I Ieft this retreat experience feeling inspired, refreshed, invigorated and ready to engage life with newfound gusto.
I hope this story inspires you to take time to retreat, restore, refuel and reinvigorate your dreams and goals. Whether you take a weeklong retreat in the mountains, a half-day reprieve in metro park, or 10 minutes of quiet time in your favorite room matters little. What matters most is that you take time to pre-wash, scrub, rinse and reload your mind on a regular basis.
Restore yourself,
Jim M Anderson
Samurai of Self-Development
PS You may be wondering, what was the powerful, three-dimensional holographic image that I held on the screen of my mind that day at the top of Mount Le Conte? Well, it just so happens that I imagined myself launching and sustaining a successful information publishing company dedicated to serving the self-development market. One of the action steps I identified that day was to create and launch my own personal blog to support this effort. With this first post I bring to life one of the images I held on the screen of my mind while standing on top of Mount Le Conte.
