Good morning panda bears!

Hurrah! It’s that beautiful day of the week again… that ritual of making all or part of our Sunday switched off…

Why do I make it a ritual? Because… all of us know it would be better to take time off from being online… but as the days roll by, we forget to do it. By making it a weekly ritual, it becomes part of our gorgeous routine… and becomes integrated into our luscious life.

You can join me by taking off the whole day, the morning, the afternoon or just a couple of hours off from being online.

Welcome back, sacred Sunday!

Sacred reasons for Switch Off Sunday…

I just finished my last week of work on Friday… I am now officially a Home & Mama-to-be & Business Goddess! *Hurrah!*

It’s even more important for me to switch off this week… while I’ve got lots of work and writing I want to do… I want to honour some sacred Sabbath time with my love.

A couple of weeks ago, my love got me to watch Everything is Spiritual – a wonderful lecture on spirituality, science, love and life by Rob Bell.

Just so you get a picture of what it’s like… here’s a beautiful minute-&-a-bit-long segment from it.

In it, Rob goes on to talk about Sabbath – about how our lives began with rhythm – with creation then rest. Creation, then rest.

On the seventh day God had finished his work of creation, so he rested from all his work.

or:

And on the Seventh day, God rested.

A note about religion…

Oh yeah… Leonie totally just quoted ze Bible on a Goddess website. What is with that?

I should explain – just incase you are new here, or feeling a little confused.

First and foremost, I don’t regard myself as being religious. Spiritual – yes, but not religious.

I don’t prescribe to one religion – but my spirituality is the most important thing in my life. It’s my way of hearing, feeling and understanding the beauty in this world.

I regard myself as being a spiritual buffet-ist: I eat dinner from the succulent morsels of many different religious systems including Buddhism, Earth-based ancient traditions including Native American, Celtic and Australian Aboriginal, Shamanism, New Age, Hindu & Christianity.

My litmus test is this:

Does this feel right, good and true for my soul?

If it does, I happily make it a part of my soul’s nourishment. If it doesn’t, I leave it at the buffet for someone else whose soul might need its nourishment instead.

As my giggling homeboy the Dalai Lama says:

There are six billion people in this world. There are six billion paths up the mountain to God. Not one. Not the five of the major religions. We all have our own path to find God.

Amen & Awomen to that, Mr Hottiecakes.

I totally, totally believe that we can each create our own personal religion – the one that completely fills us up, re-centres us, and helps us find home.

I’m currently the Pope, Bishop & High Priestess of Leonie-ism: the Spiritual Buffet Tradition and it works really beautifully for me.

Maybe your own personal You-ism religion is formed by one whole existing religious tradition. Maybe you linger at the buffet option like me. Maybe you are in the kitchen concocting something totally new, that doesn’t have a name yet.

Either way, it’s all perfect.

Whenever we follow the call of our spirits, it is a good thing.

So…

Now we have ze religion talk out of ze way!

Hearing Chief-Spiritual-Geek-Sweetheart Rob Bell talk about the seventh day being one of rest really struck home for me.

It made deep sense to me… that after six days of toiling, creating, working and being *out there* in the world… we needed a day of rest and replenishment… a day of being *inward focussed.*

It’s just like the Native American Medicine Wheel – for three-quarters of the wheel, you are out in the world, walking your talk, being inspired, making it happen. And the quarter of the West is the place where you return to your cave, to find stillness again.

When I go on a binge of DO-create-make-it-all-happen – and don’t have any Sabbath days, or West cave-time, I lose touch with myself. I get burnt out. And my body *forces* me to take Sabbath, and honour the West. And because I haven’t honoured it in too long, it takes longer than a day to recover and heal, usually.

I wonder if there is a way I can make my life more sacred, wholesome and healed, by including that natural rhythm of Sabbath, healing, West-cave and being each week. To give myself what my body, soul and mind need long before it hits me over the head with burn-out to prove it’s point.

I’m going to be honest here…

I don’t know how to stop. I find it really, really hard to stop creating and ticking things off my to-do list.

I’m a Do-Baby who doesn’t quite know the way of becoming the Be-Baby for a while.

But I want to learn… I am an eager student of Beingness!

So I’m handing it over to you…

What are your suggestions for Switch Off Sunday?

What are some ways to rest, heal, take Sabbath, and honour the Western cave?

Tell me what to do! 🙂

love you big time,