Attend to Rising

My 2023 Word of the year is Attend. This year, I hope to attend to various parts of my life – in the sense of bringing attention, and to tend to various people and aspects that are important to me.

For January, I have chosen the word "Rise." So I have been attending to rising – waking up earlier, finding the rise and fall of my energy throughout the day, the breath in my morning meditations and my thoughts and worries over the course of the day, week, or month.

The origin of this word is to travel or to rise for a journey. It’s interesting then that rise is necessarily a beginning. It is also related to the word raise.

In terms of mindfulness, the word "arising" is often used. In Sanskrit, the words rise and arise each have at least 50 equivalents! In Pali, the word often used is uppaada, arising, in the context of dependent arising, in which everything existing depends on everything else existing, and the interdependence of the world.

Some questions I’ve been asking myself:
– what are the benefits of rising earlier?
– what do you want your morning ritual to be, ideally? What about your evening? How can you make that happen?
– What happens to desires when they arise? Can you notice when they go away (or have gone away)? (Also for thoughts, worries, preoccupations, emotions, etc)

Here is a coloring page if you find it inspiring for you. You can use the empty space for your thoughts and reflections on this topic.