Photography by Nigel Barker
Wardrobe by Cynthia Rowley
We create peaceful moments filled with fantasy for our instagram account @chintwins. We are wives, mothers and teachers, we are raising families and running our own business. We choose to fill our feed with these captured moments of unity and grace because life has enough chaos and stress. We want our platform to be an oasis of calm, a reminder that love rests and resides right under the surface of each of our busy lives. Growing up as twins we always understood the importance of connection and the strength of being one part of a whole in a society that focus on the individual. One comment that I never understood was when someone would say to me “I can’t imagine if I had a twin, this world couldn’t handle more than one me”. Maybe the universe knows what people can handle or maybe it knows who needs a soul mate and a mirror to grow up with.
Meditation and mindfulness are a big part of our lives but may look different each day, looking inward is such a personal practice and is unique to each one of us. I don’t think mindfulness can be bought or sold, the more labels we put on meditation the more complicated it will be for people to access it.
We don’t need to go to Bali or own the best meditation pillow to experience enlightenment, we simply need to make a commitment to find stillness and then show up and be willing to wait and listen. As busy mothers there have been some days that meditation has been taking a longer shower or closing our eyes and connecting to our breath while going through the car wash (if you haven’t tried that one I highly recommend it). We all need to carve out time, even if you can’t make it to a yoga class you can still be mindful as you sweep the floor or fold your laundry. We rarely have an “aha” moment while being fabulous, it’s usually finding joy in the simple moments of life that we also find clarity.
Self care has become a bit of a cliche lately, but just imagine how different our world would be if we each loved ourselves enough to really learn what triggers us, or how much sleep or time off we really need to function. We need to feed our souls and spirits as much as we need to fuel our bodies, but most of us just push through life trying to control and take care of everyone else except ourselves. Meditation can show us that all of the seeking and searching is unnecessary and that enlightenment is really just getting out of our own way and being that true light that is already inside of us.
One of my favorite meditation quotes is by Deepak Chopra;
“Meditation is not a way of making your mind quiet. It is a way of entering the quiet that is already there.”
We all walk through the same basic elements and we all have those same elements within us, here is a meditation to guide you back to the stillness that is already waiting for you.
Earth:
Allow your physical body to feel heavy, acknowledge and feel any sensations or discomfort.
Surrender and accept the cycles of life and death all around you and know that nothing is permanent.
Realize that you are not this body.
Water:
Be a wittiness to your emotions as they run through you like a river, feel the currents of movement these feeling create in your mind.
Visualize all of the tears that you have ever shed and how they purified you.
Discover that you are not your emotions.
Wind:
Focus on the energy that flows through you and feel your breath that rises and falls.
Feel the life force within you and find it’s source in your center.
Know that this vitality comes from the universe.
Fire:
Listen to the rhythm of your beating heart, feel the heat that it spreads through you.
See all of your achievements and the passion that has gotten you this far.
Recognize that you are holding this immense love that beats within you.
We are each vessels belonging to heaven and to earth we only contain these emotions, energy, passion and love. If we can each just step away from our powerful minds and longing hearts we will see that we are just tiny threads that can unite with each other to weave this beautiful universe. If we surrender to what is in this moment through meditation, we can become a beautiful masterpiece that will complete someone else’s puzzle.
Photography by Nigel Barker
Wardrobe by Cynthia Rowley
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