How to Settle Your Heart— The Sonomama Practice

In daily life, moments of inner unrest come to all of us. Busyness, anxiety, relationships, unexpected events...These are the very moments when it’s time not to fix the outer world, but to gently tend to the inner one.

Today, I’d like to share a way to settle your heart, through the Zen-inspired practice of sonomama—being with things just as they are.

The outer world mirrors your inner state. When the world feels chaotic, start by settling your own heart.

That sense of chaos is often a sign that your thoughts, emotions, and bodily sensations have taken over. But remember—these things don’t actually belong to you.

You would if you could choose not to feel or think that way. But the truth is—

what’s happening is more like a sneeze or a fart. You didn’t choose it. It simply arises—a natural phenomenon, a temporary ripple of the universe, appearing and disappearing on its own.

So, don’t try to make it go away, change it, affirm it, reject it, force yourself to accept it, or push it aside. Just stay with your current experience.

Even in the midst of chaos, you are okay. You can be here, just as you are.

Ten minutes is excellent. Even three is enough. Make time to sit quietly, doing nothing. Let your breath guide you, and gradually, the sky of your heart will begin to clear.

To settle the heart doesn’t mean to control it. Like the bottom of a lake, there is always stillness beneath the surface. Be with the stillness, gently let arise what arises. That quiet kindness is the key to restoring harmony within.

It’s okay to feel unsettled or messy. What matters is simply how things are right now.

Take a few minutes today to return to sonomama and be as you are.

That stillness…It’s already inside you. #selfcare #sonomama #zen #mindfulness #huayruro #innersanctuary

Wildflowers have the power of sonomama.

Words and Photo by K E I K O