this thing called sacred

I was in a Yin Yoga* class last weekend, and the instructor asked us to go inside ourselves and locate a low-energy feeling that we were having, give it a name and this using our unconscious, figure out what that feeling needed. I named my "sickness/strep throat" and consciously, thought I needed more time.

My logical mind started announcing:
more time to heal
more time to do
more time, more time.

I could tell by the way my mind was shouting at me, it wasn't the right answer.

So I breathed back into my body and tried to let the nothing envelop me. And that when the word sacred slowly appeared. Yes, of course...there is always the to-do list and most everything I really want to do, but I'm just galloping from one thing to the other with out the right mindfulness (similar to the Knight of Swords I pulled a while ago).

Knowing that this connects to one of our next exercises, "Sacred Space: A Healing Act of Art", I couldn't help but ask the question: what makes something sacred?

My first reaction is "intention", it's the moment when you intend for the activity to be sacred. For physical spaces, I think it may be easier (we shall see after the exercise) as you can bring in special or sacred objects to create a sacred space. Granted this takes intention, but it's a visual form.

But what about activities? I think eating, sleep, etc can be seen as rituals and easier to make sacred. But what about the day-to-day chores. Especially when there is a whole lot of them. The washing of the dishes, a 45-min commute to work, work itself, washing dishes, etc.

How do you make the mundane sacred?


* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yin_yoga