Effortless living

Effortless living

I wanted to explore an interesting concept that I recently uncovered. Many a time I have tried hobbies or tasks that I have always approached with great vigor and focus. My mind takes over and everything that ensues in carrying out the task becomes a precise sequence of procedures. The chore then becomes just that, a chore, and invariably not met with success. Whether it is a golf swing, learning a new sport, tackling a new endeavor or any thing that suits your fancy and requires some level of understanding it does not matter. What matters is how you approach the said activity. You can either use your mind and follow protocol or use your heart and soul and follow it instinctively. Obviously I am not suggesting that you can fly a plane without learning basics of flying, knowing procedures etc. yet once you are flying, the experience must become wholesome. This is not done with the mind yet instead with the use of the heart and soul. It is these 2 senses that will make the difference between a rocky flight and a smooth enjoyable time. 

When you see professional golfers playing a tournament, there is a feeling you get of awe as they effortlessly swing the club and displace the ball to exactly where they intend for it to land. This is called getting out of your head and into the moment. That is where the effortless life exists, in the moment. It is not about doing the task. It is not about completing the task. Moreover it is about being there in the moment that the task unfolds. Once you know the basics and fundamentals in anything that you do, allow that those skills to sink in and just do it. Nike did not coin that advertising phrase by accident, JUST DO IT ! Being in the total moment, you carry out your once perfectly mind planned event with effortless motion. Living life effortlessly is a state of being and not doing. It is the difference between soul-full  or "mind-less" living and mind-full living. Letting yourself go and letting your Self take over is a subtle remark with a major distinction and change in outcome. A great athlete is one who makes the committment with the whole of their heart and the average athlete makes it whole heartedly with their mind and gusto. 

Being in the moment I grant you is not easy. However I would submit that it is meant to be easy. As you collect each moment to moment of staying aware and present you may find that you end up with a few seconds, minutes, hours, days, months and years and soon a lifetime of living effortlessly and a fully on purpose life. When you are surprised that suddenly a golf swing was so perfect that you cannot believe that you did it, then that shot was living effortlessly. When you are shocked how easily you were able to complete that marathon faster than you have done in the past, then you are living your life effortlessly. When you submit that you are going to live your life in this manner, that feeling has to come from deep within and accompanied by a surrender into the moment. You may almost feel like you are floating, and that is  probably because you have ejected your "mind" out of you and what is  left is YOU.  Anything that you choose to do can also be made into an effortless state regardless whether it is at home or at the workplace. Let not your "job" become so monotonous that you do not enjoy it, yet instead effortless that you are the best at your job at any time. Just remember that effortless living does not mean easy living, it means on purpose and soulful living.

That was easy, I must not be doing it right. That was effortless, I am alive.

Doing your duty

Doing your duty

What is your duty? Is it to your family? Is it to society? Is it to your job? Is it towards your country? Or is it to yourSelf? These are questions that we each have to answer for ourselves and the answer is unique and personal. Duty is also accompanied by fear. This is not necessarily a fear of doing the wrong thing yet more not providing due diligence towards that duty and then feeling like we are coming up short. We do this regularly but more so when dealing with the duty towards ourSelves. A fireman would not be very good at his duty to save others in need if he or she were afraid of the fire. A pilot would not be very good at his or her flying duties if they are afraid of heights. A doctor would not be helpful if he or she was frightened of talking to their patients. Similarly we would not be paying the correct allegiance to ourSelves if we were fearful of taking care of our needs. These may be in the form of quiet time for us to reflect on our lives through meditation. Perhaps it is doing some physical exercise and keeping our bodies healthy. It could even be spending time praying and connecting to your Source. Spending time to enjoy personal hobbies that give you joy and happiness.  Probably choosing healthier choices to eat or drink might also fall into the category of dutiful behavior towards yourSelf. 

If you cannot take care of yourSelf then the needs of others be it family, dependents or a nation cannot be met. It all starts from you. For example Santa Claus has to make sure that he does not get "sleigh-sickness" as he whizzes around the globe in one night at Mach 5 delivering presents, otherwise he would not be an effective "hope deliverer." Once his personal fears of  the roller coaster like mid air flying and constant turbulence are overcome, especially the fear that wearing no seatbelt may be a problem, are faced then the journey to every chimney top and post office station becomes simpler. Drugs and alcohol are not really forms of fear banishment but merely liquid encouragement to stay composed in the face of fear, which unfortunately manifests as the opposite reaction to what you are looking for.  

We are perpetually exhausted from all the mental, physical and emotional bombardment of responsibilities and stimuli yet the duty towards our personal Selves continues to be neglected. The unhappiness that we emanate is our Spirit calling out for help and reprieve. If the call is answered we delve into a world of negativity and misery, and once this sets in, our ability to help anyone or change any event is seriously diminished. With every day,  become more aware of your duty to Self. This is  not some selfish call to arms and abandon your overall responsibilities and sit on the couch and demand your time. In fact it is just the opposite. Becoming more proactive and carving out your personal time for yourSelf is just as important as fulfilling your roles as parent, coworker, friend, spouse or any number of roles we jump into with that superhero mentality. Be kind and gentler to yourSelf. Listen to yourSelf. You have needs that can only be met by you, and not by anyone else. Loving yourSelf is as important and necessary as it is loving another. 

Attention ! Duty calls.... and its all about You. 

Emptying your garbage bin

Emptying your garbage bin

Every day various household items from the kitchen or various rooms all get tossed in your bin. Tidying  up your high traffic areas, and keeping areas clean is a very natural thing to do. Anything that is not used, worn out, dirty is tossed. If it can be recycled then into the "recycle" labelled bin they go, otherwise everything unwanted or unneeded is discarded into even bigger trash cans that are kept outside the housing establishment for pick up once a week by the town receptacle collectors. This is quite normal for the physical yet where this becomes even more useful and necessary is when we apply the principle to the mind. 

Our computer-like brains are constantly in a state of flux. Organizing, processing, clearing up and redistributing thoughts, memories and ideas are all typical "cleaning" up features that we do all day long, and sometimes better processing habits when we dream. Unloading your mind is necessary while you keep your high traffic consciousness free and clear to pursue the next inevitable thought that comes your way every second. Even when you use your real computer you have to periodically empty the trash bin that is full of unneeded files, programs and cookies to enable faster processing of your computer. Our minds are full of corrupted programs, useless "cookies of stimuli", clusters of trivia and piles of memories noted by all our senses. Random things we see, smells we pick up, sounds we hear, feelings we perceive through touch and taste, are all constantly clogging our "sense shield" and pinging them as stimuli. Our brains process them ALL and filters them very quickly to see if we ever need to react to them, leaving us in a state of an ever ready reactionary mode if you will. Being in this state is not good long term as physically this is no different than keeping your car running in neutral with  your foot on the accelerator at all times. You either use your brake or the engine dies, one way or another you will stop. 

The mind takes in all these sense stimuli  and locks them away for further processing needs. Your consciousness then tries to sort them out at its pace. This is why through hypnosis the memories can be brought forth and remembered. It is all trapped in the box of your mind waiting to be processed, come out or get deleted.  In order to keep you sane from moment to moment the  stimuli are "absorbed" by the brain for later, yet after a while you get fatigued, negative and "down the dumps "and we simply blame it on life or others or the ultimate coup de grace, we blame ourselves for our problems. If we choose not to lay fault with anyone especially ourSelves, and simply be more aware of this interesting process of cleaning up on a regular basis we may end up being happier. 

Daily meditation, with quiet breathing and allowing your mind to wander, and it will wander, yet gently bringing it back to center, helps sharpening and focussing the mind to start going through the innumerable stimuli and seeing what is needed and what is not needed. Being aware of the breath, keeps you in the moment and your consciousness can transfer what is needed from subconscious storage to the forefront. If irrelevant, useless, or not needed, then it can be dumped into the trash can. Constant practice of this technique helps clear up all your rooms of your mind and keep your high traffic areas clean for a more vibrant, alive, awake, and fulfilling experience. Now recycling your trash  in terms of older memories is another story altogether. Once you are facile in this clearing process, the question really then becomes how big of a trash can do you need? If you keep cleaning and emptying your mind you might need less and less of a sizable bin to use, but initially get the largest one you can find.

My my what clean rooms of your mind you have....

 

Disappearing act

Disappearing act

Ever think about what it would feel like being a part of a magician's trick? Especially the one when he makes the assistant disappear and then reappear somewhere else. I am sure it is just an illusion yet the effect is spell binding. Now imagine if you could do that to yourself on a regular basis, how would you feel? Life is chaotic as it is with the constant hustle and bustle of our physical and mental processes that we cannot keep up. We get so involved in the flow of work or life activities that we forget who we are or what we represent and for that matter what would happen if we were not here. There is a simple little exercise you can do to not only disappear but when you reappear, you are more alive and aware of the moment. 

Right in the middle of the chaos of your life when you feel you are so overwhelmed, stop. Take a breath. Imagine that you have died and you are not here, yet you are now at this very moment witnessing everything happening in front of you but cannot communicate with any person, or anything. Just watch as things happen WITHOUT your participation. Just be still. Feel everything happening. See the people communicating and going about their activities , see objects moving, note the events unfolding through time. This is an amazing disappearing act. It will bring  you a sense of peace as you see that life is moving right along without you. Know that everything is well despite your absence. This in no means underestimates your presence on this planet or undervalues your life's existence. It simply reveals that life can go on even though you are not there to be involved in the overwhelming madness of it all. Be like a ghost or angel if you will, just witnessing.

Now step out of your plane and join the race, but this time with a fully awakened presence of mind. Know now that your reappearance heralds your key necessity to make a difference in the course of events, yet now with a greater sense of peace. Disappearing and reappearing is more dissolving and re-manifesting yourself into a new you, one more capable of exacting help, providing assistance, changing causality and outcomes with calm, focus and poise.  You are more valued than you believed, more loved than you realized and  more needed that you thought. Fulfilling your multifaceted roles while wearing your numerous hats is one thing, yet looking good and alive wearing those hats is quite another.

Wow you have been gone a while, welcome back...and thanks for returning :)

The doctors waiting room

The doctor's waiting room

If you are ever unfortunate enough to have to go visit the doctors office you are usually required to patiently (no pun intended) sit in a room till your appointed time to meet with the health care professionals. Looking around the room, you can see the variety of faces of the patients. Some sad, some sick, some impatient, some depressed, some dejected. The whole gamete of human emotion can be found. Different people all with a different physical or mental illness that is plaguing their existence. Regardless of specialty, the fuller the waiting room the inference is that more people are sick and ailing which is unfortunate. Hence it is always good to appreciate when you are healthier, and  in so doing enjoy it with great gratitude that you are not an patient. Not a single one of us can recall that they have never seen an unhealthy person and more so never recall not getting sick at one point in their lives. This is the nature of life and eventuality of death. Sickness and good health are just states of being while we start and end our lives. 

The doctor may be sad to see an empty waiting room or elated when seeing a packed one, yet regardless of their opinion they are there only to help the physical or mental derangement.The healing of the spiritual is in your hands. What you choose to focus on expands. The more negativity you choose to accept and bring in, the more illness in some fashion creeps in to your heart, mind, body. The more positivity you seek, the more clean health you embrace. I am certainly not advocating that you do not seek out care when needed, nor that you miss your wellness physical appointment so that you stay healthy. I am emphasizing that apart from medication, and supplements there is another part of you that may equally need treatment, so do not discount this entity, namely your Spirit. 

Exploring the lighter side of life is as important as seeking a health care professional's counsel. Spend some quality time with yourSelf to firstly diagnose what the disease process that has taken hold of you. Check out the symptoms as you run through your feelings of unhappiness, anger, negativity. Once you make your diagnosis, then start chipping away at the root cause. As you do this, the treatment presents itself as you do this and may in fact be just that, reduce your sizable mountain of an "illness." Whether it is finding something humorous to enjoy, or a peaceful walk with nature, or engaging in a hobby of your choice, the treatment and cure is within You. Spiritual sickness is curable 100% of the time, unlike the illnesses of the manifested world. Reconvening with the universe and your Source is a good initial place to open yourself up to understand the magnitude of the problem. Despite your ego telling you otherwise, your particular barrier is not unique and the solution is always at hand. Forgiveness and letting go of your troubles is one such avenue, and immeasurable gratitude for all in the past, present and future is yet another road that you must travel on to attain your "cure." So the next time you are in the waiting room , try meditating while you patiently wait instead of being a waiting patient, you may have started your healing process before your actual appointment. 

Is there a doctor in the house? Yes, within Me.

Living on the edge

Living on the edge

Someone bothers us or something does not go our way. It irritates us. This festers like a thorn in a finger, and continues to draw out older negative experiences. Regardless of relationship to the present condition, these negative feelings continue to create an eventual tidal wave that will rise and rise leading to frustration, hatred and anger. We then teeter on the edge of madness. Yet what prevents us from losing our cool and striking someone or something, thereby committing a heinous act. Or even for that matter letting our guard down and in that momentary weakness or blurring of lines commit adultery, steal, lie, cheat, striking someone in anger and behave badly.  Moreover what is lacking in many who do cross over the drawn line of "normality." 

The place to answer the question is at the beginning. How do we prevent ourselves from reaching and living on the edge of the abyss? It is very easy to say "stay calm and carry on", " be at peace at all times", " relax and meditate" yet the truth be told it takes a lot more courage, strength and resolve to hold back the winds of anger in face of a stimulus versus hiding in a hut away from reality. This is called living. The adages noted as above are merely reinforcements to the already erected scaffolding of the mind that is in place to prevent you from  losing the battle and pulling you back from the edge. We should try not to keep living on the edge lest we intend to stay there and get accustomed to the dizzy heights from whence to fall. We prevent ourselves by strengthening these reinforcements on a daily basis through the presence of mind and faith. Being in the moment affords us the extra second of pause to breathe and then react which makes all the difference in the world. By allowing your spirit to give you much needed counsel in that split second makes the difference between you shouting in anger or striking someone, and maintaining composure and walking back from the edge. Unfortunately the edge will always be there so long as we interact with this world and the persons within it, yet it is about summoning the fortitude and not stepping off the edge of destruction. That brief second maybe in just a second in linear time but it is in fact infinity in spiritual time, long enough for you to choose the next step. What may not be present in the people who commit bad behavior or heinous acts  are those whose struts are not strongly placed and so are carried off by the forces of anger. 

The blurry lines of right and wrong are instilled from a young age by parents, teachers and society, the downside is that it is usually based on someone else's morality and imprinted upon us. The nature of spirit is never allowed to "mature" in the physical realm as we are too young and physically or mentally "immature"and so we adopt the boundaries and lines from others. I would argue that if given the right circumstances by parents or society as a whole, one can allow even a young child to have the confidence and insight to ripen their own spiritual Selves, thereby adorning their true morality while still at a young stage, and so not corrupted by that of others. Yet time and tide wait for no man, and neither can be reversed, so move forward and do your best. I would suggest that by enabling the practice of being ever present, which might be helped through various meditative techniques, or simply following your breath awareness on a more moment to moment interval might be one such start. Not taking on the stimulus head first may assist in changing the landscape that is presented. Living on the edge or walking around on egg shells is no way to live. Look over at the abyss, smile and say boo ! Make it afraid of you and not the other way round. Remember to step away not step off the edge. 

Scared of heights? Great time to not live on the edge. 

 

Living outside your comfort zone

Living outside your comfort zone

We love the idea that whatever we do is within our personal acceptable limits. We enjoy being in within this "zone" as  it is comfortable. We barely stretch out  from its walls to improve ourselves ever so slightly and then retreat within once again. This is called our comfort zone. It is known, it is safe and secure. Any ideas that break down these walls or require us to jump across the safety of the boundaries gives us concern and we dare not venture out. Inside the zone is the knowledge that we have obtained through out our lives either through experienced triumphs or fears or things we have been told without much basis in fact. Tales of others experiences from long long ago are firmly entrenched within us, leaving a footprint if you will into our psyche. The ego is the king or queen of this realm and clearly very happy to run a tight reign.  When the drawbridge of the castle of comfort is drawn up and the windows are tightly shut, there is little room for reason to creep in and bring you out to  explore anything. You bolt the doors and get into your proverbial comfortable slippers and lie on the comfy sofa and do not take any calls.

Now outside this zone is the unknown, and everything that you really choose to desire, choose to do and choose  to become. Yet you have to choose to come out. Living outside your comfort  zone is very hard for your ego, but very easy for your true Self that knows what to expect, namely freedom to do anything. Whether you choose to explore new lands, change your career, pick up new hobbies, learn new skills, try a new experience, you usually take permission from your ego, who usually says a big emphatic NO ! Somehow you escape and do what it is you choose to do and the zone becomes bigger. Once you experience something it now becomes part of your repertoire of knowledge and  the ego accepts it. The tough part is trying to get the walls permeable enough to continuously keep experiencing new things and then like a balloon it expands and the comfort zone encompasses everything. However note that like the balloon, the zone will also at some point grow to a certain size and then stop expanding  or burst. This problem occurs because like with the balloon, boundaries and walls will always restrict us. 

A novel idea is to liberate ourSelves from the said comfort zone and find another form of housing, essentially living free outside of the comfort zone at all times. The universe will provide you with all you ever will need to live outside the constraining zone, making your stay more comfortable. You are going to have to negotiate with the ever powerful ego and let it understand that it is in its best interest to join in the fun, and that it is still in control of itself but not of you. There are infinite possibilities awaiting you to explore and for you to grow. You are the true king or queen of your castle and world. Will you let your subjects like the ego and the mind,  chain you in your own home, or will you open the front door, step outside and take in the sights, sounds and a big breath of fresh air.

Have you scaled the walls of your comfort zone yet?