How to feel good consistently
Feeling good consistently. Sometimes that seems like an elusive goal despite our sincerest efforts.
We practice yoga, we get massages, reiki, we eat well, we meditate, we do our best to take care of ourselves.
Yet while these things certainly make a difference, anxiety, insomnia, depression, chronic pain and irritability tend to occupy our inner landscape a little too often.
What is left to do?
Nothing. The answer is of course, nothing.
There is nothing TO DO because it is doing that is the problem.
Eckhart Tolle wisely says that there are two dimensions of our human experience. Being and doing. All of the self care practices mentioned previously, although awesome and helpful, end up on our “to do” lists. They require scheduling and planning and thinking. It is the dimension of doing.
The dimension of being is more foreign to us, because the best way to access it is to stop thinking.
Like, stop all thinking. Can you do that? Try.
Most of us can’t just drop thinking like a hot potato. Our minds are conditioned to think. In fact - our consciousness is weighed down with layers and layers of thinking (in the form of local thoughts of what is happening right now, deep seated beliefs that show up in your internal self dialog, your personal story, etc).
We are, for most of our day, immersed in thinking.
This is why yoga and meditation have such a deep impact on our well being, when we are practicing, we are not thinking. We are feeling our body and watching our breath and anchoring ourselves in the present moment.
But we can’t do yoga and meditate ALL DAY LONG.
Can we?
We can practice the principles of it for sure.
First we need to get a handle on the thoughts. Poke holes in them, soften the density of them, become aware of them.
Use the breath.
We can use specific advanced breath techniques to dive deeply inward and re-wire (so to speak) the conditioned mind. I have been doing this work with my teacher Georgia and I can attest that it is transformational beyond words.
And while this sort of advanced breath-work is powerful and can be life changing; our breath is free. It is with us all the time. All we have to do is be with it. Watch it. Feel it. Connect our awareness to it.
Over and over and over.
Notice you are thinking;
Come back to watching your breath.
Notice you feel anxious and nervous (emotions are a form of thinking!);
Feel the feels and watch your breath.
Have a tendency to pull the phone from your purse or pocket while waiting for the train, bus, etc? Those miraculous devices are like a cord that plugs us into the collective thinking in our society.
Choose instead to watch your breath.
You can’t think AND watch your breath at the same time.
Become stubbornly connected to the present moment by focusing on your breath.
All the damn time.
Even when with others. Can you feel the rise and fall of your breath when someone is talking to you? Practicing this can help you open yourself up to listening to others with more than just your ears.
We are such miraculous beings. But our thinking has become our chronic illness.
I invite you to look at the content of your mind and see that you are not your mind. You are not your thoughts. You are not your feelings. You are not your beliefs. You are not your story.
You simply are.
