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Conversations For Change

October Tidbit: Conscious Creation

10/8/2010

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I did an Alexander exercise with my yoga students this week. Without physically moving, using only their conscious awareness, I asked them to lengthen and widen their dominant arm, starting at the shoulder and mentally working each segment of the arm and hand down to the fingertips. As they focused their thoughts on lengthening and widening, it was impressive to see the "conscious" arms become significantly longer and "fluffier" than the "unconscious arms".... up to three inches longer on one student. They reported feelings of lightness and fluidity in the dominant limbs... feelings that they created with their thought process.

This phenomenon is not simply about relaxation and letting go of tension, but rather about bringing a level of conscious observation that invites recognition of our ability to create experience in our lives. It brings consciousness to the appreciation of the sensations of the here and now, to the presence of the moment and our relationship with it. No regrets about yesterday, no worries about tomorrow cloud the awareness; it is just this experience right now. It moves us away from the memories of old pain that tend to replicate themselves when we give them attention.

Ever been in love? Think about your focus of attention during that time. Being in love heightens the quality of our immediate presence. Our best times with the beloved are in the moment, full of appreciation and joy. With conscious awareness of self in proximity to another with an open heart, things appear different, better. We are in tune with our interconnectedness, of being part of something larger than our single self. We are bathed in happy emotions  and delightful sensations generated by our openness and willingness to engage in relationship with what the  present moment offers. We radiate appreciation and create a harmonic convergence with another. 

"I long to escape the prison of my ego and lose myself in the desert and mountains", wrote the mystic poet  Rumi. When we go to our special place, whether it is at the beach or sitting in a tree, we allow ourselves to live each breath as part of the landscape, part of the larger whole. The magnificence of the sunset or the wave or the rock formation engages us in this very place and time, and our soul soars. Again, as with the experience of being in love,  we are filled to the brim with astounding sensory input and our emotions are illuminated with grace. We recognize the interconnectedness of all and know we are part of it; our ego and our soul self come into balance and we are fully present with what is.

Notice what happens when we start to think about what comes next. When we make our "to do" list, or worry about what could go wrong, project into the future or compare to the past. We exit the moment, we leave that place of feeling connected and we separate ourselves from the whole. We awaken fear, an acronym for "false evidence appearing real," and we create the pain of loss and separateness. Our bodies constrict and tighten in futile attempts to protect from injury and old pain patterns return to our thinking and to our bodies. Taken to the extreme, we fragment and fall apart because we have lost our ground, lost our connection with our environment and taken up residence in our head. Often we end up recreating past history with our critical and fearful projections. The ego has taken control and is no longer in balance with the soul self.

So how do we stay in the joy of the moment and still get things done? We need to think about the future and  go buy groceries and make plans and call for an appointment to take the car to the shop. We need the individualism of ego to survive on this earth and can't always be in that 'la la' place of connected bliss.  Or can we? Is it possible to stay connected to it even as we "leave the beloved" for a specific purpose when we need to plan or take action for the future? What if we are open to noticing when we exit the present moment and make an intentional choice as to whether it is in our best interest to do so at this particular  time? And what if we hold the honest intention to return to our conscious awareness, to 'our Beloved' (and, know that according to Rumi, "everyone is a shadow of the Beloved"). With practice and willingness, we can learn to flow back and forth as needed, altering our perspective with conscious choice and redirection instead of unconscious reactivity.... if we pay attention and take responsibility. We can learn to lengthen and widen our thoughts as well as our arms. We can challenge the old beliefs that insist we need to close down our heart in order to have time to ourselves, to feel safe. Perhaps the strongest heart is the one that remains open, that chooses to love and be present with what is. And perhaps it is in the heart that the ego and the soul self best practice collaboration and honor our dual nature of being a spiritual entity in a physical body. 


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Weekly Tidbit: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking

3/11/2009

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When and why do our instincts betray us? I often talk about listening to our inner wisdom, allowing our guides / angels / unconscious connection to the cosmos provide us with direction. However, our unconscious wisdom "can be thrown off, distracted and disabled. Our instinctive reactions often have to compete with all kinds of other interests, emotions and sentiments" writes Malcolm Gladwell in  a very interesting book called  blink.   He proposes that we all have the abilities to know, to recognize and process data literally in the blink of an eye. He further suggests that such instant knowledge is usually more accurate than rational analysis and investigation.

There have been times in my life that I have had periodic flashes of awareness along the lines of "Pay attention here!.... this could be trouble..... did you see that?....do this now......" And sometimes I chose to ignore them because I was invested in an outcome or caught up in an emotion. In hindsight, it was reminiscent of  "Warning, warning! Danger Will Robinson!"  with me being out of earshot because I was busily engaged in my own agenda. The times that I have paid attention and went with that instant knowing have been extraordinarily rewarding. One time that I chose to listen to my intuition instead of the apparent evidence in front of me prevented what could have been a fatal collision.

I am learning to pay better attention to these flashes of knowledge, and to check in with myself to observe if fear or desire or at attachment to an outcome might be compromising my ability to receive and process information that truly is available to me. And to quiet myself if needed, to inhibit the blockage and redirect my open attention to what is before me. The collaborative connection between unconscious processing and conscious insight allows us to know more than we think we know. 


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    Author

    Charly Hill is a Life Skills Coach and Self Empowerment Teacher.
    She has a MA in counseling and recently retired her California Marriage, Family and Child Therapist license. 

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