Cemetery Bog, 12 x 16, Acrylic, $235
Those of you who have been playing with inner work have heard about living in present time. I heard about it early in my journey of conscious growing years ago. These days I am paying more finely tuned attention to focusing here.
Recently I have been noticing what I do when some comment or condition upsets me. I register that I feel out of balance. I notice I don’t feel good. Then I listen to the flow of my thoughts. Am I making a negative prediction? What have I begun to assume? Have I started to create “what this means”?
One illustration: A person I am dating experienced a moving violation while driving. I felt some cringing inside me.
Some thoughts:
I feel our of balance.
I don’t feel good.
This person does not pay attention.
This person is not a good driver.
I am at risk if I ride with that person.
This person may keep doing this.
That cringe shows me I feel fear. I want to withdraw. I certainly do not feel good.
Pause. Take a breath.
Where did I just take myself inside?
How do I recover?
Depending upon how upset I have gotten, I may want to distract myself for awhile. Do some reading, call a friend, rest with some Jin Shin Jyutsu.
Then I might pivot– Have I ever had a moving violation? Yes
I noticed when I went through that I became inspired to pay closer attention to my driving. I became an even better driver. Oh look! Sometimes an accident can inspire even better driving.
I recommend reading a post I wrote in early 2015 “Looking for Good in the Unwanted.”
I don’t feel good when I assume the worst of this man. I like watching for all the good in him.
What a different life I can live if I catch myself creating a fear trail and instead start to look for good when “what I don’t want” appears.
If all the bad stuff is not to be guarded against, then I can allow an incident to occur, and return to feeling pleasure in life. I can look for what I can enjoy right now.
I have more fun enjoying him!
Want to share your accounts of returning to this moment? Please use the browser version of the post and then scroll down to the comment box below to tell me your story.
Most Happy New Year! Thanks for reading my blog this past twelve months. I value all of you!