Monday, November 19, 2012

The AWE of A Light Heart

Awakening With Exercise, AWE, is about attracting greater light upon my full being -mind/body/soul. Do I have a heavy or light heart? Mindfulness of the body gives me the opportunity to realize the full spectrum of my feelings from reactive fear-based emotions to more responsive, happier ways of being. 

The key is to remember I can decide my options and my body can act better ground me to be present whatever comes up.  Also this may help me not to be so identified with my mind.  Using my body sensations I can expand my awareness to whatever is happening so fully show up to my experience of the “now”.   Also this assists me to accept my negative emotions and best address them.   When I expand my awareness in the mundane things I do - walking, eating, talking, writing, reading, working, playing or whatever activity this enriches all my relationships.  Such engaged concentration opens the doors on new possibilities and greater consciousness.   Constantly intending to “be here now” allows me richer insights and life experience.

All great spiritual instructions teach about how we can lessen our suffering and increase our happiness.   Exploring how in my physical activity I can be relaxed while alert heightens my well-being.  Whether I am riding a horse, driving my car, cleaning my gutters or operating a chain-saw, a vigilant state of concentration is vital.  Maintaining a calm focus I function in a more secure and safe way.  Any stressful situation offers me an opportunity to be present, centered and grounded with each new moment.  

Just the simple act of breathing offers amazing opportunity to awaken to my most basic living function.  Observing how the air goes in and out of my nose, lungs and/or body gives me myriad of body sensory possibilities.  Also this simple exercise allows me to explore my senses; taste, touch, smell, sound, feeling, and mental state.  Such investigation opens new worlds of experience, and insight and adventure.

Attracting what makes me happy or calm versus what makes me unhappy and agitated is my aim.  Expanding my consciousness on how I best deal with distress and fear is invaluable for my growth. How I best take care of myself requires me to practice self-care.

Self-care prompts me to care for myself and the more expansive or higher self of all interconnected things.  Mindful awareness is all about discerning what this care is.  If I wish to exercise more wholesome emotional well-being then cultivating habits that reinforce increased wellness become vital.  Also as I awaken to my interconnectedness I see the root cause and effect relationships of my actions.   As I treat all things with greater care, and respect this same merit and virtue expands within me.  As I cultivate more care-filled relationships I attract greater kindness and love to my higher being and all beings.  Also I illuminate my heart and this light expands out in all directions. The challenge is the when I separate or disconnect I further my discomfort and disunity. 

When I forget and judge instead of observe I full back into my mindless mind.  While judging is a valuable skill when I exaggerated my discernment to point of feeling superior then I am exercising an inferior prejudice resulting in more disconnected thinking.   What happens when I become too judgmental with myself is that I spiral downward.  What is your experience?
Without clarity I will not know what is going on and where I am going.   Exercising a faculty of seeing things more clearly increases my vision and insights. When I observe the interconnection of all things this stimulates a more reinforcing way for me to better precede.  Working out what gives me greater happiness is the basis of my most fundamental intention.

I increase my present awareness when I see what is happening in the next moment.  Also I give greater attention to my body sensations with the “newness” they bring.  Mindful remembering results in a wealth of results attributes including greater calm, freedom and well-being. Training to exercise on this path comes when I observe all my body’s senses. Clearly concentrating on whatever sense arises in my body I can see them just as they are.  This examination also includes mental states since these are apart not separate from my body.   

Just as the Buddha instructed to see “the body as the body,” I explore the collections of parts of my body.   Not judging my body as myself, however, as another of the many interconnected physical forms.   For example my body is similar to the Earth.  My lungs process the air, my heart represents the sun or energy that pumps my greatest substance, water, around, and my bones, tissue, skin and teeth act as the land or Earth elements.  In the Buddhist teachings there are 32 parts- 20 Earth Elements and 12 Water Elements.   

One common thing for all these elements, each one arises and then falls.  In other words, everything in form is like a cloud in the sky – it dissolves or transforms given time.  Observing these patterns, and flow states awakens me to see things as my greater body.   I exercise non-judgmental awareness to widen my perception where the “my” slips away.  “I”, “me” and “mine” shift from the foreground into the background.   This is a profound and invaluable exercise for seeing what is true and freeing myself from being so self-consumed and preoccupied with my negative emotions. 

As I awaken with exercise this awe lightens my heart.  I see things with greater luminosity.  Paying attention to my intention to observe my body with a compassionate wisdom I enjoy in work out strengthening a beneficial interconnected way of being.  I exercise the opportunity of choice.  I can react with my past fears or respond with a kind loving presence to fully see what is happening now.  It is if I was visually challenged and now I have the right lens to see with.  

All actions come from the mind.  By using my body I can better master not to get so identified with my mind.   Employing my body sensations for me provides an anchor for a happier boat to rest.  Not a dream boat or a shipwreck but a boat that rises and falls with each moment of sensation. Whether my experience is pleasant, neutral or unpleasant, each moment I hope to cultivate a more peaceful mind.   When I remember I have a choice I can free myself to my higher self.   AWE is about focusing a new lens to see how the light strikes things even at times when it is very grey or even dark.  In every breath, light heart or darker one is our choice.