Living in The Now

 

“I know what to do, when to do it, and how to do it.” This thought embodies the kind of faith we have when we live from the heart. It’s a sense that life rises up to provide what we need, just as we need it. Life doesn’t store up things so we can pull from a collection of pre-made possibilities; it creates what we need on the spot. Life supplies information on a need to know basis and parts the Red Sea where we stand, not ten miles away.

Too often we live life steeped in stale choices. We are afraid to venture outside the prison walls. We ignore the escape routes that appear around every corner because we would rather cling to our cliffs of constriction than to spread our wings in the unlimited sky of being. We think it is a risk to make vast changes in our lives or to take the road less traveled, but dying on the vine of life is even riskier. Safety is important when being chased by a bear, or in estate planning, but when we decline life’s freshness in an attempt to protect ourselves; we die over and over until we sink into hopelessness and depression. Our hyper-protection is like wearing a heavy coat in 98 degree weather. Under ego’s direction, we overprotect and subsequently suffocate, rather than flourish.

Life is full of peace and possibility. There’s just enough peace to keep us grounded and solid and the right amount of possibility to keep us engaged and creative. Our soul calls us to live a creative, open life, a life that fills out each moment as if it were savoring the sweetest fragrance. How do we embody this majestic moment? Can we meet life at its doorstep and move through its threshold into its ever present peace and power? Of course. This is our destiny - to wake up, and when we are ready, the alarm clock of life chimes without pause until we get up and start really living. We wake up when we realize that the perfect solution of yesterday is the anathema of today.

The following steps, ideas, and action steps provide a road-map to our destiny.

• We must hold ourselves accountable to each moment, never wasting it or letting it drain away. Boredom is a cover-up for anger. When you are angry or irritated, find the source of your discontent. Allow yourself 20 minutes or more to break through your defense systems. Sit quietly and ask the Universe (God) for help in uncovering old wounds. Stay radically present, feel the sensations in the body, and let life’s healing energy wash away your emotional pollution. When we stay put in our discontent, without making it it wrong and just observing it, healing appears.
• Practice deep awareness. Just for today, when you walk, notice the pressure as your foot touches the floor. When seated, notice the pressure on the bottom of your foot. Directly experience this pressure throughout the day. This focus takes you from the head into the body and gives you entry into a softness that transcends mind’s habitual thought trails.
• Practice kindness of perception. View others and world situations though the lens of compassion. Make a list of your 10 greatest hotspots. You may be a political junkie, who puts down others who hold an opposite point of view. You might feel fear and panic when you think about climate change and how it will affect the future. You might go off on what you think is an oppressive government or believe there are lazy bums sucking off the government. You may be an elitist about food and put people down who eat junk food. You might frequently feel abandoned. These hotspots are made up stuff (MUS). You made up the hotspots as a way to make yourself feel safe, superior, or to feed your addiction to emotional drama. You don’t actually make up the events; you make up the drama. When one of your hotspots comes up, repeat this, “I chose to no longer be under the tyranny of this thought or feeling.  It is not worth my peace.” When your encounter ignorance, intolerance, prejudice, or unkindness – don’t use these as fuel for angry righteousness or oneupmanship. Don’t get pissed off; get peaced off. Living though hot-spots creates emotional prisons, stress, and ultimately destroys the body through illness. Live life from your softspot, not your hotspot.

We crave the peace that passes understanding, overlooking that it exists right now. It is the underlying softness that guides us at all times. When we are not at peace, we can be assured we are at the effect of our past beliefs and wounds. When we are willing to overcome our self-manufactured obstacles to peace, life provides us with the courage and tenacity to rise up. The going might seem difficult at points, but when we go on a road trip to Florida, we don’t turn around when we encounter a traffic delay or a detour; we find a way around, or wait until traffic clears, and keep going.

Keep going toward peace and joy and go around the drama, and life will not only be EZier and EZier, it will become the container of both your passion and your contentment.

How Do You React When You Are Cold?

Have you ever noticed that when people are cold, they don’t look relaxed? They pull in and cross their arms. I was very thin most of my adult life and had a strange relationship with the cold. The cold seemed to stop me in my tracks.

In the mid-eighties I went to Lenard Orr’s hot springs retreat center in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The snow was deep. It was an incredible sight to this southerner. I spent 9 hours in the snow, alone on the side of a mountain, hosted by a roaring fire. The fire was my friend and savior; it seemed to talk to me – not in words, but it offered a deep comforting wordless solitude. Snow fell and the white covered world with its profound stillness was magic. I had never considered staying outside in a snow storm for nine hours. This was a fire initiation, but for me, it was an initiation into the cold. 

Later during my stay I attended a traditional sweat lodge. We entered the lodge naked (no shoes either) and perched on towel covered frozen ground. It was warm in the lodge but between rounds we went out in the cold. Rather than go into my normal dialogue about the cold, I decided to see what I had avoided all these years – the direct experience of cold. In the past, I let my aversion to the cold run me. Now I wanted to face it. It was amazing that when I experienced the feel of the ice on my feet, and the cold on my skin, I was okay. It was not even unpleasant. It was a mystical experience to be fully present in the cold, directly experiencing it without out my mind dominating the experience. What freedom.

Even though it is wise to dress appropriately for cold weather, and the cold signals a time for more of an inner experience, it also offers a training. If you live in a cold climate, you may have to take the coldness training every day. My suggestion is that that you determine and define your relationship to the cold. We’ve all trained to complain about the cold and to avoid the cold, but if you find yourself in the cold  - just try the direct experience of it. You can go into the warmth of your home, I’m not suggesting you hang around in the cold for fun, but you will be in the cold. For once, face it without your mind working on how to fix it – even for a few seconds. Everyone will find something different, but if you directly experience this physical discomfort, you will find something that you didn’t know you had. And when you face the cold, rather than running from it, you will find that your life can be easier and easier.

EZosophist Agreement

Ready to let go of the drama? Tired of Hard Attacks? Make this commitment to yourself:

I, (your name), am willing to give up the ego driven struggle, stress, drama, and sacrifice in my life. Even though there are some circumstances in life that are difficult, there is no circumstance that can not become easier and most things can flow with ease. I admit that I have been a Hardaholic. I have made life hard and suffered about it. I am willing to drop the drama. Hardaholic no more! This is a statement of intention to become an EZosophist and to implement the principles of ease in my life and in all of my affairs.