Day 61: the real us, in there somewhere

What we want vs. Who we Are

It’s a big and sweet and amazing world out there. People want us to smile at them or laugh at their jokes or pay attention to them, or listen while they complain on and on.

And guess what? We want other people to call back, to listen when we talk and/ or complain, to “take our side,” to give us “support,” to “be friendly.” All sorts of things.

Sometimes, people give us what we want.

Sometimes they don’t.

Make a study today of what we want from the various people we either interact with or have “thoughts” about.

See what life would be like if we wanted what we want a little less, or were more curious about whether we’d get it than concerned/ convinced that we “should” get it.

Play a little with the almost always false concept of what we “need.” (Although I do “need” a pair of Channel Locks to change my shower head just now.)

Needing this or that from others is often code for wanting this or that, and today’s game: see if the wanting can be seen as a puff of an ephemeral cloud passing through us.

We want a happy day. Good. That can be within our doing. If we keep the responsibility (how we respond) inside us.

But when we want so and so to call back, or this one to agree, or that one to change more to our liking, our life seems to slip away into waiting around for other people to be different than they are, something people often have no interest in doing.

So, this is today’s game: find our wants. See how we imagine them to be “needs.”

And make an exploration: What happens when these wants / needs soften and we don’t take them so seriously?

Index of 2009 Postings

DECEMBER 2009

873. dec 31: day 61: what we want vs. who we really are

872. dec 30: day 60: silence is a/ the path

871. dec 29: day 59 : other people and staying awake

870. dec 28: day 58: down on the ground and learning

869. dec 27: liking what 'it' doesn't like

868. dec 27: day 57: Up from down, gravity movement learning and fun

867. dec 26: Day 56: Up and down, for learning and fun

866. dec 25: Christmas songs and two grand hints: silence, nature

865. dec 25, Christmas, day 55 being alive, fully alive

864. dec 24, day 54: nice vs kind, kin and being present

863. Dec 23: day 53: arch and round and breathe in sitting

862. Dec 22: day 52: Wake up to Who we Really Are


861. Dec 21: day 51: What's new under the sun?

860. Dec 20: Day 50: Other people, can we listen deeper?

859. Dec 19: Day 49: More spine, sitting and standing, plop, plopping

858. dec 18, day 48: five lines all day, hmmm, hard and amazing

857. dec 17, day 47< do not let the sun set on....huh??? #2

856. dec 16: day 46: be angry but do not sin, huh??

855. dec 15, day 45: alive and moving on side, spine and pelvis again

854. dec 14: day 44: moving spine and pelvis, lying on the side

853. dec 13, day 43, 20 nice things about an "enemy"

852. dec 12L day 42: What to do: Pause, wait, see, yes

851. Dec 11: Day 41: It's done, it's us, good news: the turn around

850. Dec 10: Day 40: the end of suffering, who are we without the story?

849. Dec. 9: q #3, consequences of attaching to the thought

848. Dec. 8: 38: question 2: Can you Absolutely know this thought is true?

847. Dec 7: 37: on way to Heaven, the Byron Katie boat, part 1

846. Dec. 6: Right now and rotation around ourselves: fun and exploring and NOW

845. Dec. 5: day thirty-five: Now is around and waiting, where are we?

844, Dec 4: Day Thirty-four: Happy, unhappy: watching

843. Dec. 3: Day Thirty Three, really seeing a tree, = love

842. Dec 2: Twisting in Sitting, fun

841. Dec. 1: Day Thirty-One: Talking and Staying Present, 2

NOVEMBER 2009

840. Nov. 30: Day Thirty:Down and Dirty, or not, the being present present present thing

839. Nov. 29: Day Twenty-Nine: Don't take it Personally

838. Nov. 28:Day Twenty-Eight, Standing up straight via spine furling and unfurling

837. Nov 27: Day Twenty-Seven: One Way to Heaven, Slow Down

836. Nov. 26 Day Twenty-six: Gratitude as a fun game, rather than a being good duty

835. Nov. 25 Day Twenty-five:
What if we didn't "Have to...."

834: Nov. 24: Day Twenty-four:Moving with Attention

833. Nov. 23: Day Twenty-three: Sensing our Five Lines

832. Nov 22: Day Twenty-two: Be of Good Cheer

831. Nov 21: Day Twenty-One: First time through, Awake while Talking

830. Nov. 20: Day Twenty: This is my Life, 2

829. Nov. 19:Day Nineteen: Sensing arms and legs AND spine

828. Now 18: Day Eighteen: Waking in Moving

827. Nov.17, Day Seventeen: Emotional freedom, sensing without the words

826. Nov. 16: Day Sixteen: Sweet Sixteen, sweet and bitter straws of life

825. Day 15: Day Fifteen: Take a Nap

824. Nov 14: Day Fourteen: Neck and spine and Pelvis: Or, the Neck starts in the Ass

823. Nov. 13: Day Thirteen: Rotation around our axis, more

822. Nov. 12 Day Twelve: Coming to Ease via Aware Moving/ Learning / Waking UP

821.Nov. 11, Kingdom of Heaven, 2

820.Nov. 10: ACTURE and the real world

819. Nov. 9: Loving our Spine

818. Nov. 8: Standing up Straight

817. Nov 7, Kingdom of Heaven

816. Nov. 6 This is my Life

815. Nov. 5, Being Alive, Sensing Arms and Legs

814. Nov. 4, What if God were around?

813. Nov. 3: Day Three: Emotional Choosing, ? Maybe

812. Nov 2: Day Two: Breathing plus legs, to wake up

811. Nov. 1 Sensing our Legs to Wake to Now



OCTOBER 2009



810. October 23: Benefits of Anat Baniel Method


809. October 16: working to create a sweet space

808. October 7: life is good


SEPTEMBER 2009

807. Sept 24: working too hard

806. Sept 13: soul now

805. Sept 12: What will it profit a dude or dudess ?

804. Sept 10 Go Slow, Joe

803. Sept. 7: new phone #

802. Sept 5: Waking necessary to change

801. September 1, 2009: What's the Problem, inner vs outer worlds

AUGUST 2009

800. August 20: Be happy, or what?

799. August 15: Nice vs real, or "????"

798. August 13, This is my life

797. Aug 11, Tues: Who am I?

796. Aug 10: Be of Good Cheer

795. August 9, Sunday: Be angry, but do not sin

794. August 8, Turning to the left with awareness

793. August 7, for love of love

792. August 7, 108 days of now-ing, day one

791. Aug 4, Hi Sweetie


JULY 2009

790. July 20, Love is good, Morgan some more

789. July 15, hiding behind the mask, or not

788. July 14: yes to it all

787. July 9: I'm in love and so what?

786. July 7 yes life good day ha ha hee hee ho

785. july 2 ten fingers ten toes wake up call, sort of

784. July 1, How to get smarter

JUNE 2009

783. June 30, balance and Moshe and more

782.June 24 loving life a few days after solstice

781. June 19 the porpoise of life

780. June 11, every morning, more chances to love

779. June 4, love, change, awakening

778. June 1, this moment

MAY 2009

777. gone

776. May 19, 2009: Orcas finally, and beautiful it is

775. May 18, Monday: Stuff happens

774. May 16, Arcata fine place, not a place I wish to move to

773. May 15, 2009: Doing Less, sometimes

772. May 2, 2009: Saturday: Arcata, Hello; always a choice: now or not now


APRIL 2009

771. April 15, Now is Easy, Why don't we always go there?

770. April 15, 2009: taxes and death, good????

769. April 10, 2009: Life is good

768. April 5, 2009: Anat Baniel Practitioner, Brendan and his dad, both

MARCH 2009

767. March 31: love is all around

766. March 26, Thursday: Light upon Light, the light verse of the Qu'ran

765. March 20, Friday, what's love got to do with it, 2

764. March 18, Wed, What's good about being alive?

763. March 13, Friday: watch this, you'll be glad

762. March 11: Tuesday: the beauty of today

761. March 9. Monday, 2009: one meaning of the Resurrection

760. March 7, Saturday: Love, Busy-ness, Forgiveness

759. March 2, 2009: What's love got to do with it?

758. March 1, 2009: Sunday in Atlanta: Snow and Love

FEBRUARY 2009

757. feb 27: other people

756. feb 25: poor me, not poor me

755 feb 22: good day Sunday: take advice on alfalfa and car roofs

754. feb 21: good day, Saturday

753. feb 17: who would i be without the story?

752/ Feb 15: Katie and Jesus

751. Feb 10: in Tucson, with and without the story

750. February 5: an exercise from Orage

749. February 4: in a new place it is tempting

JANUARY 2009

748. Jan 30, Friday: Last day, yoga pose, good for life

747. Jan 29, Thursday: the primacy of love

746. jan 24, at 2009:::: sun today

745. jan 23, too much, just the right amount

744. jan 22 2009: baraka and nobility and the power of possibilities

743. jan21 wed 2009: new day, end of an error

743. jan 21, 2009: Barack's speech, print form, let's get to work

742. jan 20, tuesday, 2009: finally, it's okay to have a brain

741. jan 19, mon, 2009: love and not love

740. jan 17, 2009: sat, drink tea be happy

739. jan 16, 2009, friday: for love

738.jan 15, thurs, breathing

737. jan 14, wed, why not be happy

736.January 13, 2009: tuesday, :: for love of morning, life is...

735. January 11, 2009: Sunday: the porpoise of life

734. January 10, 2009, Saturday: boundaries and love and possibilities

733. January 9, 2009, Friday: 'tis grand to breathe and be alive

732. January 8, 2009: So called "tired"

733. January 7, 2009, Wed., If what you are doing isn't working...

732, January 6, 2009, Tuesday: this poem has nothing

731. January 5, 2009: The Peace that Passeth all Understanding

730. January 4, 2009: to be awake is to love

729. January 3, 2009: What can a real person do?

728. January 2, 2009: If another person is a pain in the ass

727/ January 1, 2009: New Year, New Chances to Love, Yes

Day 60: Life on its own terms, or Shut up and listen, or "Silence" as the path to....

What if we listened without an agenda?

In Quaker services, which I have never attended, people sit in silence until the “spirit” moves them, and then, from the “spirit” people say what needs to be said.

This seems like a good path to God., or to enlightenment, if there is such a thing.


A good path to speaking something worth saying.


So often when we speak, we are full, full of our previous ideas, full of our thoughts, full of ourselves in the this is me-me-me sense.

Not full of ourselves in the full of life sense.

Not full of life and gratitude and wonder, a wonder that is falling open to the next minute because this minute, this moment is so full with our present-ness.


And God: what if this is a fancy word for the state we reach when we come to something like an emptiness, something like a silence, and let the fullness of Life fill us up?


So, enough words. The experience is what we are after. Today, come back to the five lines, the arms, the legs, the spine.

Come back to light coming in our eyes.

Sounds coming in our ears. Can these include some sounds of nature, the birds, the waters, the trees in the breeze, our footsteps taking a walk outdoors?

Coming back to the world before we have words to capture and constrain it.

Just our experience of the present.

Can we feast on our life, and Life in general, in that silence and that fullness of the world as experience without words to wrap around it? Let’s give it a go.

How much silence can we feast on today?

Day 59: Other People and Staying Awake

Again: waking up in ordinary life

Ah, yes, we have a life.

Other people are in our life.

If they annoy us, we can do the work of Byron Katie.

If they don’t annoy us, and we start to have a happy conversation, that is one of life’s great sweet joys.

And we can go even farther.

We can be talking to them with an idea of being awake.

Awake to the wonder of our being alive.

Awake to the wonder of their being alive.

Awake to the wonder of all us humans being alive together on this big and beautiful Earth, and you and the other person being alive and with each other in this moment on this Earth.

Awake to our breathing.

Awake to their breathing.

Awake to the music and rhythm and tone of their voice.

Awake to the music and rhythm and tone of our voice.

Awake to the miracle of awareness, or knowing that we are in this minute, right now.

Awake to the possibility to be silent while they talk, really silent and just soaking in whatever words that they have to say and whatever words they might want to say but aren’t saying.

Awake to the words we are saying and the words we might want to say and aren’t say.

Awake to something between us and the other person that doesn’t require anything to be said.

Awake.

Have a sweet day in this form of play.

Day 58: Getting Straight by moving with our learning

On the back, on your back, learning with your head, using your brain

Lie down on a firm and comfortable surface. A firm bed, a wood or plywood floor with a rug or carpet, a yoga mat or two, a grassy area, some sand. Lie down and start to notice differences:

1) What is the difference between the world before you lay down and the world of laying (lying???) down on the horizontal surface? How do you feel calmer, or more connected to yourself, or more able to slow down and come to who you really are? Or put it this way: what feels good about this way of being for awhile, that you were missing out on before.
2) What is the difference between your right side and your left? Maybe this is obvious, maybe not.

3) What is the difference between putting your attention on yourself, and “just resting” on the floor?


We’ve done this before. Good. Good it is to do again, and now in lying on the floor, play with these:

Turn your head right and left, very easily.

With feet so the soles are on the floor (standing the feet, knees toward the sky), let your hips go right and left.

Turn your eyes right and left.

Take your own time and initiative and playfulness and create all the possibilities you can with the three: the hips, the head and the eyes.

Sometimes all can rotate the same way, sometimes two one way and the third the other, sometimes just two move and the third stays in the initial position.

You figure, you play, you learn.

Keep playing with head and hips and eyes all day. Enjoy.

Liking what "it" doesn't like

Liking what "it" doesn't like

Gurdjieff has this idea, a harsh and amazingly
liberating one:
"Like what 'it' doesn't like"

where 'it' is the
automatic
programmed
robot
stuck
part of us

and what does liking what this 'it'
doesn't like
come to be

it comes to be loving our enemies
because when people do something
our 'it' doesn't like
(snarl at us, disrespect us, treat us like an object,
lie to us, ignore us, scold us)
we become wrapped up
in our pain,
in the me me me world of suffering

this is where the Work of Byron Katie
can come in handy
(plenty of links to that,
click on the labels below is you wish)

the deal is: when
we are busy believing the 'it'
in us
and fighting the way someone treated us,
we are not free

not free to love
not free to be happy
not free to see what is behind their suffering which is always behind their "bad" behavior
not free to be spontaneous and useful to them

so,
how to like what 'it'
doesn't like

1.notice when we are not liking reality

2.come back to something higher:
the present
God
Jesus
inner silence
remembering who we are without the story

3. see if that gives us freedom
to like
the thing 'it' doesn't like,
if nothing else,
for waking us up

Day 57: Up from Down, playing in the fields of gravity

Up from down

So yesterday, we played with coming down to the floor, hands and feet on the floor, and then spiraling down by putting our knee between the opposite hand and foot.

Today we’ll play with spiraling up from the floor.

So please come down to the floor, maybe the way we played with and (maybe) learned yesterday.

Sit cross legged, so one leg is in front of the other. Notice which foot and leg is the one in front. Then take the other hand (if the left foot and leg is in front, take the right hand; if the right leg and foot is in front, take the left hand) and put that hand on the floor beside yourself and slightly to the side.
If it’s your left hand, to the left side and slightly behind. Right hand, the other way.

Then begin to move your head in a spiral toward your hand as if your nose is going down toward it, and as you do this, do three things: one, put weight on the hand you have down; two: rotate the front foot so it is pressed down and standing on the floor; rotate your bottom up to the sky.
.
From this position, one hand with weight, one foot coming to standing, keep spiraling toward the down hand, and keep your head low and spiral your bottom up in the same direction that everything is spiraling.


This may sound like nonsense or “too hard to figure out.”

It isn’t.

Go really slowly. It’s the reverse of spiraling down yesterday, so you can play with yesterday’s game/ learning to get clarity on this side.

You can learn this.

Do it.


And for the rest of the day, every time you get up and down from sitting to standing, do something like a spiral. And notice your head and pelvis all day. Again. Yes. Again

Day 56: Up and down, for brain and body and FUN

Touching the Earth, or at least, the floor

Stand somewhere, outside if the weather permits and invites in.

Touch the ground. Easily. Realize that if you kept your legs straight, you don’t have to. Bend your sweet knees and touch the ground with both hands and feel yourself in this primitive and “strange” feeling position.

Play around with lifting one at a time, a hand, and a foot.

Then see what pairs of hand-foot work best to lift.

Then rest.

Come down to this position (“four points”) again, and start to walk forward. As if crawling, but with knees not on the floor. Discover the two ways to go about this. Go back and forth between the two many times.

Rest.

Now, back to this position. Get fancy: both feet up, both hands up, everything up. Rest.

Back again. Come down to the ground like this: take the right knee and place it between the left hand and the left foot and let the right leg come to the floor/ Earth. See how that rotates/ spirals you down. Come back up in the opposite spiral. Do this many times, just to this side.

Rest.

Now do it the other side, left knee between right hand and right foot and spiral on down to the floor. Make this kind of fun.

Rest.

Now go back and forth, once to the right and once to the left. Get a feeling for lifting your rear to come up from sitting the way this ends you up when you sit. Get a feeling for lowering your rear when you go down.

Notice head and pelvis and how they are both you throughout the day, feel the connection, enjoy. Wake to more.

Christmas Day, Christmas Songs

As part of Joy to the World,
the happy Christmas Carol,
these words end one verse:

"Let heaven and nature sing,
let heaven and nature sing,
let heeeeeeeven and nature sing."

I like the singing of nature,
and of heaven,
a nice gift of the world,
the universe,
God,
to us,
eh?



Another carol, It came upon a midnight clear,
has this advice
for getting closer
to the divine spark
of it all:

"Oh hush the noise
and cease your strife,
and hear the angels sing"

Only in our silence
and calming from the usual
"I am right/ you are wrong" wars,
can the angels sing to us.

A good day for hearing that,
today,
perhaps.

Day Fifty-five, Being Alive

Being alive. Fully alive.

What does it mean to be alive?

This can seem like an obvious question, and it certainly seems like a relative to the “Who am I really?” question.

And it is it’s own sweet inquiry.

What does it mean to be alive?

How much of our day is spent on something that might have no real purpose to a life that is simple lived as a life.

When in our day, and when in our lives, do we act fully alive, aware of this being alive, and even more important, aware of the fully alive-ness of others?

And this can sometimes feel almost tragic, as we see from our eyes and feel from our hearts as we live in the present, that many around us are just going through some pre-established motions, not at all aware that they are alive.

And so be it. What is our “job” around other people? Is being present to being alive an avenue to help them, no sermon, just example, say, to waking to their alive-ness?

Who knows. Something worth discovering, this power of our aliveness to wake the aliveness of those around us. And then, of course, on some days and in some times, the fully aliveness of those around us is the wake up call we need.

A day of gifts today, the gift of our knowing our aliveness and their aliveness as our gift to others. Their vitality and aliveness as their gift to us.

A good day.


Come into the present today, as all days, and today with this goal: to remember we are alive and that others around us are alive and to feel, sweetly and grandly, the miracle of all that.

Day 54: Nice vs. Kind

Real vs. “nice”, or something like that

To be nice. Ah, we all like “nice” people, and tons of “being nice” has to do with pleasing other people, which has a lot of do with socially arranged parameters of what other people “require” to keep their comfortable “sleep” going.

All this is conceptual frame-working on my part. Search around and see if there’s any truth in there for you.


For starters, though, let’s try some distinctions: Nice vs. Kind. Kind means of “kin,” which means treating people like family, assuming the family is a good one. Sometimes being “kind” can seem “un-nice,” as by saying, “I love you and no.” No, you can’t borrow the car. No, you can’t have the money. No, you can’t keep trashing the living room.


Let’s try another. “Nice” vs. being present. In the present we might notice someone isn’t feeling well, and try to make their day better. That could be “nice.” We might also notice that they are trying to manipulate us and work to be both kind and not manipulated.

We might notice, “This person is really acting weird,” and ask, “What’s going on? Something seems to be really bothering you?”

Being “nice,” might mean hiding this. Being kind might mean trying to find what’s bothering them.

And being present might be just being curious: what’s going on here? Is my guess correct about outer reality?

Being present might be looking at the person and seeing an unhappiness.

Being present might be realizing that when we are present, we are relatively happy. We don’t have to drown, or to feel like drowning, or to even “feel bad” about another person drowning, to save them, to be of use.

Play with these ideas today. See what present centered kindness is like for you. Be kind to yourself all day, too!

Day 53: Arching, rounding, sitting, breathing with variation

Spine and breathing.

Sit on a firm and comfortable chair and don’t lean back. Sit near the front, feet flat on the ground. Begin to arch so that your belly comes forward and your sternum lifts and your pelvis tilts forward.

And then from there, round so your belly goes back and your stomach comes in and your head comes down and the front/ top of your pelvis rotates toward your head. (Sex toward you, or: pelvis tucking under).

Go back and forth, gently and with pleasure on this.

Rest.

Now, begin to breathe in and fill your belly with air on the parts where you bring your belly forward and arch.

On the rounding part, pull your belly in and exhale.

Do this with pleasure and feel if something like “relaxation” happens for you.

Rest.

Now, round and pull your belly in, but as you do this suck in the air, and fill your chest with air.

Then as you arch and push your belly out, push out your breathing, so you are exhaling, as if via your full belly.

Then round again, with belly in and breathing in, and arch again with belly out and breathing out.

Many times. Explore. Pleasure. Rest.


Then do the arching and rounding with three rounds of breath so that you breathe out when you arch and three rounds so that you breathe in when you arch. Back and forth. Get the hang of this.

Enjoy.

Learn. Watch your breathing all day and switch it around between belly in for in breath and belly out for in breath.

Day 52: What to do? Wake up to who we really are.

Without the story, and the froth: who am I?

We are all real and amazing at our core.

And: those are just words: “real and amazing” But who are you are your core? Can you sense yourself in the present and add on being aware of what you are hearing in this instant, and add on light coming into your eyes, and from the fullness and stillness of that, discover/ sense/ feel/ understand/ experience who you are?


This is today’s assignment. Discover yourself when you are being who you really are, and when you aren’t.

And this is tricky ( and fun). As soon as you concoct a set of words about “Who am I?” you might want to ask if the experience of yourself in that moment has anything to do with the words that you use to paint the picture/ explanation of “Who am I?”


Tricky, tricky.

Fun, fun.


And somewhere in there, if you are in the mood, you can let the work of Byron Katie help you, if you come up with thoughts like, “I should be able to do a better job of saying, or knowing, ‘Who I really am?’”

And if you start to think, “I am a mother, I am a farmer,” go a little deeper, ask what else you are, or what’s beneath the “doing” roles we have.

Who are you?

What are you?

Who are you really?


Be calm, and easy, and persistent and playful and open and keep asking and listening and experiencing: Who are you?

Eating, walking, working, talking, quiet, keep asking: Who am I?

Day 51: What's new under the sun?

cutting up magazines to make collage "soul" cards, one of many 'new' things we can create


What’s new under the sun?

There is a saying, that “There is nothing new under the sun,” a saying that was spoken before computers and airplanes and global warming and raw chocolate pies.

So maybe there are new things under the sun, but whatever the phrases validity, you and I can both find some new ways of doing what we usually do.

Say brushing our teeth, another hand, standing on one foot, eyes closed, one side of the mouth first, singing while we do it, if any of these are new ways.

Sitting down into a chair. Hmm. That’s harder to discover new ways, and good, hard is good, it just means we have to think and even more, to pay attention, as we sit down. Maybe put a hand down first, or the other hand, or sneak up to the chair sideways and sit, or stand directly in front and cross one leg in front of the other and swivel down.

Don’t listen to me, discover some ways yourself.

Ways to read a book, standing, sitting, holding in one hand, lying down and it’s hanging from the ceiling, who knows?


And what about pathways to get across town.

Ways of introducing yourself.

Ways of reacting to another person who isn’t doing things that you want.

Ways of cheering up yourself or others that you haven’t thought of before, or haven’t tried.

And then: what ways have you played with before, so they aren’t totally “new under the sun,” but you’ve forgotten for a long time to pull them out and use them as variations and explorations in your life?

So today, play and explore and enjoy and learn and smile.

Day 50: Other people as path to waking

Other people have parties sometimes

Other People, again

Other people want things. They want attention. They want approval. They want to complain. They want someone to listen. They want you to agree with them, or join them in their activity.

Certain other people want you to feel bad, or small, or at fault. Or they want to get rid of you, or use you to prove they are better or smarter than you.

Some other people, many of us, probably, are a bit confused in social situations, and don’t know what they want, they want to talk in peace and then get out of there before anything weird or uncomfortable happens.

Then there are the people we work with, and they have agendas from home, or about the work place or about you, or about their parents and they think it’s you, or they want to brag about their kids, or get advice about their kids, or bemoan their problems, or share their enthusiasms.

Lots of things other people could have going on when you interact with them.

What would it be like today, to listen beneath the words and get a feel for what sort of deeper message they might be feeling. They might not even know what it is, but since we are all humans, it’s probably something like: I want to feel that I’m okay. I want to feel that I’ve got allies in whatever is bothering me. I want to feel that you like me.

You think of more, from what you feel around other people.


And today, just have fun spending less energy than usual on presenting whatever you usually present, and keep back a little for discovering what is going on in other people.

No “fixing” necessary, if you are a chronic “helper” of the other. Just listen a little deeper, even if you already listen well.

See if you can radiate some sort of good feeling to them, that you don’t even speak about, but is on “their side.”

Day Forty-nine: More spine, more "acture"

Why do conductors live longer? Raising the arms to joy, intention and music could have something to do with it?

More spine, more "acture"

Here’s the deal today: stand up when you stand up. Sit down when you sit down.

Be something like in “acture” when you are standing. Be something like in “acture” when you are sitting.

Remember acture. It’s the word Moshe Feldenkrais, physicist, judo master, scientific explorer of brain based learning, invented for the state of being ready to move easily in all directions.

So when you stand, hop up and down on your heels in sets of three or four. Plop, plop, plop, plop. Leave your toes on the floor, raise your heels and drop down to the floor. Feel as you do this, as if you could jump to the right and the left and forward and back equally easy from this “on your toes” way of standing. Also, at other times, do the plop, plop practice to feel / sense from your legs and feet all the way up to your head, feeling the spine in between.

Good.

In sitting, spend some time with your bottom near the front of the chair, so you could plop, plop your bottom right and left a little bit, hopping up just ever so slightly and then landing a bit to the right and a bit to the left.

Enjoy this.

See if you can feel how this plop, plopping requires that you sit leaning a little bit forward from “straight up.”

And experiment as you sit, let your belly sag in and head hold forward, and do the curling into yourself thing we’ve do a number of times.

Then unfurl and push out your belly a bit and arch your spine just a little and rotate your pelvis just a little and feel your back holding your head up. Experiment.

Find a Feldenkrais® practitioner, or an Anat Baniel Method practitioner and join in their group or private lessons, if they are in your area. Whether that can happen or not, play and learn and discover about standing and sitting today.

Day 48: Five Lines to Waking up in the Day

a bunch of arms, legs and spines in joyous action

More alive, up and down and 5 lines

Today’s game is to pay attention to the good old five lines, as we’ve done several times, and this could be an underlying game every day.

Five lines: sense your two arms from shoulders to finger tips. Sense your two legs from hip joint to the tips of all ten toes. Sense your spine from pelvis to head.

Five lines.

Lie down on a comfortable surface and enjoy this: notice three differences:

One: what is different about letting yourself have this “time out” on the floor.

Two: notice differences right and left, right leg, and left leg, right arm and left arm.

Three: if you add on noticing your breathing, what difference does that make?

Now come back to concentrating on your five lines.

Then, keeping the sensing of your five lines going, come up to stand. Notice what you notice in standing. How did lying down help your standing be more awake and aware?

Now lie down again, and sense with any additional input from what you noticed standing. What would you like to be more aware of and where would you like to be more at ease in standing? Play with that in lying.

Again come back to standing, again keep awareness in both legs and both arms and your spine during the transition. Most people go to sleep in transitions.

Don’t.

Now in standing, sense your five lines and go about the day realizing your amazing gifts: these arms, these legs, this spine, this awareness that can sense and know all this.

And every once in awhile, lie down and recharge your awareness.

Good.

Day 47: More freedom, no sunset on anger, huh???part 2

sun going down on one of the short days of the year

More distinction:
Do not let the sun go down on your anger.

If you live with someone, before you go to sleep, get clear with them so you don’t even have the anger any more.

Set out to see what it would be like to have the anger, as we explored yesterday, and then to “let the anger” go.

This is different than the “be angry but do not sin.” This is letting it leave our life.

Now this line about “do not let the sun set on your anger,” means to know how to undo and let go of anger enough so that at the end of each day you can do this.

But since this book is about a bunch of ways to brighten and wake up your days, waiting to practice/ do/ explore something at the end of the day doesn’t quite cut it.


So all day, that’s our game: do the work of Byron Katie on all anger and see that we can let it wash away in our understanding of the opinion behind our feeling. Let it wash away in our realization of how much pain holding to the opinion creates. Let it wash away in glimpsing and feeling how free we are when we don’t attach to the opinion/ thought/ belief/ story.

Let it wash away, maybe even with laughter, when we discover that we have the same traits, maybe lesser maybe just as much, as whatever we were getting stewed about in another.

Turn around and see that we could treat ourselves better.

Turn around and see, we aren’t perfect at whatever was annoying us in the other.

And then what: well, that’s like a sleep, letting the anger go to sleep.

Or, it’s like a waking up; without the dream of “I was wronged” and the dream of “So and so really being awful” and so on, we can wake up and just be.

So, experience the anger.

Pick how long you’ll do that. Then undo it and move on.

Day 46; "Be angry but do not sin"---huh?

Be angry but do not sin

What is sin? Missing the mark of how God/ our real Self wants us to live. Or how we, in our highest self want to live. And where would a saying like this come from? You guessed it, the Bible which I don’t read, except sporadically, but when I’m visiting Gunnison, Colorado, I go to the church of my host, my old high school buddy, Mark Ritter. And in one of the readings today, from Ephesians 2:26, was this bit of pleasant and useful wisdom:

Be angry but do not sin, do not let the sun go down on your anger.


Interesting, eh?


The first part goes like this: Be angry but do not sin.

What does this mean?

Somehow this invites us to be real, since human beings all get angry, and to distinguish between having and feeling and even being a little or a lot shaken up by our anger on the one hand, and acting it out on the other hand.

Distinctions.

That’s the basis of upgrading ourselves, via learning, via the brain, via making real connections: learning differences that make a difference.

Be angry: feel it.

Do not sin: don’t become something your highest self doesn’t want you to become.

Violent, petty, maybe even sarcastic, complaining, bitter. You figure what it might mean.

We’ve already played with feeling the SENSATION in a feeling and leaving the words behind.

And we have the work of Byron Katie to set us free. So, have this day a day where you feel angry when you feel angry and turn that energy into something almost joyous. Or loving. Or both. At least find something to smile about instead of getting hooked into the pull of it all. How? You discover.

Day 45: Moving Head and knees in side lying

Lie on your side again, knees and legs on top of each other. Knees in front of you with the thighs more or less straight out from your body. This is not, NOT, not about “doing it right.” This is about going slow and being present and getting easy feelings in you as well as the excitement of learning.

So, pillow again under your head.

Bring both knees toward your chest, sliding them along the floor. And then bring them back to the “neutral you started in.

Do this slowly and feel the backs of you involved in this, feel your stomach, feel your spine, feel yourself curling in.

Rest.

Now, put your hands behind your head and elbow point roughly the same way your nose does. If this doesn’t work, put your bottom hand under your cheek. Here, bend and bring your head toward your knees, and back, many times, feeling chest, ribs, stomach, back.

Rest. And then combine the two: knees toward head and head toward knees and back to “neutral.” Rest again.

Now, bring your knees backward behind you, leaving your legs in the bended position. Feel the using of your back. And return back to “neutral.”

Rest.

Now using head in your hands, bring your head back many times and return back to “neutral.” Rest.

Combine these last two: head and knees both back and keep returning back to “neutral.” Rest.

Now, do the curling in with head and pelvis forward and unfurling with head and pelvis back. Feel the all of you involved in this.

Rest.

For the day, remember this in imagination and play with stomach in and using your back to round and arch yourself.

Day 44: Pelvis and spine, on our sides, moving and learning

Learning about the pelvis and spine

Lie on whichever side is most comfortable to you. Put a small pillow or rolled up blanket or sweater under your head to keep your neck comfortable. Put your knees on top of each other and bend them, as if you were sitting, more or less. So your thighs are out from your body, and then your knees bend and your lower legs are more or less parallel to the top part of you.

Begin to play with moving the top hip forward, and the top knee forward. “Forward” in all movement lessons means the way your torso is facing. Lying on your back, forward is toward the ceiling or sky. Lying on your belly forward is into the floor or ground. Or your side, it is the way your face and chest are pointed.

So, begin to take your top knee and hip forward, so the top knee goes ahead of the other knee as if it were going to look over a ledge. Do this a bring it back.

Now, here’s the fun, here’s the learning. Learning is noticing differences that make a difference.

Roll your hip as you bring your knee forward, so that you feel as if you hip and pelvis are simply swiveling to make this happen. Do this five or six times. And then rest.

Now bring your knee not only forward, but somewhat down, as if pointing to a place in front of your feet. As you do this push out your belly and arch your back a little bit. This can feel quite wonderful. Do this and return to the start position a number of times.

And then rest.

Now bring your knee forward and a bit up, as if pointing to a place in front of your chest. As you do this, pull your belly in a little bit and round your back as if your were going to curl into a ball. And then come back to the beginning position. Do this a number of times. Then rest. Now, do these three different ways one after another.

Throughout the day notice your pelvis and spine.

43: an asskicker, 20 good things for the "enemy"

Turns arounds good and “bad”

Find in your mind and heart someone of whom you are quite fond. Just enjoy remembering them. Then, write down three or four of their traits you really admire. Then write down three or four that you don’t admire. Think of this person, and see if you can smile and feel happy at each of these traits, the so called “good” ones and the so called “bad” ones.

If you can’t smile at the “bad” traits, then write down the whole judgment: “So and so should…” or “So and so shouldn’t…” and do the 4 questions and the turn around.

When you are done, and able to think about your friend with all the good traits and smile and all the “bad” traits and smile, then move on to this section of the work:

Write down each of these traits, good and “bad” one more time, and this time before you write the trait down, write these words, “I am….”

See, of course, how this can bring a smile to you when you find the turn around of both good and “bad” from your friend in you.



Now, for the deeper work, the heavier lifting. Pick someone along the line of an ex-spouse, or someone you “really don’t like.” And for them, write down three or four “good” traits and three or four “bad” traits. With the “enemy” type person it will be more tempting to write more “bad” than “good” traits.

Don’t.

Actually, let’s go even more. Do this: write down twice or three times as many fine qualities to this enemy of yours, than you write down “bad” traits.

See if you can smile at them all, “good” and “bad,” and if not, do the Work of Byron Katie.

Then, finishing this all up, write down all their traits, “good” and “bad” starting with, “I am….” Live today like that.

day 42: what to do: less, and wait, and pause and YES

WHAT TO DO:
Take a pause

You’ve finished one thing and have been “thinking” toward the end of that thing about the “next thing,” and are about to rush from the one to the next, and

Don’t.

Sit down. Look at the sky. Follow your breathing. Sense your five lines. Think about a funny line from a book or a movie or your life.

Take a stroll.

Hop a bit.

Lie down and wiggle around.

Do something else. Not eating, that is too easy a break and often doesn’t really give us the emptiness that refuels.

Don’t talk on the phone.

Just a little bit of nothing.

Be “between things” and be empty. Cultivate this as a spiritual and a practical game.

Do this once or ten times a day.

Do it right now before you read the end of this section.


Really, put the book down and do nothing.


Ah, isn’t that nice, the nothing of coming back to breathing and gravity and bones and awareness.

This is our true nature.


We need quiet to hear our intuition.

We need sensing and presence to be really at home in the Now.

We need a break from the rush of life to find the inner flow of our existence.

This is more important that we realize.

And it feels great. Enjoy this today. Enjoy this today. Yes.

Day 41: It's done: the turn around

The “turn around,” As in: Judge your neighbor; Write it down; Ask four questions; “Turn it Around”

Take any two shoulds or shouldn’t that you have worked on in “doing the work” on someone.

Experiment with the “turn around.” In this you put the onus of change and learning and correction on yourself.

Like this:

“So and so should be nicer to me.

Turn around one:

“I should/ could be nicer to so and so.”

Or, “So and so should accept me just as I am.”

Turns to: “I should accept so and so just as they are (including when they are being the one who doesn’t accept me.)”

Or, “So and so shouldn’t be angry at me.”
Turns around to: “I shouldn’t be angry at so and so (again, including being angry at them when they are angry at me).”


That’s one form of “Turn around,” reversing the air of who has to/ gets to change.

The other form is to go completely inside, like this:

“So and so should be kinder to me.”
Turns inwardly to “I should be kinder to me.”


And: “So and so should accept me just as I am.”
Turns to: “I should accept me just as I am.”


“That person shouldn’t be so angry with me.”
Going back to ourselves: “I shouldn’t be so angry with me.”

So today, look for judgments. Do the four questions if you have time, and either way: do the two forms of turn around.

A bunch of times. Great healing for our sense of humility.

day 40: Question 4

THE END OF SUFFERING
The beginning of wisdom

In the fourth question of the Byron Katie work, we are asked to ask ourselves what life would be like, what we would be like, if we didn’t believe the big bad story. Or, we didn’t attach to the thought. Or, we didn’t hold onto our opinion. Or, we just looked at Reality without the requirements that our judgment/ story/ thought/ belief/ concept puts on it.

The 4th question: Q #4: Who or what would you be without attaching to this thought?

And this looking at the world without the story is not a requirement, as in, “Just let go,” or “Just drop it,” or “Just move on.” (That amazing little “just” again.)

No, this question is to give our minds something to do besides grind over and over with our conviction of being right.

Recall question #3: How do you react when you attach to the thought?

And add on question #4: Who or what are you when you don’t attach to the thought?

You and I and any of us always have this choice: to look at the world thought the lens of “should” and “shouldn’t”, which is pretty much what every judgment boils down to.

Or to look at the world as It Is.


So, for today (and many day???), play with this. Feel the troubled statements and thoughts and feelings and opinions come up in you and do the contrast game: Who am I, and how do I feel, live and react when I believe the thought?

And who am I and how to I feel, live and react if the outer world were just the same (“just!”), and we had no demand that it be different with our thinking/ believing/ demanding/ opinioning/ story making.

Don’t be good. You don’t have to drop the belief. Just keep noticing the difference, and as Katie says, the belief just might drop you. (“Just”!)

39: Question #3 in the Byron Katie work

The consequences of believing the story our minds tell us ever so convincingly: Q#3: How do we react when we attach to the thought?

Okay, the whole drill is: Judge your Neighbor (ex-friend, parent, child ex-mate, anyone); Write it Down; Ask 4 Questions; Turn it Around.


Judge, since we do anyway, might as well admit it.


Write it down, to slow thinking and get clear.

Ask 4 questions. We’ve done the two “truth” questions. Now it’s “consequences” time. ( A friend of mine had his van break down in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, and loves it there.)

The third question asks us to list our reactions when we believe the belief, when we attach to the thought, when we shallow the opinion and think that it is “the way things should be.”

We make a list, write it down.

How do we feel?

How do we behave?

How do we treat ourselves and others?

How do we live our lives?

Realizing that this stuff is NOT caused by the judged person, but from our reacting to them.

Write the list.

Be petty. Admit the hurt and outrage, though it’s okay to smile about how worked up we can get.

But get the list down, the “laundry list” of the consequences of our attaching to and believing a certain set of words.

That’s it today: the notice that beliefs when we feel bad. Write down the belief and ask the first three questions: True? Absolutely true? And, how do we react when we “fall for it?”


As always, the Work of Byron Katie can be easily accessed via the internet at thework.com. They even have a hotline for anyone to take advantage of.

Day Thirty-eight: Getting something "straight"

HOmecoming parade, Orcas, one truck being pushed

The Second Question of the Work of Byron Katie
Can I absolutely know that this thought/ belief/ opinion/ idea/ concept is true?

This is the second question in the suggested sequence of the Work (Judge Your Neighbor, Write it Down, Ask 4 Questions, Turn it Around).

As in yesterday’s exercise, you will be taking “shoulds” and “shouldn’ts” about other people and subjecting them now to questioning, but today, two questions:
1. Is it true?
2. Can I absolutely know it’s true?

This second question comes in handy with a belief/ thought/ idea of ours that we know intellectually isn’t “true” the way gravity is true, but just can’t get ourselves to say, “No” to the first question. (And we don’t have to say any particular answer to any question. This is our work, our search, our truth.)

This question helps us push our minds into a more clear situation: Is it absolutely true, this thought I’m having?


Other people have done something that our feeling bad selves and lots of our “friends” agree that they “shouldn’t” have done. BUT: can we absolutely know that for their highest good and our highest good, they should have been different and better people?

Good news: no one has to agree that anything is not absolutely true. And it’s great freedom to ask.

So, for today, hang out with some “shoulds” and “shouldn’ts” about other people that you aren’t so sure are not true? Ask this second question often. Think and feel and be quiet for the answer and see what you come to. Good

37: On the Way to Heaven

Introduction to the Work of Byron Katie

Other people sometimes drive us crazy.

Good.

If we are here in life to be happy (and a useful part of a bigger universe and ecosystem), then what good are these other people who seem to pull us out of our happiness?

We could say that these “troublesome” people have the great gift, the gift of showing us where we need to wake up. Easy to say, often “hard” to do, but anything we don’t know how to do yet is “hard.” Then we learn, and it’s not hard.

The work of Byron Katie leads us back to the one person who can make us happy or unhappy--- ourselves. It does this by suggesting that we:

Judge our neighbor.
Write it down.
Ask four questions.
Turn it around.

Today’s work/ game / play/ learning is this: notice all our thoughts that are of the ilk, “So and so should be different.”

Write these –in one sentence form -- down on paper, with either a should or a shouldn’t in the sentence. Like “X should be nicer to me.” “Z shouldn’t be so angry at me.” “T shouldn’t ignore me.” “My Mother/ Father/ Brother sister should have…”

Write them down. This is judging. This is writing it down.

And ask the first question after you write it down: Is it true?

Don’t get to fancy, and work at opening your heart and mind to this distinction: true vs. an opinion. If I hold out a rock and let it go, my opinion makes no difference in the truth of gravity. If I have the opinion that X should be nicer to me, that is not the same kind of truth. It’s what I want. Other people (besides X) might agree. But that doesn’t make it true.

Spend the day noticing your thoughts that want others to be different, write down the sentences and ask: Is it true?

Day Thirty-Six:

DAY THIRTY-SIX: RIGHT NOW
Turning right and left in the NOW

Stand and easily turn to the right and the left. Stop, and imagine doing this. Imagine all the details you can. Then “do it” in reality, and see what you missed. Then imagine it again, as much detail as possible. Then again, “do it” in reality.

Rest.

Now, put your hands on your hips and imagine rotating your hips right and left, and see what that would feel like. Again, as above, repeat “doing” and imagining and “doing again.

Rest.

Now, put one hand on your belly button and one hand on your forehead and imagine turning your head to the right as your pelvis turns to the left, and your head to the left as your pelvis turns to the right. Again, “do,” imagine, “do,” imagine, and doing again.

Rest.

Now, put one hand on your chest and one on the back of your head. Imagine turning your head to the right and your chest to the left, and back and forth. Imagine this in all the detail you can. Then “do it” and discover what you missed. Imagine it again, and fill in details. “Do it” again, and search for more awareness. Imagine again, with more detail. Then “do it” one last time, easily and feel how good and wonderful and aware this can be.

Rest.

Now imagine just turning your head to the right and left again. Imagine what could be involved and how this could be different from the starting turns. Again, do, imagine, do, imagine and do one last time.

Rest.

See how nice it is to be in your body in this present moment.

Good.

Day Thirty-five: Now is Gold

DAY THIRTY-FIVE : FEEDING/ FINDING OUR SOUL
We are always in the now

When we are turning our heads to the left, we can do that only in the present moment. When we turn our heads right while we turn our eyes left, we can do that only in the present.

However, we can be unaware that we are in the present. We can be daydreaming about the night to come, or fretting about the day past. Or we can be right there, sensing our necks and our spines and our ribs and our shoulder blades and our pelvis.

This is the grand advantage to movement work with attention: it is such a fine opportunity to be present.

And, get this: every moment is a grand opportunity to be present.

As you read these words, right now, your breathing is something you could be aware of. In and out: the breath.

Up and down: the world of gravity.

As we have been playing with: you could be reading these words outside of yourself, and hearing the sounds outside of yourself, and sensing both arms and both legs and your spine.

Ten fingers, ten toes.

Two arms, two legs.

One spine.

Breathing coming in and out.

Light coming in.

Sound coming in.


Being present, in a certain way, in a certain very grand way, is making love to life.

Dedicate this day to being present as a gift to yourself, the gift of living your life with awareness and now-ness and awake-ness as you live your life.


This is words until you do it.

Then it is gold.

Day Thirty-four: studying happy and unhappy

DAY THIRTY-FOUR:: LESS IS MORE
Studying Happiness

Sometimes we are happy.

Sometimes we aren’t.

What if happiness were more or less our birthright, and when we are unhappy, we have a grand and glorious chance to learn just how we take away ourselves from our birthright?

To learn: How do we throw away our happiness?


So today, make a study: when are you happy?

And: When are you unhappy?


Notice three things: What kind of thoughts you are having when happy and unhappy?

And: What is going on in your body in times of happiness and times of unhappiness?

And: Are you present when you are happy and are you present when you are unhappy?


Actually, notice four things: When you discover yourself unhappy, do you get more unhappy about this, or do you get curious?


So have fun, and don’t be too serious, but be more than a bit honest: when are we happy, when are we unhappy? What are happy thoughts, what are unhappy making thoughts? How is our body when we are happy?

How is it when we are unhappy?


And, hey, here’s a good place to discover: if we are “unhappy,” and don’t want to struggle for happiness, and don’t want to nag and demand ofourselves that we shift in an instant, what place can we exist which is neither happy, nor unhappy? Where can we find a neutral place from which to make a new stance in our day, or in our life?

Happy awaring.

Day Thirty-three: Seeing, really "seeing" the tree

DAY THIRTY-THREE:
Go look at a tree.

Nature is a reminder of how easy love can be.

At times in my life, my holy trilogy has been: Now, Nature and Love, and I have woven words to the effect of helping us remember how similar these all are.

The tree and love. Go look at a beautiful tree, and give yourself enough time to really appreciate it.

Our first hint about love: it requires time. If we don’t spent time with another, if they (or the tree) are just a passing experience in the rush of our life, how can we love them?

Then enjoy this tree and notice the following freedoms: we are free from caring what the tree thinks about us, we are free from trying to get the tree’s approval, love, affection, attention and so on.

And we don’t have any requirements for the tree: it doesn’t have to be taller, or lose weight, or be wittier.

Big hints: we don’t want anything from the tree, we don’t demand anything from the tree.

We spent time with the tree is a state of non-wanting and nor-demanding. And we fall in love.

Nice hints.

Nice hints indeed, and don’t just nod in agreement, or frown in disagreement, but do out and find a tree and give this a try.

And then the rest of the day, see, hear and experience as much of nature as fully as you can. See when the falling in love happens.

When it doesn’t.

Notice for yourself when the love happens most easily.

Enjoy the learning and don’t worry about “getting it right.”

Your own body and breathing can be part of the ongoing exploration if you can’t get to “outside” nature today.

Use as much slowness and awareness as possible.

Day Thirty-two: Moving with the Back and Head and Arm

DAY THIRTY-TWO: GETTING TO KNOW US
Sitting and twisting in a probably new way
Sit in a chair. Let one elbow and forearm, your left, say, rest on your left knee, so you are bent forward and holding yourself up a bit with this left arm and elbow combination. Now take your right hand and place in behind your head, if you can comfortably do that. If not, put the back of your right hand on your check to the left of your mouth.

Either way, tilt your right elbow up toward the air, toward the sky, toward the ceiling and begin to make circles with this elbow. Imagine a long pencil or pen or feather dipped in ink with which you can paint on the ceiling or the sky. Make a nice circle from the elbow.

Go so slowly that your feel your ribs moving, so slowly you feel this in your pelvis, and so slowly most of all, so that you feel this in your back. Feel an arching when the elbow reaches a certain part of the circle and a folding in your back when the elbow comes to the other side of the circle.

Go slowly enough to notice where your circle gets away from a carefully and really round shape. Find the tension or hurry at those points and try to go even slower and with even less effort and see if that will help you draw the circle.

Bring your hands both to your lap and sit up and rest Feel any changes.

Now, same left elbow down, and right elbow up and make your slow and interesting and pleasurable circles in the other direction

Rest again;

Now, switch arms and do the circle one way a number of times, and then rest, and then the other way a number of times, and rest then.

Feel on this side to a way to feel and connect and as if direct these circles from deep in your lower back and pelvis. Don’t strain. Don’t hurry.

DAY THIRTY-ONE: THE SWEETNESS OF LEARNING Talking with awareness

DAY THIRTY-ONE: THE SWEETNESS OF LEARNING
Talking with awareness
This is a biggie.

This is a life changer.

This is a zone where we may not have ever gone.
Good.


Here’s the deal. We come into a state of being present when we stop the talking, when we get silent, when we follow our breathing, or move slowly with awareness, or sense our arms and legs and spine.

We go to a great yoga class, or an Awareness Through Movement class, and get close to a sense of who we are underneath all the words. And then after the class: yammer, yammer, yammer about how great it was to be so present.

And, oh dear, we are not present while we are yammering.


So that’s today’s game: to be present as we talk.

How to do this?

One: sense, as we are making the words in our mouths, some part of our body below the neck. Sense our feet, our legs, our legs and arms and spine, our belly, our rear end. Anything at the same time the words are coming out.

Two: sense the word making game, the using of our tongues and teeth and jaw and throat.

Three: sense the vibration in our throat and chest and head as we speak.

Four: actually listen to our words as we are speaking them.

Five: to look at and really see the person to whom we are speaking these words.


As if we were an actor in a play, except the play is our life, and the character is us, and we have this amazing ability to use language. And we have an even more amazing ability to do this all from an awaring and awake place.