LOOK WITHIN TO LIVE IT UP!
Does your conscious awareness "live" in your head, behind your eyes? Is this the perch from which you view the world? It's where most people do, except for folks like Helen Keller who said: "The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched - they must be felt with the heart."
This might just be true.
When we were developing the weekend retreat, Living From The Heart, one of the most amazing things we included was a technique for moving one's awareness from the head, behind the eyes, to the heart. Sounds weird, right? Or impossible. Or both. Yet while it may be odd, it's very possible and it changes everything.
Moving your consciousness from your head to your heart isn't imagining that you are doing it (although when you first try it, faking it till you make it is a great first step), it's really and truly moving it.
Once you experience awareness from your heartspace, instead of your head-space, things "look" different, feel different… in fact when perceiving from this place of nonjudgmental acceptance, things actually may be different.
And isn't that amazing? There are so many little - yet pretty profound - things we can do to make our world, and even the world, a better place. And as Buddha said: "The way is not in the sky. The way is in the heart."
Stop looking up, and instead look within.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
About The Author CJ Kenna is a Founding Director at the nonprofit Rock The Path, a Hemi-Sync Meditation & Retreat Center in Camden, Maine. She co-facilitates meditative retreats, including the popular Living From The Heart.
||| DO YOU YOI?
Is YOUR Christmas shopping complete? Have you on hand plenty of "Yardsticks of Impossibility" (also known as "YOIs") ready for use this holiday season? If you're human, you probably do.
They're really rather useful, and a snap to gift. You can use them to measure yourself (and your performance, your behavior, that thing you said a few minutes ago, what you look like, how much you weigh, etc.) quickly, easily and conveniently in pretty much any situation.
And what's more, once you've consistently applied YOIs to yourself, it's a cinch to effectively apply it to others (like your spouse, children, friends, that guy over there you've never met but you're darn sure he's a bozo).
Contrary to popular belief, and despite its widespread use and almost infinite adaptability, it's not actually beneficial; in fact it can be harmful to both the one being measured, and the one doing the measuring.
And here's why.
No matter what, YOIs will never measure fairly, or even realistically. Cleverly, they deceive by falsely making the "measurer" feel powerful, strong or like they've got it all together, while they destroy by consistently finding those they are applied to ineffective, inadequate, and "less-than." Fortunately, there's a better yardstick - available absolutely everywhere - but perhaps a tad harder to apply, at least at first: Acceptance.
This Christmas (not that getting a Kindle Fire wouldn't be cool), consider a rather radical, one-size-fits-all gift... Acceptance. Just for a day, or as the perfect stocking stuffer, pick someone you wish were different in some way, and get out and apply your "Yardstick of Acceptance" (YOA). With it, you'll be better able to see them clearly - not as you want them to be - but for who they actually are. And, like all really good presents, might just make them feel really good come Christmas morning.
It's an amazing gift, acceptance, and one most of us dearly want. So do make sure to apply it to yourself first, because once you've tried it, you'll be excited to share it. And then you'll know first hand that there are very few gifts (including the aforementioned Kindle), that can rival it.
Need more gift giving ideas? Consider compassion, love, and (all right, fine) the Kindle Fire.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
About The Author CJ Kenna holds degrees in psychology and business, thinks Radical Acceptance is a really useful idea, and is a founding director at the nonprofit Rock The Path, a Meditation & Retreat Center in Camden, Maine. She meditates a lot and co-facilitates residential self discovery workshops, including the popular Excursion Retreat.