Dr. Gail Brenner

Sacred Space for Awakened Living

TwitterYoutubeFacebookGoogle +

Archives for June 2022

Slowing It Down

“When we slow down, quiet the mind, and allow ourselves to feel hungry for something that we do not understand, we are dipping into the abundant well of spiritual longing.”
~Elizabeth Lesser

When I feel into how we all live day-to-day, it seems to me that we’re moving way too fast.

We’re in our heads with spinning thoughts, our actions are pressured, and we’re ahead of ourselves and missing out on being present in the moments of our lives.

Constantly on our devices, we’re living in a culture of distraction.

We tend to go through our days like robots, unaware of the reality of what’s actually happening. There’s no room for inner reflection or just being. We’ve lost connection with ourselves…and life…

And if you’re like me, you feel ungrounded, anxious, and just plain tired.

What are the effects of this way of living?

  • Lost in compulsive behavior, there’s no space to feel ourselves and our emotions;
  • We’re so distracted that we avoid intimacy with others;
  • We feel confused and uncertain;
  • With our attention in our heads, we’re disconnected from the deep inner knowing of what’s true and real.

And we think this is how life has to be.

If you’re interested in peace, if silence is calling you, if you just want to rest, then maybe it’s time to consider……slowing……down……

When you notice you’re following your mind, take a slow and conscious breath… Slow down your movements…shine the light of awareness on what’s here right now…

You’re entering the sacred space of your present moment experience.

Without the veil of stressful thinking, feel what’s alive in this moment…

  • Love what’s present in your body…the tensions and vibrations that want space to be…
  • Open to what you notice through your five senses…
  • Use fewer words and listen deeply…
  • Be aware of the silent space in-between…beyond any ideas about your personal identity.

Slowing down invites you into waking up in this very moment… You know the formless vibration of present moment awareness, while holding all of your humanness in a loving embrace.

You feel the depths of what’s here, right into the very core of your belly, and meet it all with infinite kindness and eyes wide open.

Life in this moment is so incredibly rich, no matter what is showing up. But you’ll only know that by slowing down.

Can you expand into all that’s here with curiosity, wonder, and heart?

image

Keeping It Simple

“Sometimes I need only to stand wherever I am to be blessed.”
~Mary Oliver

At its core and in its natural state, life is simple—now in this moment, and always.

There is a just what’s here and happening…with no commentary, judgment, or resistance that complicates matters.

It’s like stripping the moment down to the barest experience of what is: just seeing, reading, breathing, sitting, hearing, talking, moving, life emerging…

But don’t take my word for it. See if this is true in your own experience. Take a look right now and delete the mind’s interpretations. What is actually here in your direct experience?

Continue with this contemplation, and you’ll start to notice how simple life is.

If something needs to be taken care of, it will become obvious. If you’re hungry, you’ll get something to eat. If the car is running out of gas, you’ll stop at a gas station. If someone asks you for help, you’ll say yes or no.

Can you imagine carrying out these activities without paying attention to the spinning commentary of the mind?

There is a natural, utterly simple unfolding of things that is completely apparent—when you can see it clearly without the mind’s complications.

But for many of us in our normal everyday lives, we’re distracted by mental and emotional noise…and we overlook the simplicity of the moment.

  • We go into our heads trying to solve endless problems;
  • We feed anxious stories about things not going our way;
  • We live in fear that we won’t get the attention and approval we crave;
  • We’re fearful of not being perfect and just being human.

The mind entices you into believing that the present moment is lacking. We believe that whatever is happening now isn’t good enough—and we’re not good enough.

And this leads to “if only” thinking. “If only I had more confidence, if only everything was just right and I felt comfortable.”

Then you scramble to find solutions to this perceived lack. And things quickly get complicated.

See how your thinking spins out of control? You move away from reality (so simple in its clarity) and into the made-up stories in the mind.

But here’s what’s always possible—to rediscover the simplicity of the moment.

Ignore the commentary that takes you away (blah, blah, blah…) and return to the bare experience of what’s actually here. This is where you find freshness and insight, “Oh, it’s just a thought! Oh, there’s nothing here that needs to be fixed.”

Peace and ease are always available—in this and every moment. But you won’t know that if you’re lost in the complexity of your thoughts.

Disregard the content of your thinking—just turn away from it—and you’ll discover the peace you’re looking for. If there is action to be taken, you can trust that you’ll know just what to do.

Keep it simple, and you might have the brilliant insight that nothing is missing and things right now are perfectly okay as they are.

image

How to Discover Great Value in Hard Things

“Your life, all of your life, is your path to awakening. By resisting or not dealing with its challenges, you stay asleep to Reality. Pay attention to what life is trying to reveal to you. Say yes to its fierce, ruthless, and loving grace.”
~Adyashanti

Freedom. Isn’t that something we all want more of? Who doesn’t long to feel relaxed, peaceful, unstuck, and open to everything.

How can we find this ease and flow? It helps immensely to discover that there is great value in hard things.

Have you noticed that we tend to avoid our most challenging feelings and reactions? We drink, smoke, snack, get busy, call someone, procrastinate, ruminate, or worry. We get caught in addictions, relationship drama, and stress of all kinds.

The purpose of these strategies is to keep us from feeling pain. And in the avoidance of pain, we stay stuck in a limited view of ourselves and life, denying the peace and contentment that are rightfully ours.

Take a look at any problem that persists in your life, and I can guarantee that there are unexplored feelings driving it.

If you truly want to live in freedom, openness, and full aliveness, then learn how to be with challenging experiences. When they’re met with love and care, they lose their power, they relax, and the expansiveness of your true nature is revealed. Consider these pointers, and watch your life transform.

Be willing. Find openness within yourself to be with whatever experiences arise in you. Vow to stay open to them, even if it’s hard.

Know your strategies. Reflect on your particular avoidance strategies. Become an expert in what triggers them and how they play out in you so you can know when you’re turning away from hard experiences.

Peel the onion. Start with any emotional reaction, and create a spacious field of compassion in your mind and heart to let the feelings be present as they are. Let go of your thoughts about the feelings, and bring your attention to the actual direct experience of them. Give them the open, loving space they need. Then keep going whenever feelings arise.

Be aware of the sensations in your body. Make space for movement, blockages, energy, and whatever wants to come.

Can you feel the freedom in this approach? Eventually, you might notice something miraculous. What you thought was hard and even scary is just more experience arising and passing on. It’s energy, bodily movement, the release of breath, maybe tears, but not something that you need to avoid.

Turning inward to welcome what is puts you in harmony with things as they are, and you are bound to notice a number of happy side effects.

Effortlessness. Being afraid of our feelings and using strategies to avoid them is draining. We are constantly on the lookout for any shred of discomfort, then scurry to deflect from it. These inner dynamics sap energy, and simply being restores it.

Truth. Strategies to avoid our feelings contain within them a subtle lie. We are lying to ourselves about the full reality of what is happening in the moment, and at some level we know it. Telling the truth about what’s actually here might be difficult, but what we gain is a deep sense of integrity.

Transformation. When we offer our loving attention to the most buried fragments of ourselves, we can’t help but change. When we are no longer driven by unconscious forces, we feel relaxed, whole, loving, and clear.

Empathy. When we welcome our feelings with love and acceptance, we connect with the universality of life beyond our personal selves. Fear is not just “my fear,” but we realize that everyone feels it. Same with sadness, loss, shame, or inadequacy. We naturally feel tender toward others who are suffering.

We don’t need to go searching for difficult experiences. As Adyashanti says in the quote above, life offers them to us for our awakening. Invite yourself to discover great value in hard things. You’ll be grounded, present, and available to all.

image credit