Dr. Gail Brenner

Sacred Space for Awakened Living

TwitterYoutubeFacebookGoogle +

How to Live—From the Inside Out

“To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.”
~Oscar Wilde

Note: Please join my upcoming weekend retreat. I’d love to see you there! Click here for details.

Our desire for embodied conscious living asks us to make a deep dive into our present moment experience.

And this includes all the little moments of daily life, the ones we take for granted, the ones we walk through under the veil of same, old same old.

Some ways of reacting are so familiar that we don’t even think to stop and question them.

Awakening into the reality of things is all-encompassing, including everything. No stone is left unturned as we notice all the times we turn away from openness and into habit and robotic living.

Noticing these moments is rich with possibility…

When we live in our conditioned patterns, we’re steeped in fear and separation…not love. There’s a sense of an inside and outside—a person in here who lacks comfort, attention, or safety, and a world out there that we strive to control to fulfill our needs.

We’re like hungry ghosts, terrified of our inner emptiness while focusing desperately outside ourselves:

  • Seeking approval and recognition;
  • Scanning for danger so we can protect ourselves;
  • Trying to measure up to meet others’ expectations.

We’re ill-at-ease and feeling divided…from ourselves and from life.

While searching out in the world for the peace we long for, we’ve neglected to include an essential part of the unified whole…our own inner experience.

That’s why living from the inside out feels so right. We shift our attention back to being aware of ourselves and perceive the world from here. We open to:

  • How we react in our nervous systems;
  • How our conditioned patterns color our view;
  • Letting ourselves feel how our hearts are touched by the people and situations around us;
  • Melting into the peace that’s possible when we stop the tendency to move outside ourselves.

We may not realize it until we begin to notice our own experience, but we are sensitive beings. We react to what goes on around us, and these reactions are full of insights.

You’ll discover you judged someone because you were scared. You find the tender places within that need your loving care…not your avoidance. You feel the benefits of slowing things down so you feel less stressed…and more present in your life.

If you’re not aware of your inner experience, it’s a guarantee that your conditioned patterns will be in charge of your reality. And your life, the real one here right now, will pass you by.

Consider living from the inside out. Touch everything you notice with your loving attention. The lines between inside and outside begin to blur as you open to the oneness of all.

image credit

Don’t Trust the Comparing Mind

“We cannot solve problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
~Albert Einstein

If you’re part of the human race, then your mind probably compares. It’s the nature of thoughts to divide the world into this and that, good and bad, better and worse.

The comparing mind tells you you’re not good enough and that others matter more than you. Comparing leaves us irritable about the weather, wishing for a better childhood, and striving for perfection.

Take a moment to feel into your comparing mind. How does it tell you that now is not good enough? How does it convince you of “if only”…if only your reality were different, then you would be successful, approved of, or just plain happy.

I have studied this comparing function in myself and many others, and here’s what I’ve concluded—comparing never makes us feel good.

Usually, we come up lacking. And even if we convince ourselves we’re special or better than others, we’re still caught in a story that makes us feel disconnected.

Check out how your mind functions for the next few days. My guess is that every time you feel badly in some way, you’ll find that comparing has taken hold.

In my experience, the comparing mind is harsh and makes us feel tense…and sad. Who wants to live feeling like others have the key to happiness while we’re left lacking?

So how do we find our way out of comparing and back to peace, love, and harmony?

It’s important to know that you won’t find the solution by staying entangled in your thoughts. This is the “if only” strategy—if only I were thinner or more successful, then I would feel better and stop comparing.

The solution is not in hoping to achieve something that you feel you don’t have now, as this will keep you striving forever. So, as Einstein says in the quote above, another approach is needed, which is to turn away from the whole comparing function of the mind so these thoughts don’t create your reality.

Comparing thoughts are veiling your true nature as peaceful, whole, and perfectly okay. When you don’t put your attention onto these thoughts, what happens? You realize you’re here, breathing in this moment, alive to your senses, not thinking about yourself and what you think you’re lacking.

Yes, the thoughts will probably return…and that is another golden opportunity to ignore what they tell you and open again and again to the reality that’s actually here…not the false one in your mind.

Don’t think yourself into being. Instead, stay still. Don’t move your attention into stressful thoughts. Look closer than the comparing mind to the living, expansive vibration of this now moment.

image credit

Reflections on the Concept of Other

other“The Great Way is not difficult for those who have no preferences. When love and hate are both absent everything becomes clear and undisguised. Make the smallest distinction, however, and heaven and earth are set infinitely apart. If you wish to see the truth then hold no opinion for or against. The struggle of what one likes and what one dislikes is the disease of the mind.”
~Zen Scholar Sengstan, from the Hsin Hsin Ming poem

The word “non-dual” means not two. It is used to describe the true nature of reality which is undivided, unified, and inherently whole.

Yes, we look around and see separate forms. There is this and that. I am here and you are over there. We perceive an amazing diversity of people and objects.

But when the layers of thought that divide and separate are seen through, the true direct experience of reality is just pure, formless, timeless aliveness…completely at peace with itself.

Yet, somehow we all know what it’s like to hold the idea of “other.” This means that we believe something is separate from ourselves. The other could be an object, a person, a category of people, or even our own thoughts, feelings, and behavior.

What we make into the other feels different, foreign or strange. We conclude that it’s “not me,” therefore it’s something else, something other than me. We may even add in a judgment about how what we’re calling other is wrong, bad, or less than.

And this is the source of a whole lot of trouble.

So here’s an essential question: if the true nature of reality is undivided, how does division happen?

How do we end up on different sides of an argument? How do we come to define ourselves or others as less than or better than? How do we divide ourselves from our own experience?

And most importantly, how do we convince ourselves that we—and others—are separate from the divine nature of all of life?

The roots of separation begin to take hold when we identify ourselves as the one who lives in the physical body.

Our true nature is boundless and free, but if we think of ourselves as limited to the body, then we’ve immediately created a sense of other.

Simply said, it’s our thoughts that create division. The human mind is designed to think…that’s what it does..and what an amazing tool it is.

But when we believe the content of our thoughts without questioning them, we leave the oneness and intimacy with all things and enter the world of judgment, comparison, and right and wrong.

Here’s how it works. If you believe you’re right, then the other must be wrong. If you believe yourself to be inadequate, then others must be better than you. If you like something, then you don’t like something else.

These functions of the mind help us to organize our experience. If we categorize people and things, then we know where we stand. But can you feel into the pain that arises from division?

Take away the mind’s distinctions, and what’s revealed is the bare experience of reality. Right here and right now, things are as they are. And feeling into it even deeper, the idea of separate things begins to melt away.

What is? Aliveness…here…pure being…everywhere…with no division.

And how would you create division again? Start thinking.

The mind can’t conceive of the true nature of reality. The infinite, all-inclusive spaciousness—nondual reality—can only be known by direct experience. It’s beyond language, palpable, real, so alive.

The mind tries to capture this knowing…by describing it, remembering it, or imagining it. And, ironically, when we believe these thoughts, we feel separate from it. We take what is, the endless peace of the present moment, and go into our minds to make it wrong, lacking, or not okay.

These are signs of a mind in charge. Turn away from these thoughts, and what do you discover? There’s no problem to be found.

Reflect for a moment on your experience of “other.” Be meticulous in your exploration to see what thoughts you believe that may not be true. How does separation feel?

Then try this experiment. Don’t believe what these thoughts are telling you, ground yourself in presence, and come back to experience the world deeply knowing the undivided nature of reality. How does that affect your view of yourself? How does that change your view of others?

Maybe, like me, your heart is touched endlessly…

Note: If you’d like to listen to a reading of the full Hsin Hsin Ming poem (highly recommended!), please click here. This is a lovely rendition read by Ram Dass. 

image credit

What to Do with Sticky Patterns

“Someone, who has realized the Truth of what he is, rather than what he has been conditioned to believe he is, will be smiling in every cell of his being. It is infectious.”
~ Mooji

A powerful insight is illuminated when we realize how much our conditioned patterns interfere with our happiness.

Many of these patterns have plagued us for years, and no matter what we try, they seem to take hold and not let go.

We hear about freedom as a possibility, but we just don’t know how to find our way there. And meanwhile, the patterns keep getting played out in our minds, our emotions, our relationships, and our choices in life.

First, it’s important to understand that deeply embedded patterns usually take time to unwind. You’re expressing tremendous self-compassion when you commit to working with them as much as you can whenever they arise. Because that’s what is needed for you to experience the peace and happiness you know are possible for you.

The goal is not to get rid of these tendencies. So when they reappear—and they will—it doesn’t mean that you’re doing something wrong. If they’ve been played out without much awareness for a long time, they are highly reinforced. This means they have a strong momentum to keep arising.

So what is your goal? To bring conscious awareness to these patterns as they are occurring and to relate to them with understanding, wisdom, and love. Because this is what softens them.

Love for the patterns? Yes, you read that right. These conditioned tendencies aren’t evil. Behind them lies a heartfelt motive to protect yourself and to avoid pain.

Do you smoke and want to stop? You’re probably trying to find a sense of inner calm. Do you feel like a victim? Maybe you’re hiding from some painful feelings. Do you put up barriers to intimacy in your relationships? You’re trying to stay safe inside.

And as convoluted as it may be, even getting angry at someone is an attempt to make them stop what they’re doing so you will feel peaceful.

As your desire for true peace and happiness grows, you realize that these patterns aren’t working for you. They had a helpful intention when they came into being years ago, but now is the sacred time when you’re ready to move beyond them.

Because you are way more magnificent than your patterns will tell you.

We sometimes don’t know where to start. So today I’d like to share with you a framework for working with these sticky patterns that I call top down and bottom up.

Top Down

Top down means that you recognize the behaviors that aren’t working for you and you experiment with changing them.

Imagine acting as if you were someone who wasn’t caught in this particular pattern. What would that person do? How would they feel inside? What would they think?

Enjoy the possibility of stepping way out of the limited reality of the pattern.

Suppose that you’re free of this pattern—what would you do differently in any given moment? Give yourself some time for this reflection, and be as specific as possible.

Then experiment with embodying your newfound insights. Take a breath and open to your present moment experience (not the reality in your head). Look into your loved ones eyes before responding. Consider the whole and not only yourself. (This is one I’m working on.)

Then take in how these new ways of being feel in your body—because they will feel different. This is what happens when deeply held patterns begin to shift.

Bottom Up

Along with top down, is bottom up. And here is the invitation to be so kind to yourself in meeting whatever emotions underlie these patterns. Often you’ll find longstanding fear, hurt and sadness, or a deep sense of lack.

If these feelings are ignored, they will continue to fuel the pattern. As you turn toward them with loving attention—a lot—they begin to get what they need. They calm down and soften. The nervous system starts to relax.

Then without the fuel of unexplored emotions, especially combined with the new behaviors you’re practicing from top down, amazingly you begin to experience that these patterns don’t have to define you.

In my experience, it feels like an inner revolution is starting to take place. I’ve felt a certain way for so long, then the pieces inside begin to move. I feel unfamiliar in my body—in a wonderful way. I’m in a space of not knowing how to be without that old identity, which feels so fresh!

There’s expansion and lightness in my whole being.

Maybe you’ve felt like a victim of your patterns for a long time. And here’s the truth: your experience of them can change. Try top down and bottom up. You’re creating the fertile soil for an inner revolution.

image credit

Ease and Flow in Uncertain Times

“If uncertainty is unacceptable to you, it turns into fear. If it is perfectly acceptable, it turns into increased aliveness, alertness, and creativity.”
~Eckhart Tolle

Who would ever have guessed that we would get a crash course in uncertainty? Well, here we are.

A global pandemic, the health of everyone in the world at risk, including ourselves and our loved ones… Wow!

One question on my mind is about how to meet the uncertainty we’re all facing. And there is a lot of it.

What is going to happen? Who will be affected? When will this disruption end so we can get back to “normal?” How will it end?

Uncertainty means that we don’t know. We just don’t know the answers to these questions.

And for many of us, not knowing fuels the fear lying at the core of how we view ourselves. Everything is threatened—our preferences for how things should be, our life situation defined by roles and relationships, our finances, and even our physical bodies.

Our familiar ground starts to feel quite shaky.

Here are some points for you to contemplate: if you think you control your life, you don’t. If you think you and those you love are going to live forever, they won’t. If you think your world can’t change in a heartbeat, it can.

The tragedies that mark the nature of human civilization don’t just happen to others. Now we’re all facing one.

We’re attached to normalcy, taking the most fundamental aspects of our lives for granted. And now they’re up for grabs.

Whether we want it or not, we’re being given one gigantic invitation to investigate our attachments. What are you going to do with this invitation?

I’ve shined the light on many attachments over the years, seeing them, feeling into what it’s like to be attached, and considering what it would be like to let them go. It’s been a fruitful exploration of fear, loss—and ultimately freedom.

We are always in some kind of relationship with our experience. We might swirl in our minds’ stories while we miss the feelings that drive them. We shame ourselves for our reactions, rather than welcoming them. We desperately want what we want while we resist the truth of what we’re given.

Or we can be conscious of what arises in our inner landscape with curiosity…and tenderness.

Many of us are terrified of our reactions. We don’t want to face loss and change. We don’t want to feel out of control.

I can tell you from experience that fighting what is only makes you struggle more. When we relax a bit and begin to embrace the deeper reality of things, there’s a natural softening.

And softening the hard edges of our resistance brings spaciousness and flexibility, if only for a while as we surf the waves of our reactions.

No longer locked into the fight with ourselves, there’s room for more. As the field of what’s possible expands, we notice a deeper understanding, compassion and acceptance even in the midst of painful feelings, the flow of generosity, and creative responding that includes the whole.

Uncertainty is about the future, and exploring it brings us right here to our present moment experience.

We stay informed and make intelligent decisions based on love for all (e.g., social distancing even if it’s inconvenient). We welcome our reactions and resistances. We consider taking breaks from filling our heads (and bodies) with the news.

And we remind ourselves to watch the leaves blowing in the wind…notice our chest rise and fall with the breath…appreciate our time with family, friends, and pets…and embrace the abundance of all that’s given.

image credit

The Heart and Soul of Self-Compassion

“You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe deserve your love and affection.”
~Buddha

Our true nature is endless peace, beyond space and time, and pure aliveness. And it’s beautiful to explore this truth directly.

But if you’re like me, sometimes we have very human experiences of getting caught in old stories and limited ways of thinking about ourselves.

We feel sad, angry, frustrated, unworthy, jealous, or shameful, and it doesn’t feel good.

At times like these, it can help immensely to practice self-compassion as a way home to peace.

We’re all good people, right? We care about others and know how to treat them with support, acceptance, encouragement, kindness, and love.

Self-compassion is about meeting our own experience with this same love and care.

Many of us are conditioned to turn against ourselves. In our minds, we belittle and criticize our bodies, our creative ideas, our choices, and our actions.

And when waves of emotion visit, we want to fix, change, and avoid—anything but let these tender experiences be as they are. We often feel like we’re just not doing it right.

Self-compassion is the healing balm that helps us weave the fragments of ourselves back together. And here is where we discover our essential wholeness that was always who we are.

We start practicing self-compassion by turning our attention toward whatever we’re experiencing in the moment. We slow things down so we can consciously feel what’s here. Why? Because it’s here for our loving attention.

We stop fighting with our feelings and instead stay open to lovingly receive what appears. And whatever it is, we welcome like our long lost child coming home.

By being kind to what arises, we’re attuned to ourselves. We acknowledge what’s happening; we have our own back—which is exactly what these tender parts of ourselves are longing for.

And practicing this deep self-acceptance over time, we start to find a safe base within that we can return to any time—our harbor in the midst of any storm. We slowly trust again.

We practice self-compassion first with a willingness to be kind to ourselves—because I know you know that self-judgment is stealing your happiness. Then, turning inward, we’re curious about what we find.

  • What sensations are appearing in your body?
  • What thoughts are in your mind that are telling you negative, distorted stories about who you are?
  • What emotions want to be seen by you?

Simply this heartfelt noticing is a supremely kind act.

And here are some other ways to be self-compassionate:

  • We breathe with one hand on the heart and one on the belly—softening into ourselves, being our own best companion.
  • We arrive back to the present moment using our five senses. What do you hear, see, smell, taste, feel? This is what’s real right now.
  • We see how the inner critical voice undermines us, and we become a coach to ourselves instead. What can your inner coach say to support you?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Once there’s space from the prison of your inner negativity, you get to listen deeply within. What is your inner aliveness saying to you? What wants to be born in you? What is itching to be expressed?

Then you find the courage to let the truth of you be known.

Bringing kindness within is the path that will light up the way…

image credit

Devotion to Silence

“Silence has a music of its own. It is not dead, it is very much alive, it is tremendously alive.
In fact, nothing is more alive than silence.”
~Osho

I’m going to let you in on a little secret.

If you’re interested in cultivating peace and ease in your life, if you’re looking for clarity beyond your conditioned mindsets, then you will need to have a friendly relationship with silence.

Many of us live our daily lives in the habit of thinking. We’re in our heads analyzing, planning, fretting, and trying to figure out how to be happy. We frantically move from one thing to another without space in-between.

We are firmly living the mind-driven life, stuck in a rush of mental noise.

But if you want to make a shift in your level of consciousness, it’s essential to befriend inner silence.

A few years ago, I was standing at the entrance to a street market in New Delhi that I wanted to visit. As with many places in India, it was absolutely flooded with people, wall to wall.

The first thought that came was overwhelm, “How am I going to do this?” Then silence took over. My attention shifted from the crowds of people and opened into what I could only call a vast field of silence. It was as if I was gliding forward, fully immersed in my surroundings, and completely still at the same time.

Your life becomes more sane when silence is your go-to place. It’s an anchor that lets you reset when you’re caught up in stressful thinking. It’s the secret to finding clarity when you’re frustrated or out-of-sorts.

And it’s the ground of being that is infinite, open, and free…

Turning away from the objects that bring about suffering and inward toward the silence within is like a homecoming. The momentum of suffering recedes, and there’s spaciousness, presence, and a fresh perspective on everything.

To be honest, I don’t know how to find freedom from the pull of long-standing patterns without a strong relationship with silence.

How can you cultivate silence? We might call it meditation—and it’s ultimately a way of being in everyday life.

  • Take a few moments to sit quietly;
  • Focus on a few breaths as you turn your attention inward;
  • Be the observing presence that notices everything in form come and go;
  • Then notice how this observing presence itself is silent—simply here, vast and open, the welcoming space for whatever wants to pass through;
  • Rest here.

Practice relying on silence as a touchstone as you go through your day.

Being with silence has the potential to shift everything—because you’re not in your head listening to your thoughts. You’re more present with people, more accepting and compassionate, and you’re no longer driven by forces outside your control.

Turn to silence:

  • When you’re bored;
  • When you’re going back and forth trying to make a choice;
  • When you’re lost in the complexity of programmed thinking;
  • Every moment when you remember.

Be devoted to inner silence…and you’re available to discover the peace beyond peace…

image credit

Awakened Qualities—Limitless Compassion

“The more evolved you become, the more compassionate you become, the more you show loving kindness to everything, to the mineral kingdom, to the vegetable kingdom, to the animal kingdom, and to the human kingdom. You show total compassion, loving kindness. You become an embodiment of love simply because everything is you.”
~ Robert Adams

There’s one thing I’ve noticed recently along the spiritual path: there seems to be no end to our capacity for compassion.

How do I know that? I keep finding the secret ways I still judge myself and others when patterns get played out or emotions take over. And as I look deeply into each one, every time I see the invitation for softening, acceptance, and as Byron Katie says, loving what is.

I can always find the capacity for compassion.

As I look deeply, I sometimes discover a subtle rejection of experiences that arise because they don’t meet my expectation of what I think should be happening.

I shouldn’t feel confused or bored. My friend shouldn’t be so upset because she should know by now that her difficult family members will never change. Another friend should stop recycling a distressing story that causes him to suffer.

Even though it’s painful—and surprising—to become aware of these resistances, I love discovering them. Each discovery is a little awakening, coming out of the fog of robotic, unconscious, divisive thinking and into the light of infinite possibility.

And in this light, over and over, I find limitless compassion.

As much as the fear-driven mind tries to avoid and fragment, it can always be met with the willingness to be intimate with what is.

And that’s how everything serves—and I mean everything. Every moment offers a unique arising of the human experience. We can react with resistance and story-telling—or open with curiosity.

We can swim in the familiar pain of fear and lack—or meet it all with the deepest acceptance and celebration.

In these times, it’s easy to get lost in the sorrows of the world. There is plenty of suffering of all kinds, and our hearts break in response to it.

But you can always bring light into your corner of the totality—right here, right now. And that changes everything.

Take a courageous moment to reflect:

  • What feelings have you been avoiding—or rationalizing to yourself?
  • How are your stories of judgment and blame dividing you from others?
  • What “should’s” are blocking your peace and happiness?

If you’re like me, you’ll find many answers to these questions. What would it take to soften in these places of resistance?

Love is always here as the essential nature of reality. Although we may feel stuck and separate, there’s another way: the ongoing miraculous discovery of limitless compassion…

image credit

Awakened Qualities—Comfort with Not Knowing

“I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.”
~ Socrates

Today’s article is the second in our Awakened Qualities series. You can find the first one here.

If we drill down to the absolute truth of things, we see that we have no idea what is going to happen. Life just is, and it unfolds as it does.

This is true of the small, mundane moments of our lives as well as the more momentous ones. But don’t take my word for it.

  • Do you know the next words that will come out of your mouth?
  • Even if you work hard to make something happen and want it with all your heart—do you actually know that it will happen?
  • Isn’t it true that your whole life can change in a moment—by a chance meeting, a diagnosis, or any unexpected event?

The nature of reality is completely fresh, shining with timeless brilliance. This means that we, with our human minds and personal desires, can’t possibly know what will happen.

This is the absolute truth no matter what we expect, no matter what has happened in the past, no matter how much we want something to happen.

And if we’re lulled into same old-same old, thinking things are familiar and commonplace, we’ve bought into another of the mind’s illusions. Because without applying mind-made stories, every nanosecond is utterly new.

So we’re faced with two choices.

We can stay entangled in our assumptions, expectations, and desires—then feel frustrated when they’re not met.

Or we can align ourselves with the truth that we know nothing.

The exploration of not knowing reveals how much we resist:

  • Assuming things should happen a certain way;
  • Thinking we know what is right for other people and the world;
  • Worrying about what might or might not happen;
  • Fighting against things as they are.

Or maybe we fall asleep to the essential aliveness of everything, living like we’re half-alive, because we take things for granted.

Reflecting on these ways of being, we notice we’re left in an imagined state of lack, with that sneaking feeling that something isn’t right.

This information about our inner workings is so valuable—because it points us to another possibility.

In the moments when we receive and allow—rather than expect and assume—our suffering ceases.We come alive to what is!

And we begin to follow the flow rather than struggle against it.

Feel into that possibility in your own experience…

If your mind is like mine, it cycles in a desire-driven monologue of “I want! I want! I want!” or a fear-driven stream of worries about the future. It judges others and makes you believe you’re damaged and unworthy. Or it shuts down to the freshness—”Oh, this again.”

Try calming your mind down with a full and conscious breath and tuning in with curiosity to what is alive right now. Coach your fearful mind to know that all is okay so you can show up fully to what is.

Move through the dullness of familiarity by starting with, “I don’t know” and not relying on inner programming.

This is how what to do becomes apparent. Without resistance hijacking our attention, there’s less extraneous thinking and the space to clearly recognize the natural flow of things.

We’re simply at ease, trusting the truth of the moment. And it’s beautiful—because it’s right here, totally alive, and palpably real.

Free of limitations, we enter the sacred realm of innocence and wonder. We’re available to infinite possibilities and indescribably intimate with what is.

image credit

Awakened Qualities—Enthusiasm

Welcome to the first article in a series called Awakened Qualities.

When you reflect on your everyday life experience, what do you notice? How do you meet the moments of your life?

Are you stewed in negative thinking and doubt? Does everything frustrate you?

Or are you peaceful, easygoing, and prone to joy?

Living in the Flow

Without the constriction of the idea of your mind-made separate self capturing your attention, infinite possibilities open up—available to you now and in every moment.

You may not be aware of it, but it’s absolutely possible to live in the flow of things as they are.

And when you don’t resist anything, life feels sane. You act from intelligence, clarity, and grace. This inner knowing is completely trustworthy.

In this series, we’ll explore some qualities of awakened living that you can experiment with in your own life.

Let the message of this article seep into the moments of your everyday life. Receive it in every cell of your being and see what opens…

The point is to bring these qualities alive in your own experience. And when you do, you’ll make the amazing discovery that everything you want may actually be here, right in this moment.

Enthusiasm—Being Divinely Inspired

Today we’ll explore enthusiasm. Every word contains its whole history, and the root of “enthusiasm” conveys being “divinely inspired, intensely eager, and rapturous.”

Take that in! Begin to imagine discovering the seed of divine inspiration and intense eagerness in the moments of your life. When have you felt that? It’s about living in the full-on Yes!

“Wow, I get to breathe right now! Wow, these colors, forms, scents, and sounds I’m experiencing right now!”

You may be wondering what I’m talking about if you’re not so enthusiastic about things in your daily life. Where is this enthusiasm? That’s because your attention is locked into the contents of your mind which tell you limiting stories about you and your life.

Where to Look

Most minds are filled with repetitive, anxiety-ridden stories, so it’s no surprise that you don’t find enthusiasm there. And you may be focusing on a situation, such as a job you’re not passionate about or struggles in your personal life. No enthusiasm there either.

You may feel bored, disappointed, or lacking. How could you possibly find rapture or divine inspiration there?

Perhaps you need to look somewhere else. Maybe this seemingly normal material world of people, objects, and events is not the whole reality of a given moment.

Maybe the way you’re thinking about these common everyday experiences is masking something deeper…

Beneath this seeming reality of the everyday human life is the energy of aliveness, the vibration of pure existence from which all things arise—here to be discovered in any moment.

It’s the open spaciousness that is aware and alive—and fully loving of everyone and everything.

Meeting the material world from this open spaciousness allows you to experience it in a whole new way.

  • Instead of saying, “I’m bored,” you meet boredom with freshness and curiosity. Maybe it has something to show me…
  • Instead of feeling stuck in a job, you go beyond the feeling of stuckness to expand your view. Is it my life path to be here? Since I’m here, how can I meet the tasks and people I encounter every day infused with love?

And eventually you live in the, “Wow, this is what I’m experiencing right now!” receiving whatever it is with full acceptance.

Beyond the Mind, Into the Moment

Can you feel into the possibility of going beyond what your mind is telling you and seeing familiar thoughts, feelings, and situations with fresh eyes? Here’s where you begin to access the Yes! to the moment.

When enthusiasm arises naturally in you, notice it and expand into it fully. It’s a divinely given experience that is a gateway into your true essence.

To find your inner enthusiasm, clear away your ho-hum ideas about things. Delete any history along with your assumption that things are familiar.

Then, with an awakened mind open like the sky, take everything in with exquisite freshness.

  • Notice the energies and sensations moving through…never before experienced!
  • What do you see, touch, and hear? So fresh!
  • Encounter people with no story of you and other. Heart bursting open!

Try bringing this perspective to the places in your life that feel shut down and flat. Or even to just what you’re experiencing right now. Shed the layers of contracted mind, and discover the Wow! at the heart of every moment.

image credit