Awareness

Dear Yogis,

Wherever you are right now, become aware of the furthest sounds you can hear.    Do this before reading on……

Did you notice everything you had to do in order to do that?  You had to:

·         Stop

·         Come into stillness

·         Become very quiet

·         Relax the mind muscles

·         Stop thinking

·         Send out your awareness

·         Open to receive the response

Awareness.  The state we find ourselves in once we have learned to relax the mind muscles.

 

It is in the space of awareness that new ideas, new thoughts and new ways of being can find their way in, because in awareness we notice.   And the more “aware” and expanded we become, the more we notice.   It is limitless.

Our habits are one of the things that start to stand out when we become aware.  Those things we do, and have done for so long that we don’t question them. 

Two weeks ago, on a cold rainy day, Hanuman came to deliver the weekly CSA shares to my home.  As he was leaving I commented  - “not a great day to be out in!”.  And he looked back at me and just softly said- oh, I like rainy days.   I stopped in my tracks.  It was one of those “aha” moments.   I realized then that I don’t dislike rainy days.  I just had gotten in the habit of describing them as if I did.    Why?

Weather has become a habitual conversation starter for me.  “Cold enough for you?”  “Wonder when we will ever see the sun again.”  “Can’t wait for spring.”  And so on. 

But with awareness you begin to see that things are not good or bad.  They just are.  The weather just is.  Rainy days, hot days, foggy days, frigid cold….they all just are.  And they are all exactly as they are supposed to be.  It is just my need to judge and my struggling against them that causes them to be anything else. 

I have also noticed that I am not alone.  Unless the day is a perfect 75 degrees and sunny, you will hear at least 5 people in your travels complain.  Notice it this week……. The heat.  The humidity.  The pollen.  The snow.  Too wet.   Too dry.  It doesn’t matter what it is like, we judge.  If you listened you would begin to believe that 95% of our days are just not quite right.  As if now is not quite good enough. 

I have decided to try a new approach to the weather.  Every morning I will thank the Universe for whatever the particular weather of the day is.  And I will work to embrace it, not struggle against it and actually allow myself to feel it.  Becoming more “aware” of the many forms that beauty takes – with the hope that someday soon I too will respond from the heart – I like rainy days. 

Wanting to feel it all,

SARAH