Living with Awareness

Padme's book is now available in paperback at www.healingwithawareness.com.

I am excited about my book being in paperback so it can get to more people (being more financially accessible!). And a client said she was glad to hear about it because she loves to write in paperbacks...underlining, highlighting, and making notes in the margins. Whatever helps us remember to be more aware! You can get it at my website, amazon.com, www.creeksidebooks.com and probably soon on Barnes and Noble website too.

Time to Pay Those Bills!

Many of us experience discomfort when it comes time to pay bills. Have you ever noticed what happens within you when it’s time to get the job done?

Some people feel tightness; others feel exhausted, nauseated, or develop a headache. It’s a gift to take the time to notice what’s happening in the moment- without naming the sensations as fear or failure, or denying, or pushing them away. Being with physical sensations as they are, our awareness allows an open exploration of what is.

Thoughts may come up about what has fed our financial challenges. A whole story may expand to include many people and situations. With awareness, we explore our story without judgment, and we may notice our understanding and compassion expanding —dissipating possible feelings of blame and failure. Once we fully acknowledge our story, and see through any mistaken beliefs, we can simply let it pass through the mind without attachment. Then we might notice how the body/mind quiets down as we return to the task at hand.

When we can be with the way things are, even bill  paying get easier.

©2008 by Padme Nina Livingstone

 

 Giving Thanks for Traffic

Next time you’re in a car and the traffic’s not moving, can you be curious about how to use this slowed-down time to your benefit? Even though you have a destination, and want to get there, you can use the opportunity to transform your experience with gratitude.

Turn off the music or news. Take a moment and notice if you’re having thoughts about being late or missing something important. Does your body feel relaxed or is there tightness?

Allow your thoughts to pass through without attaching to them. Pay attention without judgment. Just notice what’s happening in the mind. Thoughts like, “I wish this traffic would get moving!” or “I hate this!” or “I should’ve left more time!” can be recognized, and acknowledged without getting caught up in them.

After a few moments, shift your focus and settle into your breath wherever it is experienced in the body. It may be felt in the nose, throat, chest or belly. Simply notice the inhalation and exhalation without trying to control it. Continue to let thoughts pass through, and maintain your focus on your breath, with your eyes open, remembering you are in the car (especially if you’re in the driver’s seat!).

And then, allow the following words to settle on each in and out breath, “As I breathe in, I am grateful for being here. As I breathe out, I am grateful for being here.” Repeat the phrase for several cycles. Notice any shift in how the body feels. And remember you can use this breathing phrase at other times of stress and challenge.

Enjoy the possibility that being late for appointments, missing a meeting or an airplane can be transformed into a gift when we live in the present, breathing, and giving thanks, with awareness. And please, always drive with care.

©2008 by Padme Nina Livingstone

Expectations at Holiday Time

Have you ever noticed how expectations affect your life during the holidays?

Thinking about what may or may not happen as the holidays approach— with our family, other people, or the possibility of being alone when we’d rather not be—pulls us into confusion as thoughts circle around our history, creating both hopes and fears.

Living with awareness, we can find other ways to be with expectation. Acknowledging the presence of our hopes and fears, we can let them pass through the mind. Letting hopes and fears simply pass through the mind neutralizes their power over us. Or, we might explore the nature of our beliefs behind our hopes and fears, and experience what is. Then, we can be more open to whatever happens.

Not feeding fears and hopes makes it easier to be with what is in a loving way. If the holiday time is fun, we can fully experience our feelings of joy. And if we don’t get exactly what we’d like during the holidays, we can still be aware and open; bringing flexibility, patience, and compassion into whatever happens.

And then this holiday-time can feel like a gift to one self and everyone we meet.

©2007 by Padme Nina Livingstone

 

 

Just Eating

The last time you ate alone, were you completely absorbed in thinking about something else, or were you just eating? Did you enjoy the food?

Next time you eat alone, plan on just eating. That means focusing your attention completely on the smelling, the tasting, the chewing, and the swallowing. Thoughts come and go. You return your moment-to-moment awareness, back to just eating.

You may find you eat more slowly and don’t overeat. You may taste your food and chew it better. Just eating rests and refreshes the mind, and feels like a mini-vacation.

Once you’ve experienced benefits from just eating, you may even excuse yourself from people you usually share meals with, in order to treat yourself to a quiet-mind meal in an otherwise stress-filled day.

You may find you love eating alone, yet remember there needs to be balance in all things. You can pay more attention to eating, and still enjoy sharing meals with others!

Remembering awareness is a gift to your self and others.

Padme’s book Let’s Not Call It Meditation: Practical Guidance for People Who Think They Can’t Sit Still and Quiet the Mind is now available through her website, www.amazon.com, and www.barnesandnoble.com (since it’s a print-on-demand book, you’ll need to wait a few extra days to receive it at the Amazon or Barnes and Noble websites.

©2007 by Padme Nina Livingstone

Response-ability

Many of us heard the word “responsibility” in a negative way as we were growing up. It was usually connected to a whole list of things we felt forced to do. We may have developed a negative reaction to the word because the list was so long— homework, chores, work, being nice, saying “thank you,” “I’m sorry,” etc. Here’s an opportunity to discover a new attitude about the word responsibility: Taking the word and breaking it into two main parts, we get response-ability. Imagine having the ability to respond appropriately to what is in front of us. That is all there is to it. Simple, but not always easy!

Awareness helps us feel our connection with our family and community. It also helps us take respond-ability in all aspects of our life. In order to respond to what’s in front of us, we need to be clear and present, without mental and emotional baggage weighing us down. Experiencing this kind of alert, spontaneous clarity happens as we cultivate Awareness. With practice, we see something needs doing and we respond.

If someone in front of us needs help, or volunteers are needed, we see what we can do. There’s often no set amount of volunteer time being asked for by many organizations that need help. Doing what we can is enough. Asking, “How can I help?” is an active, direct way to respond in times of need. Offering help is the way to go beyond the concept of family and community in order to experience it directly.

Living with awareness is always a gift to yourself and others.

©2007 by Padme Nina Livingstone

Really Cooking

Have you ever noticed how busy the mind can be when you’re cooking?

Whether you feel cooking is a chore or really enjoy the creativity involved, you might want to consider using cooking time as an opportunity to practice being aware in the moment. Smelling the fragrances of herbs and spices, feeling your arm as you stir or chop, test tasting as you go, voices in the next room.

All of what’s happening can be taken in and let be. Focusing with the task-at-hand, without getting caught up in thoughts about what’s next, how tired you feel, or what happened earlier in the day, allows your whole being to be present with what is. You may actually find you have more energy to enjoy your meal when you’ve prepared it with awareness!

©2007 by Padme Nina Livingstone

Breathing Peace

Try this the next time you are aware that you feel stressed and want to quiet down the inner chaos quickly.

Walking, driving, standing still, or sitting, quietly say while breathing in, “I am breathing in, and I am at peace.” Say while breathing out, “I am breathing out, and I am at peace.” Focus attention on what happens. If you become distracted, simply return your focus to your words and notice what’s happening within. Repeat until you notice a shift, and are ready to stop.

The cells of the body receive thought as instruction, and are willing followers to whatever we think. Saying we are at peace, allows the body to shift from feeling rushed around, to slowing down, so we can feel quieter inside.

Balance in all things, means use this practice with care, and let awareness be your guide. Sometimes this practice is helpful, and other times, it can be used to distract us from exploring mistaken beliefs that keep us rushing around.

Remembering awareness is a gift to your self and others.

©2007 by Padme Nina Livingstone

I am handling this

Have you noticed how certain situations seem to trigger falling apart again and again? Like when you think someone else has prepared dinner and you have to do it, or being asked to do one more thing by your boss when your workload already feels full?

The trick is to find a way not to fall apart because of fears of not being enough. Sending a truthful message to the body/mind system can change our whole perspective under stress. We can do this by simply stating quietly to our self, “I can handle this.” We might need to say it three times to feel a shift. And once that settles in, we can say, “I am handling this.” Notice what happens when we speak the truth.

We do handle it. When we aren’t filling the mind with judgments and blame, we do the best we can. We do enough because we are enough. Enough? Enough!

A note to bloggers:

If you enjoy reading about awareness, you might also enjoy visiting my website, www.healingwithawareness.com.  Besides information about my book, Let's Not Call It Meditation: Practical Guidance for People Who Think They Can't Sit Still and Quiet the Mind, there are many articles about meditation instruction, how to not give your power away to others (Wanting Nothing), and how to cultivate compassion (Uncovering Compassion). There are also MP3's of my one minute talks about awareness, meditation and awareness CDs, and past issues of my newsletter. Please check it out sometime...but only if it feels like fun!

©2007 by Padme Nina Livingstone

 

Five Powerful Words

Close your eyes and say quietly, “I am that I am” three times. Notice what happens. “ I am that I am” are the only truthful words we can say about who we are because they include all of our physical, mental, emotional and spiritual presence in the moment. Anything else is only part of the truth. “I am breathing,” for example, doesn’t include the reality that I am also hearing, seeing, e6tc. Saying “I am that I am brings us right into the moment! When we are fully alive in the moment, all thoughts of anger, worry, frustration, judgment and blame fall away. Try using this suggestion anytime you feel stressed and want to calm down and center.

It’s a great tool but, Beware! Tools need to be put down when they are no longer useful, like any habit used to avoid being in the moment! If you use it too much, you’ll know what I mean.

©2007 by Padme Nina Livingstone