Re-action to Interruption
Remember how you felt the
last time someone interrupted you? Were you able to feel your feelings and
still listen without allowing your anger or frustration to be in the way?
Noticing your unsettled
feelings, and not adding blame and accusation, you may find you can listen and
feel at the same time.
©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.
Slowing down enough to be aware of all that’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
Wanting Nothing
Is it possible to "want nothing from
another?" Don’t we naturally want people
to be kind? Yes, this is part of the human condition. The problems arise when
the mind habitually wants people to be different than they are.
It’s natural to want someone to be happier, but
getting caught up in the wanting is what gets us into trouble. How do you feel
when you continue wanting someone to change when they aren’t ready? Our painful
relationships with others are most often caused by unconsciously feeding the wanting to change people;
like family or people you work with!
When you notice being caught up in wanting someone
to be different— drop the wanting, and want
nothing. You won’t become passive or turn off your feelings. In fact, you
may notice more awareness, clarity, and compassion. Notice what happens for
your self.
Remembering awareness is a gift to your self and others. Please take care.
©2007 by Padme Nina Livingstone
Noticing Judgment
Have you ever noticed what
happens internally when someone says something you strongly disagree with? Next
time it happens, take a moment to focus within before you speak.
Looking within, you may
notice that you have already judged that you are right and they are wrong. Or that
you think they need to hear what you have to say, because what you have to say
is so important. You may feel physically upset, because we often make
unconscious assumptions that can lead us to feeling attacked, unloved, or
unseen.
Stopping before speaking,
allows you to use a pause creatively. Simply noticing what’s happening allows
awareness to fill the space. You can feel what’s happening, and listen
carefully to your inner conversation. Then, you can have the freedom to respond
with loving-kindness to the other person, even when you disagree.
You may also realize that you can honor the other person’s right to feel differently because when we’re aware, it’s OK to be different.
©2007 by Padme Nina Livingstone
Listening to the Heart
Have you ever wondered about a difference between longing and wanting?
We can think of longing as coming from
the heart, and expressing our healthy desire for our intrinsic wholeness.
Longing opens the space for us to feel connected with other people and our
natural world. It is the kind of desire that
brings light and love, instead of
confusion and fear.
Our wanting, however, comes from the mind that pushes us to control people and situations we can’t control.
Some people spend their life trying to fill their never-ending hunger for
material things. Wanting comes from the part of us that keeps
us dissatisfied, feeling incomplete,
and. falsely believing in our
separateness from other people and the natural world.
Our heart’s longing is a deeply
personal invitation to find out what’s true and loving. Trying to control
what we can’t control, or being attached to material possessions, we are confused. Responding to the heart’s
invitation to explore our confusion, we eventually transform our lives. As we softly tune into our heart, we can learn
to discern what’s true and what’s not. The heart knows the difference. And
listening with awareness to what the heart has to tell us, we are present with all
that is.
Padme’s
book, Let’s Not Call It Meditation: Practical Guidance for People Who Think
They Can’t Sit Still and Quiet the Mind can be won in a sweepstakes at http://www.lipsticking.com during the month of July. A sample reading, wonderful testimonials, and ordering are
available through her website. Voice Mail: (585) 234-0800 Email:padme@healingwithawareness.com Website:www.healingwithawareness.com
©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 what’s happening within. Repeat until you notice a shift, and
wish 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
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 Livingstone is an
awareness meditation teacher in the Rochester, NY area. Website:www.healingwithawareness.com
©2007 by Padme Nina Livingstone
Dusting, Dusting
Let’s
be practical and honest! Housework is
essential and most of the time we resist, even dislike, doing the dishes,
dusting, sweeping the floor, or cleaning the toilet.
Our
meditation group was discussing different ways to help bring our focus back
into the present. One practice is naming
what you are doing. If you are driving a car, and you notice getting caught up
in thoughts of the past or future, you say, “Driving, driving” to yourself. The
discussion turned to things we often don’t like to do, like washing dishes or
dusting.
A participant, Paula, said as she pretended to dust, “Oh, you mean I should say, Hate dusting, hate dusting.” We all laughed, as I added, “Actually, you drop the “hate” and just say “dusting, dusting. How do you think that would feel?” Paula sat quietly reflecting. A moment later she looked up with a quiet smile and said, “There would be a sense of freedom.” Ahh!
©2007 by Padme Nina Livingstone
Inner Smile
Do you want to know a
simple thing you can do to shift from feeling the weight of the world, to
feeling a lightness that can help you respond freshly, with more patience,
clarity, and presence?
Try spending about five
minutes every morning practicing an inner smile. Close your eyes and direct a
smile inward, just as if the most beloved being in your life —cat, mother,
child, friend, or partner —
Simply putting a smile on
the face gets the chemicals that help us feel better into action, even when we
feel stressed, heavy, and overwhelmed. This simple smile literally sends
healing energy wherever we focus our attention. This lightens our mood, shifts
our perspective, and makes life easier to handle, even when smiling is the last
thing we feel like doing!
Remembering awareness is a gift to your self and others.
©2007 by Padme Nina Livingstone
Exploring Discomfort
Take
the time to be curious about the cause of discomfort, and explore what is.
Usually when we feel any discomfort, we first try to ignore it, deny it, or
push it away. Instead, we can think of discomfort as a Stop Sign being put up
by the body to pay attention to something. Rather than running the Stop Sign,
we can stop and explore the cause of emotional, mental, or physical discomfort
with an undefended heart.
We
can come to know for our self what it means to be present with all that life
brings. We can notice how discomfort often takes us into reaction, such as when
a family member expresses impatience towards us. When we eat too much food, we
can listen to the body’s signals and learn from them. After we speak unkind
words, we can focus within and notice how we feel.
Being
aware of uncomfortable feelings, we come into direct contact with the body’s
messages without having to change anything. With gentle openness, we focus
right into sensations, asking, “What is this?” Staying open to what is naturally
leads to what’s true and what feels better.
Bringing awareness to what is is a gift to yourself and others. Even when it means you need to explore discomfort!
©2007 by Padme Nina Livingstone
Change is good
