The shadow, critical and condemning mind, our inner critic, negative ego or whatever you want to call it, is the source of our complaining and the source of any part of us that is out of control in a negative way. This is my simple explanation. I think simplicity will keep us focused on what we do know and what action to take to make a difference.
It seems for our purpose of change, knowing its history is not as important as being able to see its affects and change the way we relate with it. Avoiding its influence is easier than changing it.
Taking control of our relationship with all parts of our selves is the goal of this movement. Knowing who we are completely is the ultimate destination, learning to be who we want to be now, in spite of our inner obstacles is our immediate goal.
My theory is that we don't need to know why the obstacles are there to transcend them.
Healing, purifying and transforming this shadow of ours is a life process, but what do we do to change it now? How can we make a change in the quality of our relationships now?
We need to make a shift quickly, and this is an important and unique premise of this movement. You don't have to wait to change. We can take action now. We can live how we want in spite of our shadows.
With this new awareness and the power of the witness, we do not have to wait for our minds be perfect and our feelings to be positive to create the lives and world we want.
For now we don't want to focus on fixing ourselves as much as we do learning about ourselves. In our awareness we actually change just by the act of seeing itself. We need to develop and cultivate the skills of the observer.
As I mentioned, the observer is where our power lies, because from this place we can choose things from our love and wisdom even if we feel or think in ways that are stopping our growth.
If we shift into living from the observer, and get smart enough and clever enough to figure out when the shadow is sabotaging us, we can actually start sidestepping it. Once you trust it deserves to be dismissed, you can choose to take your attention off it and act as if it isn't there. Another important step.
We can start changing what we say to others now. We can choose to not complain now. We can choose to be kind now. We just have to wake up to this, become more mindful, increase our awareness skills and we then we can cleverly sneak into the lead with our hearts and our wisdom. We are the witness. When we are watching our thoughts and feelings, "we got the power". Our feelings and thoughts will no longer control us. All teachings that work with psychological and emotional healing require increased awareness.
Here are some typical modes of our shadow to be aware of:
It takes things personally. It is usually resisting something and then complaining about it. It isn't very trusting of others, tends to be pessimistic and fearful. It doesn't see possibility but focuses on loss or lack. It likes to make you or other people out to be wrong. It wants everyone to suffer for their mistakes instead of forgiving them and being compassionate. It narrow mindedly thinks it knows what is going to happen, and it catastrophically makes all kinds of assumptions that make everyone other than itself guilty of something! (side note - In my work with others, 90% of the difficulty in relationships is because there are unconscious assumptions being made that are based on the mistrust of the other person's intentions.) This equals trouble. This is how awareness can help us and save us from all kinds of grief.
So how can we empower and strengthen our observer? How can we become more conscious of how we are feeling, acting and why? How can we get control?
Here is what to practice:
Next time you notice a negative feeling or thought;
Stop, and take a breath.
Listen to your inner voice and see what it is saying.
Just explore its words, beliefs, attitudes and opinions and get to know it. Try to understand it and challenge its reasoning. See if it tells you the truth, or if it is making assumptions. This kind of questioning is an essential ingredient of our healing.
More simply put:
Notice any negative thought or feeling.
Stop, breathe, listen, and explore.
This watching alone is the practice and prep we need for the next step. It's simple but not that easy to implement and remember. Best wishes!
Conscious hesitation, empowering our observer or witness, and increasing our awareness, are what will support our will to change.
I think you will find yourself capable of seeing more than you usually do as a result of this inspiration. Have fun with this, and please never forget you must always apply self-awareness, with an equal amount of kindness and shame-free acceptance.
Once you're skilled at this, the positive possibilities and the potential for your growth just explodes.
So... Awareness, Awareness, Awareness! Anthony Dimello wrote a famous book called Awareness. Most credible, modern day and even traditional teachers and philosophies rely on awareness in some way. Eckhart Tolle, Pema Chodron, John Kabat-Zinn, Deepak Chopra, Wayne Dyer, Byron Katie, Juan Miguel Ruiz, Scott Peck, Dalai Llama, Einstein, and Marianne Williamson all promote awareness. Why try to be more aware? You can't heal or change what you can't see.
If you were to become aware of every thought you were having as you had it, and if you were aware of every emotion as you were feeling it, then you would always be capable of using your wisdom to decide what to do next. What if you could do this automatically without thinking about it? Let's make "this" our habit.
To view the previous inspirations please go to:
http://bryanzerr.com/newspad/default.asp
Bryanzerr Copyright 2011
Thanks......awareness....easy enough
ReplyDelete