calmingyourworld.com

In What Can We Trust Now?

"The last of the human freedoms is to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances."— Victor Frankl

I was always intrigued by the saying on the dollar bill - “In God We Trust”.  While there was something comforting about having such a reminder printed on the money, I also wondered: “Does it mean that money is God in America?” The longer I have lived here, the more I suspected that this was the belief that informed the conduct of many people.

As a veteran of life’s experiences, and as a practitioner of Dynamic Mindfulness I have been challenged many times when I have been called upon to trust in the unbounded unknown looming in front of me. Having been born after one of the most traumatic unknowns in the history of mankind, the Natzi Holocaust in Europe, it seems to go with the territory. This morning I had a particularly vivid test of that trust – which I feel thrilled to speak about.

Three days ago, I realized I had lost my wallet, all the essential documents, like my driver’s license and credit cards were missing. I had a hunch I misplaced the wallet somewhere in my house – so I wasn’t rushing to cancel credit cards, and notify my bank, just yet.  I turned over everything in every nook and cranny I could think of, and then some – but still no wallet. However, I made a decision to keep breathing with my anxiety around the loss of these important items, and kept turning my stress over to the breath, regardless of whether my attempts to find the wallet were successful or not.  I was honoring my commitment not to suffer over anything unnecessarily.

This morning I was supposed to drive my friend to the airport to catch the flight for her trip to China. I woke up realizing I still hadn’t found my driver’s license, and really shouldn’t drive without it; I called her suggesting it would be better if she could take a cab to the airport. A few moments after hanging up from our eleventh hour conversation, I was sitting by my computer listening to a new pod-cast I had just installed on my website. As I followed my voice suggesting to the viewer  “Slow down… Surrender your stress to the pace of your breath… Trust in the clarity of Now.”  I became aware that my foot was touching the bin of recycling papers under my desk.  I felt called to open the bin; casually I opened it, rummaged around, putting my hand under the papers; there was the wallet.

Was this just a coincidence? Hardly! In my surrendered state – my ‘other brain’ - the smarter, calmer, breath-informed, more intuitive brain of my “chosen attitude” - had kicked in. I followed my own directions on the pod-cast to practice mindful breathing, and allowed the power of the breath to change the chemistry in my brain, to reduce my stress level enough to move my attention intuitively in the right direction to re-unite my missing wallet and me. The present, the gift that the mindful present moment offered to me, came only because I was willing to trust in the clarity offered by the breath in that present moment, to follow the lead my intuition was offering and look for my wallet in the most unlikely of places – the waste paper bin. Of course, I ended up taking my friend to the airport – and what a ride it was. The rest of the day was filled with celebration of the freedom of my chosen attitude.

Can you imagine that you too could practice the skill of mindful breathing which could connect you to the clarity of now? Could you come to trust the clarity of now when you are making an important decision; when you are making preparations for your day; when you are faced with stress, anxiety, confusion, difficult and challenging times; when your struggles with the unknown seem too big to manage?

As John Lennon once said, “What you can imagine, you can achieve.” I invite you to imagine, and achieve, the clarity of now by taking advantage of the simple guidelines of Dynamic Mindfulness Meditation offered by our programs, products and activities. http://www.livinginthepresent.com/programs.html

Listen to the very same pod-cast that was so helpful to me,  “In What We Can trust Now.” http://www.livinginthepresent.com

An important part of Dynamic Mindfulness is the movement we do accompanying the Rhythm of Life which is supplied by our wonderful DJ, who draws his musical inspiration from every part of the globe.

Taking The High Road With The Frequency Of Presence

“When anything is initiated in the joy of the present and
in the rhythm of the breath, the future of that reality can
be more purposeful, meaningful, loving, and powerful."

            
I was in a car with my friend on our way to have lunch for
his birthday. I noticed an angry tone in his voice; when I asked him about it,
he confirmed he was angry. He started to tell me how disappointed and hurt
he was that I was not available to celebrate his birthday – in the way he expected. 

I was astonished by that reaction. Here I was driving with him to celebrate his
birthday, and he was unable to be here in the present moment; instead he
was choosing to be upset about an unfulfilled picture he had in his head of
something that never happened, and something I knew nothing about.
                   
I could feel myself getting triggered into “No matter what I’ll do for him – I’ll
always end up being wrong.” The conversation soon turned to an exchange
of ‘emotional pain bodies’. I could see that this was going nowhere fast.
I was very relieved when my friend suggested that we take a break
from each other for a couple of hours.
                   
I had a choice – to feel bad about it and ruminate, think and analyze it to
death, or to take a walk, and turn over my feelings and reactions to
my breath, and just keep moving.

Not ten minutes later, after turning all this drama over to the rhythm of my
breathing, I started to feel joyful, and saw the pair of shoes above being sold
on the street on the Lower East Side.

When I asked the vendor how much they were – and he said  “$10.”I thought
- “OK Ms. Breath –I get it. Thank you!”  After walking one more block, I found
a wonderful gift for my friend. I thanked the breath again – this time for not
harboring any resentment at my friend and feeling light hearted enough to
celebrate his birthday – even without him.
                   
I would like to invite you to not only practice taking the high road and join me
and others in the work of Living in the Present – but also to tell your own story
of being triggered out of the peace, joy and calmness of the present moment,
and post it on my blog: www.calmingyourworld.com.

This is part of a new direction we are taking here at Calming Your World –
Calming Our Environment. We are co-creating a community, which is practicing
making the choice to take the higher road of life when challenged by the
reactivity of ego-drama. We are willing to share our tools and experiences
of making those choices on the blog to empower ourselves and others.
(Respect yourself - song)
                   
Enjoy the frequency of Presence this summer,

 

                   

Samuel

P.S.  Here are the tools that I am offering this summer to help you learn
to acheive calmness and live in the present:

Free Teleconference

 

TeleSeminar

Joy of Being Book & 2 CDs

 

Coaching Programs 

Individual Coaching Sesisons

Intermediate Class at The Open Center

Finding Your Breath @ the Rhythm of Life:

Volume 3 Issue 4     *ARTFUL LIVING IN THE PRESENT*     May 2008

Calming Your World – Calming Our Environment
with Dynamic Mindfulness Meditation
How to transform a ‘Stressful Place’ to a ‘Calm Space’?

Imagine, that you are on your way to an important meeting, and your bag contains your laptop, I-pod, appointment book, a book and 2 CD’s you just authored, and your digital camera. As you stroll leisurely to the appointment, you pass by a flea market, and get distracted by a jacket that catches your attention. You take your bag off, put it down on the ground and try the jacket on. When you find out that the jacket doesn’t fit, you thank the vendor and continue strolling. A couple of blocks later, you discover that your bag is missing; you left it on the ground. What do you do next?

Often, when something like this happens, we panic, get anxious, and run back to where we might have left the bag, expecting the worst – worrying that it was stolen. It’s not unlikely to be overwhelmed with thoughts and emotions, ranging from - “What a jerk I am....” to “Why is this happening to me?” or “How unlucky I am....”

As a practitioner of Dynamic Mindfulness Meditation, the most important question would be “How can I be OK, accept what happened, find my Calm Space and breathe open to - Now?” “How can I get back into the rhythm of life, trusting the breath to guide me to what to do next?”

• Noticing what’s happening inside your head, your body, and your emotions...
• Breathing mindfully, surrendering the stress to the breath, slowing down keeping the focus in the aliveness in the body - finding the rhythm of life, and accepting how you feel....
• Letting go of attachment to results, while taking the steps to find the bag…
• Keep trusting in the breath and staying open to its guidance…

In the process of Calming My World after losing my bag, I not only found it, but I got in-touch with the humanity of the situation, and how my response to losing my bag contributed to a calmer environment. When I came back to the stand, the man behind the counter happily informed me that he found my bag, and handed it to me. When I offered him some money, he said, “No, this was my good deed for the day.” When I offered him a hug, he said: “I have had AIDS for twenty-five years, every day – is a gift for me”.

The law of karma is the law of cause and effect. It works unavoidably when there is no consciousness -- when we are not present in the moment. When there is no consciousness, the past creates the future.

The law of Love supersedes the law of karma. It intervenes in the process by focusing in the present. In fact, one could say that Love is being fully present. When anything is initiated in Love in the present, the future of that reality will be purposeful, meaningful, loving and powerful.

 

                     

NAMASTE - 2008 The Inside J.O.B. of World Peace

When you google NAMASTE here is what you get:

* “I honor the Spirit in you which is also in me."

* "I honor the place in you in which the entire Universe dwells”

* "I honor the place in you which is of Love, of Integrity, of Wisdom and of Peace”    

* “When you are in that place in you, and I am in that place in me, we are One."

* "I salute the God within you."                               

* "I recognize that we are all equal."

* “The entire universe resides within you."

* “The divine peace in me greets the divine peace in you."

* "Your spirit and my spirit are ONE."

* "That which is of the Divine in me greets that which is of the Divine in you."

* "The Divinity within me perceives and adores the Divinity within you".    

Something about this greeting - which comes from the East, and the gesture of bowing from the heart, has always compelled me, way before I knew what it meant. It was not part of the culture I grew up in.

As much as I love touching, hugging, and feel comfortable with showing physical affection, aesthetically and energetically, NAMASTE feels right, because there it is an honoring of the One Self. You have to be confident, sincere, self-contained, and dwell in your own body, in order to bow and not fall, stumble or feel ridiculous, when both your hands are touching together at the level of the heart, and when you're facing another.

As a westerner, you have to be sufficiently free of your ego - in order for such a gesture to be authentic. Whenever I see the Dalai Lama bow and smile, I can feel the lightness of heart, that has come to symbolize an inner peacefulness that is honoring of the One Self, and yet it feels whimsical and funny at the same time.

In 2007, I had to learn through some very challenging experiences, the virtue of Self-honoring. That if I didn't do my part in honoring my Self - NAMASTE was not complete. It could become yet another co-dependent, looking-good, yet, feeling-empty-inside deal. And I don't mean emptiness in the Buddhist way, but rather feeling damaged, lost and bruised-at-the ego way. I had to learn how to take full responsibility for NAMASTE.