Hello,
Welcome.
Take a moment to notice where your attention currently lies.
Listening to my voice,
Perhaps aware of thoughts about a recent celebration.
Notice how your attention moves from one thing to another.
A celebration,
This video.
Or planned holiday.
Wherever attention goes,
There is something more present within your experience.
Direct your attention to a problem.
And the problem may seem larger.
Focus your attention on being afraid,
Then fear may become more of a focus in your general activities.
But now rest your attention on something more immediate,
The breath.
Your awareness of being here.
And notice what changes.
We may think we are simply experiencing life as it is.
When our actual experiencing is shaped more by where our attention rests.
And this becomes especially important when we consider the past.
An experience happens,
We interpret it,
Then give it meaning.
Over time,
These interpretations can become the foundation of habitual patterns of conditioning in our feelings.
Expectations or our emotions.
We may expect something to be wrong because it has happened before.
We may doubt ourselves because we've been told we lacked confidence.
We may remain alert because of a past trauma,
Even when there is no evidence of trauma now.
When attention returns to a feeling,
An emotion,
Threat or anxiety,
The nervous system can remain tense for extended periods long after the experience has passed.
But now notice this,
The past is not happening now.
What happened as a child,
As a teenager,
Last year,
Last night.
Yesterday or this morning is not happening now.
The memory or emotion may be felt,
But the original experience has long since passed.
One's immediate lived reality is experienced now.
This breath,
This sensation,
This pain,
This moment.
Or being experienced.
Lived in the unfolding of now.
Before interpretation,
Before judgment.
Before comparing this moment with what happened before.
There remains always one's direct lived experience.
And when we notice that attention has shifted back to an old pattern of reaction,
We can return to the almost instantaneous calming benefits of deep breath work.
Returning the body and mind to the present,
To the softening of calm and rest.
We don't need to ignore,
Fight with or erase the past.
We can simply become more aware to stop past thoughts,
Ceasing to give them our unquestioned attention or emotional energy.
And as our attention returns to direct experiencing,
The mind can become more attuned as the body relaxes,
And the central nervous system returns to balance and calm.
Old thoughts may still arise,
But we don't have to follow them.
All fears may appear.
But we don't have to build a future around them.
Old doubts may stir,
But we don't have to question everything.
This present moment.
Does not and cannot be lived through the memory of the past.
Because life is continuously blossoming,
Evolving.
Each breath,
Each cloud,
Each wave,
Each flower,
All are immediate appearances.
Now begin to notice with a little more clarity,
Attention is the narrow focus of the mind.
One's eternal awareness is an open field of spacious presence.
Attention focuses.
Awareness freely embraces.
Attention moves towards something,
A thought,
A memory,
A sensation.
Awareness does not need to move anywhere.
It is timelessly present,
Aligned with all.
A thought,
A feeling,
A sound,
All appear and awareness is present with all.
In all cases,
Awareness is prior,
Within,
And after all experiencing.
And now,
Just for a moment.
Allow your attention to widen.
Remain open and expansive.
Holding this pressure awareness.
Be aware.
There is nothing now you need to find,
Nothing you need to become.
Simply rest as this spacious wholeness,
This eternal presence,
Aware of all that is inseparably here.
This greater all-inclusive awareness is your lived reality,
Not what happened before,
Not what might happen later,
But what is actually present right here.
Life is a constant dynamic flow of unfolding,
Fresh,
Immediate.
Raw and alive.
Remain here within each breath.
Aware.
And experience.
All that is.
