Hi,
This is Padma and today I want to talk to you about neutrality and being neutral.
Now what do I mean by that?
I'm talking about when somebody that you're close to does something and it tickles one of your triggers.
Now we have two choices in that moment.
We can either react based on our past conditioning or we can be neutral.
And it's almost like stepping outside of the scene and becoming the witness,
Seeing yourself and someone else from like an aerial view like you were peeking into the room if the ceiling had been taken off.
And seeing that trigger invitation,
Seeing yourself as you're about to take the bait and then not taking the bait,
Feeling the impulse,
Feeling all the momentum that's behind it and simply declining the invitation to react.
And what that entails is feeling whatever is moving,
Feeling the feelings,
Feeling the sensations,
Taking a lot of deep breaths and making a new choice,
Making a new choice,
A choice from neutrality.
I've had this experience a fair amount recently,
Perhaps in relation to my daughter who's dipping her toes into pre-adolescence and is very emotional at times,
Understandably.
And I just watch myself and choose not to engage in the old way,
Choose almost to stand a little back,
Almost like take a step backward inside myself and give her the space to have her feelings,
Have her experience,
Share what she wants to share and then respond from a neutral place,
From a calm place with some kind of clarity.
So this is what I'm suggesting that you experiment with is being neutral.
So I'd like to invite you now to find a comfortable place and for the next maybe six or seven minutes we'll do a little relaxation and a little meditative rewiring.
So just beginning by making yourself comfortable,
Finding a place where you can step away from all of your tasks,
From all of the people in your life and turn your attention toward yourself.
Turn your attention toward yourself,
Letting the eyes close,
Letting the breath deepen.
And settling into yourself,
Settling into yourself.
Feeling the weight of your bones,
The weight of your structure and just letting everything relax.
Because the more relaxed you are,
The more receptive you are to input,
To suggestion,
To the suggestion of remaining neutral even when you feel triggered.
So I'd like you to imagine a situation with someone in your life,
Maybe at home or at work and see yourself,
See yourself in a situation where they are inviting you to engage in an old way of relating in yesterday's dance as it were.
And just imagine yourself being able to stay neutral,
To ground into your breath,
To feel your feet and to allow yourself to experience the tendency to react without following through.
It might feel like a rising of energy or a contraction somewhere in the body.
And if you allow yourself to simply experience it,
Allowing yourself to experience it without doing the action,
Which means that maybe you'll feel more energy in your body or some heat or some tingling or pulsing.
Just feeling that and noticing what it's like to imagine yourself riding it out without enacting the habitual response pattern,
Without being a slave to the past conditioning,
To ride the wave without doing the reaction,
To just feel it moving through.
It's like the ocean waves arise and then they crash and the water hits the shore and then recedes,
So it's almost like it rises up and then it recedes.
It rises up and then it recedes.
It doesn't need to destroy everything in its path.
It doesn't need to go into a tug of war that is so tired,
That is so overplayed.
Everything that you've done over and over and over,
You simply choose not to do it,
Just to experience the momentum without expressing,
Without engaging and just feel how that feels.
It might feel really good.
And every time that you make a different choice,
You're creating a new pathway in the brain and body,
A new possibility for your life.
The option to respond rather than react is available to every one of us and it takes practice,
So the more you practice this inside yourself,
Seeing yourself remaining still,
Taking deep breaths,
Experiencing the sensations,
Experiencing the feelings,
Noticing how they arise and pass away.
They arise and they pass away.
And this is freedom.
This is the freedom to engage with life consciously,
With awareness,
Noticing when we're getting pulled into the behaviors of the past,
Into the ruts,
Into the things that we've done a hundred,
A thousand,
Ten thousand times.
And then we make a new choice and we make another new choice and another new choice.
And I promise you,
It gets easier and easier the more you do it.
So each time you do it,
You ride the wave,
You don't succumb to temptation,
Don't succumb to taking the bait.
You're finding freedom.
Freedom is available to one and all.
Freedom is available to one and all.
This is Padma Gordon.
Thank you for your attention.
Thank you for your commitment to your own awareness,
To becoming conscious,
To living as someone who responds rather than reacts.
You have my full support.
Please feel free to reach out to me anytime.
Reach out to me anytime.
I'm here as your ally.
Thank you.
I'm your Speaker.
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