Whatever you're doing,
Go ahead and just keep going.
Just take a moment of conscious intention to collect yourself,
To really gather awareness in the physical body.
Just feel the flow of sensation that you're alive to in your experiential field of being.
Letting it out,
Letting it flow,
Letting it well up and subside,
Letting it just be what it is,
Move how it does.
Giving yourself just a moment to settle in even deeper.
Whatever you're doing,
You can just allow a quality of simplicity to come forth.
Just sitting,
Just walking,
Whatever it is.
And I invite you to take the subtle posture of an expansive range.
What do I mean by this?
Well,
There's your physical posture,
Whatever you're doing,
Whether in stillness or in motion.
But the subtle inner posture is a greater willingness to really experience the fullness of life in this moment.
And when you do this,
You'll likely become aware of some discomfort,
Displeasure,
Anxiety,
Maybe sorrow.
And in this particular moment,
The mixture of comfort and discomfort could be 50-50.
You're aware of both.
Or maybe it's 99% comfort,
1% discomfort.
Or the reverse,
99% discomfort,
1% comfort.
Whatever the case,
The invitation is to take this subtle posture of an expansive range on.
And as you do this,
You start to get an insight that no matter what experience life is serving up in this moment,
Joy,
Sorrow,
Pain,
Pleasure.
But when you really relax and deeply receive this experience,
It's like a blessing.
Life might be blessing you with pleasure and joy in this moment,
Which is its own kind of intensity which you can just allow to reward you and fulfill you and let this intensity grow your capacity to stay more present to more intensity.
Really let the joy of the now deeply into your being.
Feel it animate you and illuminate you.
And if it's intense,
Maybe even cook you a little bit.
And the exact same truth applies to challenging experience,
Sorrow,
Pain,
Loss,
Grief,
Darkness.
It's so natural for us as humans,
It's so understandable that we would want to minimize this force,
This activity in our lives.
And yet with this subtle posture of expansive range,
See if you can't just really relate to this experience as also a grace,
A blessing that is conditioning you,
Your awareness,
Your being,
Your heart,
Mind,
Nervous system to tolerate greater and greater intensity the same way joy does.
Take a moment here and just let nature,
Let the divine or whatever name feels most comfortable to just condition you,
Strengthen you,
Expand you and prepare you for greater experience,
Greater range,
Greater capacity.
Maybe there's something in your life you avoid thinking about,
You avoid paying attention to because it's so intense.
And maybe in this moment you can counter instinctually bring more awareness to it yet.
You don't have to swan dive into the deep end unless you're feeling like that's where practice wants to take you.
What if you opened up just a little bit?
Put this intensity in a little bit more.
Where have you withdrawn your consciousness,
Your awareness for fear that the intensity might sink you,
Might consume you?
And instead of being consumed by the intensity with the brightness,
The expansiveness of awareness,
You can consume and envelop this intensity within yourself.
I appreciate that there's a part of you that knows exactly what to do with this intensity.
The mind doesn't have to understand it,
Resolve it,
Manipulate it.
There's an intelligence in your being that knows exactly what to do with the intensity.
When you relax,
When you soften and open up to it and take this inner posture of willingness,
Life grows you.
Awareness grows bright.
The flames of awareness,
Intelligence,
Spirit consume everything in its light.
