I’m back from my holidays! How wonderful is it to travel? It is one of my favourite things. I love seeing new places and eating new food. That’s the main reason - I think my life revolves around food. Food, food, and more food.
Oh - I’m getting distracted. Here’s what I learnt in my travels:
Flying to New Zealand from the UK takes a) a very, very long time, b) awesome amounts of luggage for a being that is so small (see picture for a representation of what Bubba packed), and c) a certain kind of insanity to believe you’ll get any rest with a 1 year old in tow.
Now I’m pretty level headed. I don’t get thrown by much, truly. It's not because I'm special, simply because I made it my mission to not be. Since practicing and teaching the Bright Path Ishayas’ meditation malarky for nearly 15 years it’s given me much in terms of not being automatically triggered by people and situations.
The thing that I saw in my travels was how wild my emotions and reactions started to get just due to good old exhaustion. Snappyness - that short fuse that shows itself to no one but your nearest and dearest … and depression - that aimless, soul-less, juice-less greyness of “there’s no point” all due to just being plain old knackered.
Rest is an easy solution, job done - although to many people that is the last thing they will let themselves do - but when you have another 7 hour flight to go? Being aware of what’s boiling away inside and not taking it seriously is the way forward. You can safely ignore it, it doesn’t need any attention, it doesn’t require you working out “why?”, it’s all simply because you are tired … you see?
In awareness you just become extra careful in not following those internals. Easy peasy - when you’ve done the work before hand. That’s the real thing about a meditation practice. It DOES slow and eventually end negative reactions like anger and depression and anxiety but it also means you become MORE aware of them arising within you sooner.
Being more aware is a great thing, but many people misunderstand it. You WANT to be more aware. All so you can not let anything take you over and do things that you regret later on. All so you can shift your attention to that still silent presence that is beyond all these things.
I hope that makes sense, I’m still jet lagged, but its an important point. You don’t need to stop thoughts or emotions - that is HARD work, and ultimately impossible - you just need to start having a different relationship with them.
They don't need to go. You just need to be aware of when you're getting lost in them. Freedom from negativity and limitation is, in part, having no care whether these thoughts and feelings are there or not. And it just takes practice. It’s a kind of internal strength and flexibility you see, a skill you can practice.
All it takes is you sitting down and closing your eyes regularly. A small sacrifice for freedom in your life, is it not? Let me know if you need help with what to do.
Go well! Arjuna
PS. The thing I will recommend to get started with is right here, after this link. It's a free report on all the hows you need to get going, complete with FAQs: