Allow NOW

Are you finding yourself thinking about the past? Or your future?
Do you feel yourself getting high? Heart going faster, numbness of your present moment being swallowed in underneath you? Are you finding the images of where you think you are in your Story, becoming real in your surroundings? Have you gotten lost? Time passed you by without you being aware of it? Do you feel your stomach grinding? Do you feel a headache coming on? Are you crying deeply, painfully, are you now the Victim?

It's a drug of choice here. Inner Drama. A mind fuck. To keep you in your old spaces. The ones where you had no CHOICE. The ones you have used, in order to avoid what is. Decide, do you want to go on with it or stop? You have CHOICE. Yes even right NOW, you do have CHOICE.

Hold yourself in the space you are finding yourself in. Hold on. Breath very slowly. Feel what you are feeling, don't stop those feelings, don't hold them back. Let them be.

Feel the Anger. Feel the Sadness. Feel the Victim you feel you are at that moment. Feel the Abused, Lonely, the left out Child, Adult, Teenager, you have brought up and onto your surface. FEEL which ever one you are right NOW. Hold the feeling. Hold yourself. Within your mind and incased in your own arms embrace.

Feel your feelings. Feel the KNOWING. Own them.

They are a part of you. Begging you to SEE them. To hold them and to finally own them.

Take your time. Don't rush to stop and go on to the next thing, place or space. Stay with yourself for once. Give to you, what you so freely give to others.

Stay with yourself, until your KNOWING offers you something else to do, for you.

You are in YOUR NOW.
And your feelings are your own to own, as they are supposed to be NOW.

Pieces of Parts

Distinguishing Intuition from Other Voices

Chapter 8
Copied, in parts from the book Developing Intuition: Practical Guidance for Daily Life
by Shakti Gawain


"How do I distinguish my intuition from all the other thoughts and feelings going on inside me?"

The Rational Mind
Intuition
The Responsible Self
The Free Spirit
The Caretaker
The Perfectionist
The Vulnerable Child
The Playful Child
The Doer or Pusher
Being
The Rule Maker
The Rebel
Self Acceptance
The Critic
The Straight Talker
The Pleaser


As you begin to recognize some of these energies inside of you, you can learn to distinguish them from your intuition. For example, if there's a part of you feeling that you should take a particular action, that is probably your inner rule maker or perfectionist, not your intuition. If you are feeling self-critical or judgmental of others, that is your inner critic, or judge, definitely not your intuitive voice.

Intuition never guides us with an authoritarian or critical edge. It doesn't impose rules, it never feels heavy handed or burdensome, it doesn't push us to anything that we're really not ready to do, and it never makes us feel guilty about anything. It's also not self-indulgent or rebellious, and never leads us to do something that isn't good for us physically or emotionally. These feelings come from other parts of ourselves. Our intuition guidance brings a feeling of enlivenment, openness, even sometimes relief and release. It feels good in our hearts and soul. It feels like exactly the right step to take in the moment.

False Cravings and Addictions

It's very important to distinguish between our false cravings or addictions and our true intuitive impulses. One takes us down a familiar road that we know is ultimately futile and painful. The other leads us in a new direction that is satisfying and enlivening.

A false craving is something we think we want, but when we get it, it doesn't really satisfy us or enhance our lives. We are lured by false cravings when we are not conscious of our true needs and desires, or when we don't know how to fulfill them.

When we pursue a false craving to the point where we become obsessive and out of control, it becomes an addiction. An addiction appears to satisfy some of our needs momentarily, but not for long, because it does not address our real needs. In fact, an addiction cause an increasing amount of damage and destruction to our lives and the lives of those around us.

Our addictions are ways we unconsciously try to fill the emptiness we feel inside. This emptiness can only be filled by the things we truly need, such as deep connection to our spiritual source, a close relationship with nature, loving contact with other humans, satisfying work, and a sense of making a contribution. In order to fill those needs, we must allow ourselves to feel them.

Our intuitive self has a unique energy or feeling, and we can learn to recognize and distinguish it from all the other voices inside us. Many of our other voices seem to be located primarily in our head, whereas our intuitive feelings usually seem to come through a deeper place in our bodies. The following exercises may help you distinguish your intuitive energy from some of the others.



Becoming Aware of Your Selves Exercise

Sit in a comfortable position and close your eyes. See if you can become aware of any "selves" that are with you right now, or any voices that are going on in your head. Do you have any sense of who they are? What are they feeling or saying to you? Take a few minutes to be with them and listen to them. See if you can identify any of them from the list I gave you earlier.

Now take several long, slow deep breaths, and imagine moving your attention out of your head and dropping it slowly down to a deeper place in your body - your heart, your solar plexus, or your belly. Imagine that your wise, intuitive self lives in there. Ask if it has any message for you - a feeling, a thought, or an image. Be receptive to whatever comes to you.

Sit with it for a few minutes. When you feel complete, get up and go about your life.


Expressing Different Voices Exercise

If you are feeling a lot of inner conflict about an issue or a decision you need to make, try this exercise:

Get several pens with different colors of ink, and a pad of paper or your journal. Sit in a comfortable position and close your eyes. Get in touch with some of the different voices that are going on inside you. Choose one of the voice to express, and pick up a pen to represent that voice. Let it write anything it wants to say. They choose another voice, and a different colored pen. Write anything that voice wants to say.

For example, if you are trying to decide whether to make a particular change in your life, you might use a black pen to express the conservative voice in you that think it's unwise to make a change, a red pen to express the risk-taking voice that wants to do something new and different, a blue pen to express the vulnerable child in you who is afraid of the change (or who may want the change), a green pen to express your creative voice, and so on.

Continue this until the major voices have gotten a chance to express themselves. you may find that some of them are directly in opposition to others. Don't try to find a resolution right now. Just be aware of all the different feelings and points of view inside of you.

Then take a few slow deep breaths and let your attention move down into a deep place inside. Ask your intuition if there's anything you need to be aware of right now. Be receptive to whatever comes to you. If nothing comes right now, that's okay too.

When you feel complete for now, get up and go about your life.

Don't try to resolve anything or make a decision right away. Chances are that some clarity about this issue or this decision will begin to come to you within a few days or a week or two.

Copied in parts from the book Developing Intuition: Practical Guidance for Daily Life by Shakti Gawain

A Question of NOW

Dear Eckhart,

If you only live in the now, what would stop someone who is in a relationship or marriage from resisting the temptation to have sex with anyone who is attractive but who is not his/her partner? After all, if you are in the now and see someone attractive, you want to have sex with them now.

From,
Anonymous


Answer: Does living in the Now mean giving in to every impulse that arises? Then all those people who chase one sexual partner after another must be enlightened.

As long as you want something from another (such as sex), are you present? Or are you seeking to reach some point in the future that promises fulfillment? (And thereby making the present moment as well as the other person into a means to an end.) All wanting implies that the future is more desirable than the present, does it not?

It is inevitable that physical attraction towards another person will sometimes occur. That's no more than part of nature. When you identify with that impulse, it becomes "you" and turns into wanting. The other person then becomes a means to an end the end being sex, the attainment of the object of your desire.
When you are present, you can observe the attraction or the sexual feeling within yourself, recognize it as natural, accept it, even enjoy it without needing to act it out. After all, it may be totally inappropriate to do so within the totality of the situation. When you recognize yourself as the space of consciousness in which the impulse arises, you don't become the impulse; you don't lose yourself in it. Being present is being the space, rather than what happens.


Copied and pasted from: Eckhart Tolle Newsletter: "Dear Eckhart": Questions answered by Eckhart

On the road, in a traffic jam, got to get where ever you gotta go??

Cars on all sides of you?
Go into the NOW from there.

Start to look for the pattern made by the hoods of the cars all around you.
Listen to the sound each one makes as they pass you or you them. Some tick. Some swoosh. Some clang. Just listen.

Listen to the sounds beyond the stopped cars.
Listen to the breeze that flows thru the tree along the side of the road, while you are at the stop light.
If it's snowing, listen as the flakes hit your cars parts.
If it's raining, listen to the sound of each rain drop on the metal.

Folks trying to get in front of you, without using their turn signals?
Go into the NOW from there.

Watch the space between your car and the one in front of you, look at its shape, and watch that shape change as the new car moves into it.

Folks weaving in and out of lanes?
Go into the NOW from there.

Imagine what kind of line the car would make, if there was paint of a bright color, coming out of the exhaust pipe. Does the exhaust turn into a spray gun or watercolor flow? What does it create for you today?

You gotta get where you are going?
Go into the NOW from there.

Stay where you are. You are in a miracle object, a metal object designed by truly creative souls and it is carrying you to your destination. With a couple of small movements, and a sense that you trusted yourself, you are moving across man made streets, passing trees hundreds of years old. Both human creativity, and nature to keep you company along your way. Be aware of the movement your car is making. The sounds it makes.
Stay in the car, stay present, feel the connection to all that is around you.

You are in YOUR NOW.
And your days journey will be as it is supposed to be.

Pieces of Parts

Feeling Panic? Feeling Overwhelmed?

Stand or sit right where you are don't move!

Just Be.
Just sit or stand.
Just Be there.
Go into your NOW from there

Stay there, sit or stand.
Just Be.

Breath.
Take another breath.
Breath.
Do it again, and feel yourself take in that one breath.
Let it out.
Just Be.
Go into your NOW from there

Breath.
Do it again, and feel your chest open up and let in that one breath.
Let it out slowly

Do it again, and feel your chest and then your belly open up, and let in that one breath.
Let it out slowly.
Just Be.
Go into your NOW from there.

Do it again, and feel your chest open up, and your belly expand and feel it go to your hips, to you knees, to your calfs, to your toes.
Let it out slowly.

Do it again, and feel that breath of air go into your upper shoulders, your neck, your face, around your eyeballs, and feel it circulate about your brain.
Let it out slowly.
Go into your NOW from there.

Take another big and deep breath and feel it move all the way around your body. Feel that breath go into every facet of your Being. All the way down in between your toes, and all the way up around your brain.
You are alive. You are right here.
You are safe.
You are you.
Breath.

You are in YOUR NOW.
Breath. Feel how good it feels to be able to breath.
Enjoy.

Not sure what to do next, just breath and ask your question to your breath.
Body will soon give you the answer you seek.
Listen with your breath.
Listen with your entire Body.
Listen. Listen.
Your answer will come.
With your Mind's Drama silent,
Stay true to yourself, and listen to your Body.
The real answers are there.

You are in YOUR NOW.
And your life is as it is supposed to be right NOW.

Pieces of Parts

Feeling Sad? Feeling Loss?

Are you crying? Sitting looking out the window? Feeling numb?
Are you thinking of having a drink, a something or other, to help to dull the pain?
Go into your NOW from there.

Sit down. Sit still. Just Be.
Just Be where you are right NOW.
Sit.
Go into your NOW from there.

Feel the Body.
Feel your Mind.
Just sit. Just Be.
Breath.
Go into your NOW from there.

Let the feelings be as they are supposed to feel.
Taking that drink, doing something or anything else, will only lead you back to this space again. And again. And again.
So sit with it NOW. Just Be.
Feel it. Watch it. Listen to the words your Mind is playing with.
Breath.
Go into your NOW from there.

Don't let your Mind take over.
Just feel the Body's feelings, don't pay attention to the taught words of drama, rolling about in your mind like the broken record that they are.
Stay with your Body.
Listen to the way your Body feels.
Let the words pass thru your Body.
Go into your NOW from there.

Cry if you feel it.
Feel it, own it.
Feel as the tears pass thru every cell in your Body.
Feel the pain of the tears in your eyes.
Hold the tears. Hold the crying.
Hold it, for these feelings are yours to have.
You have the right to feel as you are feeling at this moment.
Allow your feelings to flow.
Be with yourself.
Feel.
Stay with it.
Just Be.

Scream if you feel it.
Feel it, own it.
Feel as the screaming pass thru every cell in your Body.
Feel the pain of the screams in your throat.
Hold the scream. Hold the screaming.
Hold it, for these feelings are yours to have.
You have the right to feel as you are feeling at this moment.
Allow your feelings to flow.
Be with yourself.
Feel.
Stay with it.
Just Be.


Shout if you feel it.
Feel it, own it.
Feel as the shouting pass thru every cell in your Body.
Feel the pain of the shouting in your mouth.
Hold the shouts. Hold the shoutings.
Hold it, for these feelings are yours to have.
You have the right to feel as you are feeling at this moment.
Allow your feelings to flow.
Be with yourself.
Feel.
Stay with it.
Just Be.


Punch the air or a pillow if you feel it.
Feel it, own it.
Feel as the punching pass thru every cell in your Body.
Feel the pain of the punching in your hands.
Hold the punch. Hold the punching.
Hold it, for these feelings are yours to have.
You have the right to feel as you are feeling at this moment.
Allow your feelings to flow.
Be with yourself.
Feel.
Stay with it.
Just Be.


Feel all your feelings.
Be with each and every single one.
OWN THEM.
You have the right to feel what you are feeling at this moment.
You are not depressed, you are not suicidal, you are sad and hurting.
And you have the right to feel just as you do.
Everything you are feeling belongs to you.
OWN IT. Feel it, and allow it to be what it is.
You are hurting and feeling sad.
You are feeling sad, and feeling loss.
Breath.
Just Be.

Just Own your very own, totally allowed feelings to have.

Just breath.

Just Be.


You are in YOUR NOW.
And your life is as it is supposed to be right NOW.


Pieces of Parts

Pieces in NOW - Meditations

Note from Pieces:


Most of what I will be blogging here, are my own meditations. The ones I use myself, and the ones I share with friends. Including people I meet during my days, that are troubled and ask without asking, for a little presence brought into their moments.

If you find one you like, that grabs you in some way, that helps you to get out of your head and quiets your minds constant chatter, please feel free to print it out and keep it on hand, for those moments that come, when you are feeling overwhelmed.

It is far more simple than you realize, to get the mind to stop it's constant Ego soap opera looping. It's as simple as listening to a noise near you, or looking at a shape made by the sunlight on anything around you. The secret is the noticing. And the next step of Allowing the noticing to become deeper. Without words. No labels. Just the Minds Eye Seeing. And Body being.

In an instant, you are Present.

And in that state of Being; How do you feel? And what do you want to do at this very moment? What ever you choose, listen to your Body, in the silence of your present state of Being, IT holds the answers you seek, to the questions you have been asking yourself & others, for way too long.

You are in your NOW.
And all that is around you, is as it is supposed to be.


Pieces of Parts