Through Intent & Action: My Constant Companion

Through Intent & Action: My Constant Companion: Eighteen years ago I was looking forward to a most auspicious event — the birth of my son Merlin. That little boy who for months had blow...

My Constant Companion

Eighteen years ago I was looking forward to a most auspicious event — the birth of my son Merlin. That little boy who for months had blown bubbles when I lie in a position he did not like. Of course, he had no toys to play with, so he squeezed his umbilical cord! The last thirteen weeks of that pregnancy were quite eventful! Through the laughter and the fears I suspected that being a mother to Merlin would be anything but boring. He would call me to be my creative, contemplative best!

When we reach a certain age, we look back upon our life. Almost two decades ago, I took on a job for which I was unprepared. In many ways the two of us, my son and I, grew together. He challenged me to be my best while I encouraged the same of him. In those moments that we connected through laughter and love, we were in balance…a precious family of two.

Eighteen years have flown past much like Sonic the Hedgehog (remember him? J) I have grown deeper in my contemplative, compassionate spirit. I have watched as Merlin first discovered and then deepened his. He gently, often without words, reveals the cracks in my spirit. Only when the cracks are revealed, am I aware of the light of the Sacred that shines through those cracks. We both rejoice when those cracks fill with the wildflowers that are the product of compassionately rising to my best.

Merlin has been my most constant companion over the last almost two decades, but he has not been my only companion. No matter what the age or traits of our companions, they offer us opportunities for growth. Only when we open the ears of our heart and listen to our fellow sojourners, do we find the courage to step upon the path that leads to transformation.

On Saturday we will celebrate that most auspicious day. And, I hope that that day will remind me to slow down, enjoy the moment, and embrace life. For life is ever changing, effervescent, and always surprising. In this moment and all others may I grasp my cloak of courageous, curious daring and awaken.

Happiest Day, Merlin! 18 years of wonder and awe…and many more!

Who has been your constant companion, teacher, and nudger on the journey?

Peace & All Good!

Vanessa

www.healingwillow.com

Through Intent & Action: Fully Awake, Fully Active, Fully Aware 2.0

Through Intent & Action: Fully Awake, Fully Active, Fully Aware 2.0: Shifting my perception is often easier when I am surrounded by nature. While my home, office, a restaurant, or a shop, it is often dif...

Fully Awake, Fully Active, Fully Aware 2.0

Shifting my perception is often easier when I am surrounded by nature. While my home, office, a restaurant, or a shop, it is often difficult to shift my awareness to see beyond the mundane and into the extraordinary.

So, how do we open our self to being fully awake, fully active, and fully aware in our mundane, daily activities? After reflecting upon this question over the past week, I would like to recommend the following steps:

            Upon waking, before you get out of bed, check in with you and your space. As you take a couple of deep breaths, notice how you feel, what you smell. Open your eyes. What is the first thing/person that you see? Let your eyes soften. Notice the details about the object or person. Then look at it in its entirety. What new do you notice?

As you prepare for the day, make it a full body experience. Using all of your senses, ask yourself what you are noticing in the moment. With each answer you are training yourself to be hyperaware…to be fully awake, fully aware, and fully active in each moment.

Before you leave your home, check in with yourself one last time. How do you feel? Look at your environment. Do things appear brighter or filled with clarity? What sounds or noises cannot be ignored?What aromas tickle your nose?

Throughout your day remind yourself to use all of your senses to discern the extraordinary in your environment. (I have used a Post-It note or an index card with the phrase “hyperaware?” strategically placed to remind my self to stop and notice the world around me.

After awhile my hyperawareness becomes second nature. I begin to see the world not as a series of mundane events but as filled with opportunities to embrace the extraordinary. Perhaps a friend needs to talk. When I am hyperaware, I pick up a clue in her facial expression or in her body language. And, my caring and compassion accentuate the extraordinary in the moment. When I am hyperaware, my plants whisper, “water me.” My home is vibrant with live plants.

When I am hyperaware, no matter what, I experience the world in multi-dimensions. And, in those facets, I see the extraordinary world.

How is your world extraordinary?

Vanessa

www.healingwillow.com

Fully Awake, Fully Active, Fully Aware

same image/different time of day
what do you see?

Some mornings I wake in the pre-dawn hours nestled in my cocoon of darkness. Sleep doesn’t slip away gradually; with the snap of fingers, I am fully awake. I am aware of the peace-filled cocoon of my bed and feel ready to actively engage the day. And, in that moment, my intent is to remain fully awake, fully aware, and fully active throughout the day.

But what does this mean? For me, it is a continuing balancing of being in the world but not of the world. I no longer look through tired eyes; rather, I see with the alert eyes of my heart, and I listen with the ears of my heart. This is a way of viewing the world with all of my senses. Through this multi-sensory experience I see beyond the ordinary and peer deeply into the extraordinary. 

How do I integrate my being (intent) with this way of doing (action)? I more easily develop this rhythm of being in nature. I am hyperaware while I am walking and with this awareness to engage my heart-centered perception. As I walk, I ask myself to describe my environment using all of my senses. The brownish-gray branches waving and the green leaves fluttering are easy to recognize. I go deeper. I get a sense of the tension or friction in the movement of the trees. I deeply inhale as I discern the details of nature’s aroma. I listen not only to the wind ruffling through the trees but to the people and beings around me. Stepping into my sixth sense, I become a part of my environment and feel our heartbeats synchronize. I am fully awake, fully alive, and fully active in my life.

same image/different time of day
what do you see?

This way of looking at the world is also possible when in a building, in a meeting, or conversing with another. It may be more difficult to remain in a state of hyperawareness.

Practice in nature. Next week we will talk about bringing this full body listening into our physically fabricated world.

Namaste, Vanessa


Interested in learning more? Join me on Saturday, August 23 from 9 a.m. - 3 p.m. for the workshop @ Bodyworks in Evansville, Indiana.

Thomas Merton believed that being fully awake, fully active, and fully aware are the roots of contemplative living. Experience this shift in perception by resting in the quiet mind, recognizing the Sacred in all, and exploring the interconnectedness of all creation. Activities shared during this program focus on aligning your senses to see beyond the mundane and embrace the extraordinary where the reality of spiritual wonder lies.

Please reserve by calling Bodyworks at 812-490-9009.  Fee: $60

Seeing With Artist's Eyes

Just mine...no Ansel Adams photography...

Ansel Adams has been a favorite artist of mine for over 30 years. His photography shows glimpses of what just lies below the surface of the mundane and ordinary world. On Sunday I went to the Eiteljorg Museum in Indianapolis to view his exhibit. As I peered into each photograph, I discovered anew that the world he captures is simply amazing. Within those black and white photos lie the gradients of the extraordinary.

I could have studied one photo for hours discovering a nuance of lighting or a detail hidden from first glance. One particular photo vividly contrasted the storm line with a shadow thrown by the sun not yet obscured by clouds. When I looked closer at the image, I discovered a cow grazing. All combined to bring the scene vibrantly alive.

His way of perceiving challenged me, and I wondered how the world would appear if I saw the world with artist’s eyes.

•      Would this shift in perception enable me to see the extraordinary hidden in plain sight?
•       Would I discover that nothing is truly ordinary and mundane?
•       Could I develop a way of perceiving that would invite me to joyously celebrate every moment of every day?
•       But, most importantly, how could I begin this shift to seeing with artist’s eyes?

I believe this way of experiencing life is what Benedict calls “listening with the ear of our heart.” In my writing, I refer to this as full body listening. It seems that this perception is not just about the eyes but about experiencing the world with our entire being.

The world being my laboratory, I decided to consciously experiment during my walks through Draut Park. Before leaving my apartment, I center by focusing on several cycles of my breath. This focusing helps me move into the silence of my quiet mind. From this place of calm I turn my awareness out into the world. And, then I experience life unfolding with my eyes, my ears, my nose, my taste buds, and my entire body. In my multi-sensory hyperawareness my world becomes textured.

How could I ever have thought any facet of the world was mundane or ordinary? Through my multi-sensory hyperawareness I connected to the sacred and the extraordinary by listening with the ear of my heart by engaging all of my senses. In those moments I see with artist’s eyes.

How do you move from experiencing the world as mundane to being part of the extraordinary?

Vanessa

www.healingwillow.com

Life Is Like A ______________

Forrest Gump may have said, “Life is like a box of chocolates,” but what if life were like a drawer of cookie cutters? Imagine what kind of life could we create in each moment by picking and choosing what designs we cut into our cookies.

When my grandmother died, I inherited her cookie cutters. Some were traditional — snowman, heart, fir tree. Others were surprising. Grandma had a heart, a diamond, a spade, and club: one cookie cutter for each of the suits in a deck of cards. I remember all the cookies traditionally cut and lovingly made for each major holiday. The real treat was during those in-between times. I was always eager to see what cutters Grandma would use to design those cookies. Although the cookies were seldom iced, the cookies often had chocolate chip eyes and a lemony flavor.

After receiving my inheritance, I found myself searching through racks of cookie cutters and choosing those that would help me celebrate special times and suit my moods. Lighthouse, frog, dragonfly, spider, and a hand signing I love you were among my new cookie cutters. While I still used my grandma’s recipe, my cookies became a canvas of the moment; the icing, my paint. Traditional colors, unique splotches, even tie-dye often decorated my cookies.

Life, for me, is less like a box of chocolates and more like a drawer of cookie cutters. We form the dough of our life, choose the pattern to cut into the dough, and then paint the canvas of the cookie. We can follow our routines and be disappointed with the outcome, or we can creatively transform the dough through our re-patterning and painting. We reach inside our drawer of cookie cutters and choose how to respond in each moment of every day.

When I rest in the silence of my quiet mind, I unerringly choose the cookie cutter I need most for that day’s or even that moment’s cookie. As I paint my cookie, each stroke is an opportunity to radically transform my life from the mundane to the extraordinary. I choose to remain the same or embellish my world in life giving ways.

Life is like a drawer of cookie cutters. We have endless possibilities to choose the shape of our cookie and the icing paint we use on its canvas one cookie, one moment at a time.

What cookie cutter are you using today?

Vanessa

www.healingwillow.com