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

The Curiously Daring Squirrel

This year our balcony has become a bird sanctuary for finches and other smaller birds. Last week the sanctuary was invaded not by a larger bird but by a furry friend.

I heard the clanging of the wind chimes and out of the corner of my eye saw something furry clinging to them. By the time Sagwa, my cat, and I got to the balcony door, nothing seemed amiss. Then I saw these little hands clinging to the concrete balcony floor. In a flash, the intruder squirrel flipped itself onto the balcony. She scurry over to the fallen birdseed and began to munch. Her nimble hands plucked the vial from the rain gauge. She chewed a bit on the rim, tilted it, and attempted to drink the non-existent water.

That silly squirrel had catapulted off the room and grabbed on to the wind chime in an attempt to swing onto the balcony. She was living with curious daring and courage in her quest for food. In my soon to be published book, Engaging Compassion Through Intent And Action, I write about living with curious daring and courage.

Falling two stories probably wouldn’t have killed the squirrel, but she might have been beat up. Even with the odds, she took the chance to gain the prize…easy food. I reflect on the squirrel’s behavior and think about my own. I weigh my fear against the opportunity when I decide about taking a chance. Often I choose to allow fear to overwhelm me. In those moments, I stay stuck in an endless loop of sameness. I live the definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over while expecting a different outcome.

When I move through my fear with a willingness to leap across the unknown, I enter the realm of joy-filled expansive living. Maybe I don’t get the hoped for result, but I have left the fear based loop of comfortable, insanity-producing sameness. I venture outside this space into the realm of possibility. Who knows what waits for me through engaged curiosity, courage, and daring.

I remember the squirrel’s actions, and I wonder how much of our life we spend clinging to the old and the broken. Our grip is frozen as we cling to what brings despair but is comfortable. If only we could thaw our grip, we would find the courage to live with daring. As we shift into this place of courageous daring, our curiosity blows away the fear-filled cobwebs of our paralysis. We are free to try different ways until we discover our new way on the path in the moment.

That squirrel reminds me of how I want to be. Taking a chance in the moment because of the possibility of what if. Grasping an opportunity that may transform my life in radical ways.  In those moments that I am like the squirrel I receive nourishment of my body, mind, spirit, and heart. I am whole and open to what life offers.

Embrace your inner squirrel and let me know what your curious daring discover!

Curiously daring, Vanessa

The Fluttering of Compassion's Butterfly Wings

photo courtesy of Danilo Rizzuti/freedigitalphotos.net

A butterfly flutters its wings in China. Several weeks later a hurricane forms in the Atlantic Ocean. Is there a cause and effect connection? Chaos Theory would say that there is a direct link.

This morning as I had a text conversation with a friend, I wondered about Chaos Theory and compassion. What would happen if instead of the butterfly flutters, we substituted compassion?

In the silence of my quiet mind, I sat with Chaos Theory and compassion. Lovingly, gently I held compassion in the palm of my hands. Felt her warmth flow out of my hands and up my arms. Compassion embraced me warmly. Then I felt her she glide across my shoulders and down my chest. She stopped mid-chest, and I felt compassion surround and permeate my heart.

I was filled with the warm, rose quartz colored energy of compassion. My friend, Compassion sat with me. Turning to her I asked, “What do you want?” And, she replied, “let me live in you and through you. Be a vessel and an avenue of compassion.” Compassion and I continued to converse. She flowed into my old hurts and ignored sufferings. In her warmth, I felt unconditional love. In her touch the old hurts lifted and I felt free.

As my suffering lifted and my body suffused with joy triggered by compassion, I saw the world with clarity. The ears of my heart were opened. I listened for and heard the suffering of others call to me.

I turned to compassion or she turned to me. With a hug, Compassion and I mingled our shared intent. The energy of our compassionate intent grew strong and flew outward in compassionate action. Our comingled compassion gently caressed the suffering of others. Their suffering left. What remained was joy-filled relief.

We continued to dance around the spiral as it reached further and further from my physical embrace. At last compassion disappeared from my view, but she continued to ride the spiral journeying far out into the suffering of the world. She did not journey alone — she took a part of me with her.

Chaos Theory and the butterfly — if the wind currents triggered by a butterfly flutter trigger a hurricane, what would a continuous burst of compassion from our hearts accomplish? What peace-filled transformation would come from the simple flutter of the butterfly wings of our compassionate heart? That is not an answer we will know until we live with both compassionate intent and action.

Sharing the butterfly flutters of my compassionate heart,

Vanessa

www.healingwillow.com

Riding the Rapids or Falling Into the River?

The sun peeps out of a cloud-filled sky. Surprise! That moment catches us unaware. We might have been expecting a deluge of rain. Instead we got the smile of sun. Surprises astonish and amaze…at times they fill us with awe. The “good” surprise may fill us with such delight that our eyes sparkle with unshed tears, our heart is lifted in unheard song, and we laugh with childlike wonder.

A surprise may even have an uncomfortable shock element. In other moments the surprise finds us scrambling for an immediate, unplanned response. These moments of surprise are often the greatest lessons and challenges of our life. They seemingly come out of nowhere and plop unceremoniously at our feet. “Egad,” we might groan as we wade through the initial reverberations of the surprise. Moments or even days later, we may still be feeling the repercussions.

“Surprise,” whispers the voice of the Divine. With that single word, we are propelled into an adventure. Does the adventure require that we float down the river eagerly anticipating what lies around the bend, or do we choose the safer walk on the bank? Do we ride the rapids keeping an eager eye out for the treasures floating in the current or do we take the safer course on land? If we choose the seeming safety of land, what happens when we slip on mud and splash into the rapidly flowing water? As we bob in the river desperately trying to keep our head above water, we may discover the driftwood we cling to holds the key to unlocking this life challenge. Unless we had slipped, we might never had discovered it.

Even when we choose to walk a surprise-less path, challenges crop up unaware. We can decide to ignore them until we slip through the mud and fall head first into fast running, cold water. We can choose to seek out the challenges within the surprise as soon as they are revealed thus meeting the challenge aware. In our awareness we draw upon our courage. Through our courage we acknowledge our fear and move through the challenge of the surprise. Only then do we know exhilaration of curious daring and limitless possibility.

Surprise wrapped in any packing is still a surprise. Those occurrences happen without warning; each catches us unaware and triggers many feelings inside of us.  Each presents many opportunities for transformation on our life path. The nature of our life is one of surprise. Each surprise invites us to rediscover our balance and laugh from the sheer joy of living. Intuition is our navigation tool as we ride the rapids of welcomed and unwelcomed surprises. Journey within this lifelong adventure. 

With curious daring, Vanessa