Waking Up

Tension overload carries deadly consequences. Frequently, in a sense, we simply shut down, go into a waking sleep, and enclose ourselves in a cocoon of enforced unawareness. Constant, energy-draining concentration focused toward protecting ourselves from apprehension by avoiding stressors CAN be replaced by a strong focus on ridding ourselves of our defenses or life-long, elaborately constructed avoidance techniques. Thinking in new ways, behaving differently, or just plain facing the stressor head-on can be daunting. Meditation advocates suggest that development of quiet awareness and observation will bring the "stuffed" dread to the surface of our minds, and without putting judgments on these, or obsessing about them, we can then come from a place of presence rather than avoidance, thereby becoming able to realize the connectedness of EVERYTHING in its entirety, within any perceptually complicated system.

Tara Bennet-Goleman, in 'Emotional Alchemy' references attempts of many notable thinkers throughout history to turn base metals into gold. Her idea is that . . . in the same way, we all have the natural ability to turn our moments of confusion into insightful clarity. Meditate, feel without criticism or judgment, accept within your own skin what is real for you, outside your thinking and conditioning. After we finally understand that the origin of pain is always our desire for conditions in our lives to be different from what they are, there is a life shift, a conversion of energy from those avoidance places into true gold.

Power . . . to direct our own lives in beautiful ways. The power to come from a place of soul and mind alignment rather than adopting a one-size-fits-all defensive posture, thereby becoming a repelling magnet. An unseen, subtle time shift, and everything flows. A strong attitude of faith, at all times retaining that wispy, tiny perspective that all is just perfect, is the mechanism which changes our thoughts from having the NOTS as a part of the call-in to the universe to a call-in for joy and peace and love and beauty. And so there we are, driving down the same road as yesterday, for the brightly lucid first time.