Good Day from Sydney, Australia!
I hope you are all living and sharing your dreams.
I drew this picture of The Stork Walker to express how I feel inside when doing a tai-chi exercise my soul taught me called “The Stork Walk”.
In the beginning of any work-in type exercise, it is normal to have a lot of background chatter in the ego-mind. There are all sorts of stories we tell ourselves in attempt to create meaning in our lives.
We also tend to suffer from super-saturation in the western world, which results from having too much of just about everything.
Super-saturation dulls our senses, leading to the need for greater and greater forms of stimulation in order for us to feel satiated.
As we begin any kind of work-in exercise (those that don’t elevate heart rate, breathing rate, disrupt digestion, or dry the tongue out), the energy of our stories and the buzz of our nervous system resulting from so much stimuli rises into our awareness.
Most people don’t slow down enough to “feel” what’s going on inside them, and when they do slow down, they usually can’t get their mind to slow down.
Trying to slow your mind down, or stop it, is not a good idea if you want to get deep into relaxation and achieve harmony within.
To “try” is only to add yet another source of energy to what is typically an escalated energy situation.
It is much better to “witness” and “feel” what is occurring inside you as though you were a non-judgmental bystander.
When I have judgments arise, they are often issues of me feeling like I wasn’t treated fairly by someone, or that I was too hard on someone, or irritation with our dysfunctional social systems.
If I can honestly see ways I can love better, I take that into my awareness and seek to practice it that day while it is fresh in my mind.
When I see that others have been a source of pain for me in some way, I remind myself that everyone is loving the best they can and use it as a reminder to look for the unmet need they are expressing to see if I can honestly support them meeting their need.
I find that if I give myself empathy first, it is easier to give others empathy.
Usually within ten minutes of witnessing, I’m able to see the beauty of the love lessons in my life and make peace with my “self” so that I can let go of it and enjoy the undivided company of my “Self”.
Rhythmic Movement
Any form of rhythmic movement can become an active meditation. The key is to keep the movement simple, such as walking.
Simple movements don’t require much conscious attention; the ego becomes pacified by simple rhythmic movements as soon as it thinks it knows what’s going on.
This opens the door to the stillness created when the mind loses it’s polarity; polarity occurs in proportion to the magnitude of the gap between the story your tell yourself and the story you tell others!
When we have given ourselves and others empathy, we are in a perfect place to stop the movie projector (ego-mind) and both witness and experience all the beauty and amazing connections that are blocked out by the ego or entangled-mind.
Soon, we begin having moments, or minutes of deep peace. Serenity. We allow ourselves to experience “Being” without the perceived need to “do”.
We can enjoy getting behind the stories. And when we do, we come to realize that the future and the past are mental constructs that ultimately give meaning and joy, even if we don’t understand what’s occurring when it is happening and seems so real.
We realize that when our ego-mind dies, there is nothing there but Empty-Fullness doing No-Thing but fulfilling Dreams.
When you get tired or emotionally triggered, see such experiences as an invitation to take a break and go for a walk.
If you practice what I’ve shared here, you will soon realize that each seemingly negative event in your life is the PainTeacher coming to guide you back to your center – there you have everything, and you are everything and there’s nothing left to do.
I’m teaching A Day in the Gym workshop this morning at Place of Chi. I’m looking forward to teaching my students how to optimize their workouts in a gym setting.
Have a beautiful day.
Love and chi,
Paul Chek
