What is True Self-Awareness?

 

What does it mean to really be aware? Awareness has become something of a spiritual thing when looking at humanity today - like a sate you acquire after/during meditation and/or going through initiations/programs. It is often called ‘pure awareness’ where you have to surrender yourself and let it all go. This is a very limited definition of awareness, because it only takes into account the “individual internal experience”…my question is: what about the physical, what about reality, what about ‘life on earth’?

Let us take a closer look at why you become relaxed when meditating. When meditating the goal is to "silence the mind" and go into a state where you relax. To silence the mind is to stop thoughts and when you stop thoughts you become relaxed. This is because thoughts generate energy - for example, let’s say you think about your day at work you generate stress, or you think about a person who wronged you in some way and then you generate anger. Thoughts are what keep our bodies from being in a natural relaxed state. So when you meditate and stop those thoughts you become more relaxed.

Some people like listening to music while meditating that also helps them to relax. Here, the same thing happens - your focus is on the music and not thinking so you become more relaxed. Also, once you have silenced the mind you will notice that you are more ‘aware’, more aware of the body, of reality – but, only for that moment. You can feel the clothes on your skin and your feet on the ground. You are aware of your surroundings and actually hear sounds like birds and crickets - also your breath. If you cannot hear the birds sing then you are not aware - you are not here in the moment, because you are occupied with thoughts in your Mind. Thus, you are separate from the here, from reality, from the physical – from what is REAL, and are somewhere else in an alternate reality in the Mind. Meditation is stopping thoughts. The question here is why cant you be in a relaxed natural state all the time? Why do you need to first sit still and meditate to achieve this?

So, one of the keys to being here in the moment, aware of your surroundings, and naturally being relaxed - is to stop thoughts. You do not need to meditate to do this. You can be here in the moment at all times and not just when you meditate. Sure, if it works for you go ahead, but there is a way to always be aware and here in the moment in the physical, in/as this REAL WORLD. This is one of the things we do here at Desteni. Stopping thoughts and actually looking at the cause of the stress and anger and any emotion and feeling so that you are no longer directed and controlled  by it, but you become the directive principle in your life. This way you become self-aware and see all those thoughts, feelings and emotions that control your life and then direct it.

If you want to find out how this is done - Join us.

Day 150 - Listening to my body

 

Listening to my body was a new thing to me, when I was introduced to walking Process.

When I was younger, still in school and got sick - I usually did not let it affect me, especially on holidays. I was once diagnosed with bronchitis and a throat infection when I was on a holiday, but I did not let it slow me down - I still went swimming in the ocean that was ice cold and partying etc. Looking at it now it was probably  a very bad idea, as there are so many variables involved with regards to how quickly it could have actually gotten worse, so I was actually ‘lucky’ that it didn’t with tempting fate in such a way. I should have listened to my body which told me I am sick and need to take it easy.

Another experience I had when I did not listen to my body was on a very hot summer day in the field. We were busy burning branches and weeds in the field and started pretty early. We had a big pile to burn so what I did was taking a few branches at a time and placed them on the fire. I could feel myself getting really warm - the fire itself was very hot and the sun was hot. I would get very thirsty and ask someone to go fetch me some water every now and then - I did not want to leave the others helping, alone with the fire.

I started to get tired from the heat and dehydrated. What I should have done was get one of the guys to stay with the fire while I went back to the house for a break and water, but I was stubborn and did not listen to my body. Since I was the one directing things with the fire i did not want to leave it - even though the other guys there helping me was more than capable to attend the fire. I believed that if I leave the fire something might go wrong and the fire will burn down the fields. So, in my stubbornness – I created this ‘position’ for myself in relation to everyone else, and wanted to hold that position in my Mind. Not wanting to admit that the others would in fact be alright with the fire, because that would mean that it would challenge the idea/position of myself I held in my mind in relation to the responsibility. And so, I did not want to challenge my ‘idea’ of myself and so justified why ‘I had to stay’ and not listen to/tend to my body/myself.

As the day went by I was actually getting a bit dizzy and muscles aching and legs hurting and getting exhausted, but I did not listen to my body and did what I always did - continue what I am doing regardless of what I feel almost a ''mind over matter'' kind of thing. I would say this was one of the first times where I actually pushed myself to the limit - even though it was completely unnecessary for me to do so, since the other guys could have handle it easily. But I was the ''leader'' and believed that if I left it wouldn’t be a good example of being a leader so I believed that I should be strong and continue. So, this is another point that I will open up in my posts, the IDEA I created about ‘leadership’ and what that means and then what it actually in fact mean in considering self and one’s relationship to others. Because in my mind, ‘to lead’ meant to more consider/regard OTHERS more than myself/my relationship to them and so I actually sabotaged myself more than in fact ‘stand as an living example’.

Eventually we were done for day (after putting out the fire by carrying 20 liter watering cans up and down the river). I went to go sit down being satisfied with the day’s accomplishments. Now the body is a wonderful thing - it reveals consequences and not always immediately. In my case it started at night. I was still exhausted, but something was very different. It started with a little head ache, then a little nausea followed by dizziness. Soon after it escalated and I felt as if my head was going to explode - the pain got very bad and so did the nausea. I managed to walk to Sunette and others on the farm and we soon realized I had a bad case of HEATSROKE.

My head was exploding along with my stomach and I was throwing up and not having a very good time. The others helped me out as well as the physical body with the necessary medications/rehydration’s and eventually after a while I started to get better. There I learnt the importance of the physical / my body. That I really should consider my body in what I am doing, but unfortunately i did not fully grasp what that actually meant yet - only that I will never push my body like that. Since that day I could not handle very hot days as well as I did before.  

If I look at it now i completely disregarded my body and what it was telling me and instead I used the Mind to create the idea that all I have to do is believe I can make it and I will. I must just push and fight through what I am feeling and my body will be fine. Within this seeing the mind as superior over the body and the mind as MORE real. This is not so. The reality here was my body telling me to sloooooow doooooown and me believing the mind to be better than the body. And the consequence was a nice case of the heatstrokes.