How Are Your Senses Shaping Your Perception Of Reality?

I have an overactive right side, physically, which has contributed to the thoracic outlet syndrome the medical profession diagnosed years ago.  Everything from my right eye to my right toes works harder than the left side of my body (except the gluteus minimus).  If you look closely at my physical structure, in person, you can see even my right cervical spine is pushing to the left.  Take a look at the picture next to this post, and you can see my right side pushing towards my left.

Now, some of this stands to reason since I am right handed.  So, it is safe to assume I would dominate with my right side somewhat.  However, the amount of structural and muscular movement is beyond regular right-hand dominance.
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Meditation, No Slick Guarantees Here

Yoga, meditation, and mindfulness, regardless of all the slick guarantees, do not make unwanted things go away.  These practices do not hold promises of unending bliss.  Instead, they create a space to see yourself as you are and open your heart to yourself with acceptance and kindness.  They expose your habits and present them before you and you can either buy-in or let go.  It is through these practices you realize whatever occurs at this moment is neither the beginning nor the end.  Thoughts, emotions, and feelings come and go, and all that is ever here is the basic nowness that is unfolding in front of you.

Oops, now that has gone but here is another, and another, and another and another…

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My Theory of Everything

This post was written by my dear friend, Carol Orsborn

I think of myself as a seeker and for years I experienced myself as a human being utilizing spiritual practice to alleviate the drama of life. But one of the great gifts of age is that perceptions—even cherished ones– can seemingly change in a flash, like the final drop of water finally overflowing a dam. All the life experience, all the trial and error, all the observation and contemplation finally amounts to something. And so it is that my experience of not only myself but the world shifted dramatically somewhere along the way and I suddenly have a new theory of everything.
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The Parallels Of Practice Between Yoga And Life

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How to be in a yoga pose?

How to be in life?

Doing.  Being. Trusting.  Faith.  Balance.  Center.  This is my practice.

Looking at life and how I participate with it, I see, with clarity, a parallel between the practice of yoga and the practice that continues to evolve within my life itself.

In yoga is someone else wrong for doing a pose differently?  Maybe their body is different.  Perhaps their experience is different.  It is not about them, but instead, it is about what works for me.  In life, we compare ourselves to others.  It seems we think we need to be more like someone else as we hold our self to a standard we believe we know.  Yet, in yoga, I clearly see I do not compare.  I do not look at someone who can stand on their head for an hour and insist that I need to jump in immediately and stand on my head for an hour.  I do not look outside in a yoga class and strive to be like others.  In yoga, I come back inside and do what I can, be what I am, trust in myself, have faith and find my balance.    In yoga class the students respect the teacher, we listen, we observe, and then we approach the pose and enter it as our Self for our Self.  We do not enter the pose to show or become someone else.
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Why You Can Meditate

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When I meditate I focus on my out-breath.  When I first begin my meditation practice, I pay attention to the qualities of the out-breath, the color, the texture, etc….

After getting settled, usually about 5 minutes, I start to pay attention more to the space around the out-breath rather than the qualities of the breath itself.  As my mind starts thinking, which it always does, I imagine popping the thought bubble with a feather and say to myself, “thinking.”

When I first began meditating several years ago, I would label things within my meditation as they happened. This labeling was identified by the sense perception I was experiencing. When I would hear a car go by and my attention was drawn to it, I would silently say to myself “hearing.”  When I noticed I was lost in thought, I would silently say to myself “thinking” and then bring myself back to watching the out-breath.
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Communicating Mindfully Through Email

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Everywhere I look my daily life offers opportunities to become more mindful, present, aware, and responsive.  Everyday “mundane” tasks unfold in front of me, and I see the opportunity to serve them vs. how reactive and ultimately unmindful I have approached these interactions with life.

One of those daily interactions, my attention was drawn to recently is email.

A couple of weeks ago, I realized just how reactive and quick I am to write or respond to emails while never considering in great detail, the other person at the end of my email.  Emailing has been driven more by a desire to knock something off my list and get the answers to the questions I had so I could move on.  As Eckhart Tolle would say, my action of writing emails so often have been “a means to an end,” I am writing A so I can get to point B.
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The Liberating Art Of Me Too

Have you ever tried to go to your talky mind for answers and ended up feeling frustrated and confused, unable to find answers?

Have you ever realized how mean you are to yourself?

Have you ever felt so full of love you thought your heart would explode?

Have you ever felt so vulnerable you thought your heart would implode?
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The Grace Of Receiving

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Something to do.  My mind pulls for something to do.  Is it pulling to get away?  I don’t know, but it has an early morning sense of restlessness.  My mind jumps around trying to latch onto something.

When the mind is searching, I can feel the physical tension; the cricky neck, and the tight right side.  When I notice it and become aware, it seems to open up physical space within my body.  In fact, when I think about receiving, taking in the moment as if I am a cup and each moment is filling and giving to me, I flinch from my right side, the tension releasing.  Things my eyes capture, are they gifts coming straight into my heart?
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