01.10.2013 It sits across from me, a beckoning black hole.
One slip in, and I'm flying across different worlds. Realities whirl past in 140-characters and neatly designed photo layouts.
I get lost in those realities.
Facebook, Mindfulness, Twitter, cell phone use, pinterest, value 01.7.2013 In every system, every organization, every person, and every belief, there is a hole. A "flaw". A dissonant piece that seemingly goes against the efforts of the rest of the being.
There are those within our society who fight against the society.
There is the underground of the aboveground.
There is the germ fighting its way through the system.
There is the family member who doesn't get along with everyone else.
Our feelings about the dissonant parts of a system depend on our point of view.
Think of any popular movie about a social uprising and you'll get the gist.
In the movies of corrupt government and a society enslaved, we want the underground faction to rise up and succeed. The system is bad and we want that glimmer of hope to shine through.
In the movies of a society looking to hold itself together while a small band of terrorists threatens everyone from the leaders to children, we want the whole to remain strong. Those who threaten it are bad. We want to remain whole, united.
Get it?
Those movies mirror reality, and the whole mirrors the individual. Within our societies and within each of us are the bits that threaten to rise up, to disrupt the system.
Our feelings about those dissonant parts depend on our point of view.
Ready for your challenge?
The dissonant parts are necessary to the whole. The challenge is to remove judgment from fractions of the whole yet remain a creative part of it.
Challenge accepted?
Awesome.
This means that the giant corporations and governments with all the secrets aren't bad. However, we can still work to effect change in them.
This means that the collective American culture (or European or Canadian or Tibetan or Australian or "insert-your-place-of-residence-here") isn't good. However, we can still embody the sense of unity that these feelings provide and work to help those who threaten that unity.
Too big of a challenge for today?
Start here. Start now.
Perhaps you just received a nasty email from someone who doesn't like how you are going about your business. The email, the person, the belief isn't bad. It is the dissonance that helps you to experience the whole.
The accolade you just received? It isn't good. It is the acknowledgement of what is currently working and flowing. Do not overlook the tension that lies beneath it (nor judge that tension).
Become aware of impermanence of any system or being or belief. Become aware of the change that is inherent in life.
We can work to live life beyond good and bad, to be aware of both the whole and the hole, to be intimately familiar with the system and the bits that create tension within it.
We can do this while playing a creative part in these systems - while taking part in the creation of the system.
Peaceful creation doesn't mean ridding ourselves of those holes or tensions, rather, creating while understanding all parts are necessary.
We play with sthira (steadiness, firmness) and sukha (gentleness, softness) of life, the yin and yang, the successes and the fallbacks, the health and the illnesses.
Whatever hole or "flaw" or dissonance that you notice right now (back pain? inkling to quit your job? hunger?), be aware of the call to change. Try to release judgment and your attachment to the outcome of the events. Don't worry whether the hero is going to win.
Play a creative role in this moment, moving from a place of understanding that what is, is necessary for this moment to be.
One breath at a time.
Namaste.
Creativity, Mindfulness, awareness, sthira, sukha, tension, wholeness 01.1.2013
Every other year, I've placed a great deal of importance attention on what I did on the first day of the year. How I woke up, what I wore, my journal entry, my exercise routine, my attitude...it was all important. Why?
Because THIS was the beginning. A new year, a new start. THIS was the day that it was all going to change. I could always picture myself, looking back and grinning, thinking, "ah yes. I remember the first day of 20xx. THAT was the day that I started (exercising every day/eating healthy/doing random acts of kindness/meditating daily) and I haven't stopped since.".
And, as you can imagine, a few days later that all fell apart. It wasn't for lack of desire. It was just that life got in the way.
An unhealthly meal enjoyed at an outing led to many more. A day of not exercising due to fatigue or schedule led to two, then three, then weeks at a time of lethargy. You know how it goes.
This year? This year I woke up late. I poured cereal for the kids, checked Facebook, did 15 minutes of yoga to loosen some tightness I'd gathered from stress, took a shower and brushed my teeth.
I'm wearing jeans and an old blue shirt.
I did pretty much the same thing I did yesterday morning.
And yet the significance of this day feels far greater than any new year's day past.
It has nothing to do with the date on the calendar. I admit: It is exciting to think that 2013 is MY YEAR! It's wonderful to have a reason to remember renewal and to dream about what might be.
But that's the thing: We don't need a reason.
We wake up every single day to a day we will never experience again.
Every morning is an opportunity to choose an outfit in which we feel comfortable or alive or sexy or at home. Each day is a new beginning (no matter how trite that seems).
And why worry about the entire day? This moment. This moment is one we will never experience again.
There is no "life" that gets in the way -- these moments are life.
This child's size-5 shirt I hold in my hand? I will never again have the opportunity to feel it like this, to fold it with delicate creases, to place it softly into my daughter's drawer.
So, no, today I don't plan to do anything in honor of the first day of the new year. We'll be buying our calendar and possibly sledding, taking the ornaments off the Christmas tree and probably having peanut butter and jelly for lunch.
Because if there is any practice I want to begin (again) for 2013, it is the practice of honoring the significance of each day, of each moment.
So may you have a:
Blessed 2013.
Blessed January 1st.
Blessed 11:29 a.m. (or insert your time here).
Blessed Today.
Blessed Now.
Namaste.
2013, Mindfulness, new year, significance 12.31.2012 2013.
The air is buzzing with it.
This electricity of change keeps zapping each one of us. And on days like today, where all of the world is focusing on one form of change - that time-honored tradition of celebrating a new year - the shocks are so strong it is hard to focus on anything else.
Many choose to honor it by choosing a word for the new year, an intention. Many choose New Years Resolutions, and many make gratitude lists. Some will bring in the new year (or already have) through a wild party, some through a quiet, sacred ceremony, and some will just sleep right through the tick from 11:59 p.m. to 12:00 a.m.
(In case you are curious, I have no word, no resolutions, and will be spending the new year at home with my hubby and two kids..."quiet" being an optional part of the evening.)
This is what is outside. Makes staying in even easier.
I'll admit - it is hard for me to write this. I've been noticeably absent from this site and from most things "LifeUnity". I want to share with you what I've been doing, to apologize, to explain. It is consuming my thoughts and making it hard to write. But the clock ticks on. Any minute I spend explaining what was takes away from what is.
And there, silently existing amidst all of this 2013-buzzing and what-was-guilt and excitement over change, lies that awareness.
It is awareness on which I've been focused, on which LifeUnity will focus, and on which I will be asking you to focus:
LIFE AS IT IS.
Not life as we want it to be. Life as it is. Finally allowing ourselves to breathe, release all of the "shoulds", and drop into the magical and challenging beauty of THIS experience.
The space below and above and within all of our desires for change and something different and confusion and suffering .... it is what is.
And there is no better time to get playfully serious about focusing on what is than right now (whether your computer date reads 2012 or 2013).
Flying unicorn. Why not?!
A PEEK BEHIND THE CURTAIN
In the upcoming months, I'll be offering practices to helps us all do just that. Here's what's on the books:
Amidst all of that, I will fervently and gently continue my own practice and share my trips and stumbles and successes here on the blog.
I've made it a priority to maintain the SPACE in my own life to remain free of tight schedules, to allow for the flexibility to follow my inner knowing instead of the clock, and to figure out how-the-hell this is supposed to work in a world that is set in doing exactly the opposite. I know it is possible, though, to live in a way that is continuously flowing instead of forced. And if you believe this too, I know we'll find it together.
WELCOME HOME
And LifeUnity? It's going through its own changes. (I'm even considering a name change....shhhhh.) For now, I've determined that LifeUnity is SPACE. This "business" that I'm running? It's my home.
Our home.
Yep. Just call me mama.
And mama is letting anyone and everyone in to this space that I'm constantly redesigning and tidying up and re-cluttering.
Like a mother, I'm 100% supportive of whatever it is you want to do - and enthusiastic about whoever you are, AS YOU ARE. I play 20 million roles that all flow together. So I'm just as likely to kiss your boo-boo and offer you advice on your boy (or mindfulness) troubles as I am to reprimand you for not cleaning your room and taking responsibility for the hurt you caused someone else. But I love you all the same.
Like any home, there are some rules. In this space, we are kind. We take responsibility for our own actions. We support others. We are honest. We create our own lives. We recognize that every thought and action (and every inaction) has a consequence. We celebrate that we are all connected, even if we don't understand it. And, it deserves repeating, we take responsibility - for our thoughts, beliefs, and actions.
And, like any parent, my goal is to send you out into the world, with tears in my eyes and confidence in my heart that you are already successful and wise.
So no matter what this space looks like when you enter - if the furniture is rearranged or absent, if the home page is blue or pink, if the sign on the door says "LifeUnity" or something else - know that the space remains the same. You are welcome here. Always.
RIGHT NOW
It is what it is. And can you see the beauty in that? This moment, these thoughts, this air that surrounds us, this sun and moon that we can both see, ...THIS. And so much more, too ... the wondrous, magical things that are in existence right now - things that live beyond logic.
There is so much to explore and to experience and to create in this moment. Why would we look anywhere else?
So here's to the buzzing, the noise, the change, and the silence. Here's to 2012 and 2013 and each moment that we are here to experience.
I look forward to practicing in all of it with you.
Happy 2013
and
Namaste.
~Lisa Renee
2013, LifeUnity, Mindfulness, awareness, new year 11.5.2012 Around and around and around we go
Where we'll stop, nobody knows...
Through Light and Darkness (working title), 11" x 15", acrylic, oil, and wax on watercolor paper [Lisa Renee Wilson]
Do you ever feel as though your life is on repeat? Perhaps one random Tuesday, around 2 in the afternoon, you have this sudden shock as if you've been in this situation before. You've made the decision before that you are about to make.
It's deja vu, but with a more practical sense.
You've been in this relationship before. You've had a conversation exactly like this with a colleague before. You've been on this diet before, and felt exactly the same on day 3 when you reach for the forbidden food.
I might shock you a bit here, but I'll let you in on a little secret: You have been here before. Not exactly here, but in this same position. You've made the same decisions over and over that have led to the same circumstances - perhaps with different people or in a different place, but that leave you with that same feeling inside.
We all have.
In Buddhism, this journey is referred to as samsara. According to Einsten, its insanity.
Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. -Albert Einstein
Whatever you call it, we've all been there, done that. (And done it again.) We need to begin with realizing this. Once we do, we can better understand the consequences of staying in this cycle.
I understand life to be about exploration, about the wonder of the experience. And in truth, even though something may feel exactly the same and minds are replaying the same-ol'-same-ol', each moment is completely new and completely different from any other.
So we understand the cycle, then can go about altering it through mental examination (meditation) and experiencing the magical new-ness of this moment (mindfulness).
Why not try the new? You don't have to go out and find it - it is right here, in this moment. No more, "been there, done that"....
just "Being here. Doing this."
Namaste.
Mindfulness, einstein, insanity, meditation, samsara