Holding the Space

Working on my talk, ' How Ego prevents us from Living in the Now', last week, I refound some little gems that I'd forgotten about and decided to share them with you.

The first is that we cannot try and stop our egos from controlling us, because that is just more control and again ego or being in the mind. We cannot try and let go of our attachment to things. It is impossible. What we do need is to rather become aware of our attachment to things e.g. observe how we feel when we lose a favourite piece of jewellery or our car gets bashed? Are we devastated and attached to that thing? You see what we resist persists, but once we acknowledge and identify our attachment to stuff, we start noticing our false sense of self and it starts to diminish. We need to sit with our attachments until they no longer lure us, until we realise that we are not our possessions, addictions, etc. They are not part of our identity. 

When we are so identified with that voice in our head and we buy into all the emotions that are attached to it, we are in the grip of ego. It is in this space that we are unable to just “BE”.

We are spiritual beings who are here on earth to do all manner of things and experience all manner of experiences. We cannot cop out and run away to the highest mountain and sit and meditate all day long like monks. We have practical obligations and commitments to our families and loved ones. We have specific life purposes here on earth which relate to co habiting and interacting with our fellow human beings.

How do we go about our doings and at the same time remain conscious and present and free of ego?

We need to feel acceptance, contentment, gratitude and/or passion in whatever we are doing. If we are not in at least one of these states then we are in ego and self creating our own suffering. We do have the choice if we don’t like doing something to fight it or accept it e.g. when we are sitting in heavy traffic which is not greatly enjoyable, we certainly won't be passionate or grateful to be whiling away the hours waiting. We do however have the choice to fight the situation over which we have no control and thereby create more suffering for ourselves as we stew in our self-made seething and frustration, or we can choose to accept the situation. If we choose the latter we may observe how we literally come off the boil. We may take a conscious breath or two and as we create a gap in the incessant, uninterrupted babble of our minds we might gaze outside the car window and notice the crowd of people waiting for a taxi in the sweltering heat. Suddenly we are feeling deep compassion for these people and much gratitude for the comfortable, air conditioned car in which we sit. We take a few conscious breaths and switch on the radio and as our favourite song plays we realise we are smiling and we are content.

Now how easily did we transform ourselves from impatient, bitchy bastards to patient, contented, humble beings? You see it's just a choice.

It is really good to have a daily meditation practice, but if time is short, we can also do awakened meditations, like breathing consciously in the supermarket queue or walking slowly, eating and savouring our food with gratitude, listening really attentively to someone when they speak, without finishing their sentences for them, being totally conscious of our thoughts when we think them and aware of our attachment to ego (believing that we are our emotions, possessions, addictions, etc.).

We need to find our peace every day and then we need to practice holding this space of awareness outside of the yoga studio or the garden at home and carry it into our daily lives. 

We need to ask ourselves: " Can I sense the essense of who I am in the background of my life at all times? Can I sense the I am that I am at this very moment? Can I sense my essential identity as consciousness itself? Or am I losing myself in what happens around me, losing myself in my mind, in the hustle and rush and the material stuff? Am I at peace? Because peace is the end of the ego”

"Stillness is the language God speaks. Everything else is a bad translation."

"We don’t live our lives, but life lives us", says Eckhart Tolle.

When we realise and accept that the present moment is inevitable and don’t have any resistance to it, we become empowered by life itself. The power of allowing lies in non doing.

So I urge you: "Let's make our lives an awakened meditation. Let's remain connected to our spiritual identity, consciousness. Let's not become blind sighted and caught up in the rat race of life. Let's choose to accept what life throws at us and let's become empowered by life!"

Have an awesome week, my friend

love
Nicolette