Check out this live event that will help you to attain the benefits this article outlines

Most people would agree that peace of mind, relaxed bodily functioning and a overall sense of well-being and contentment in their day-to-day lives are simple goals worthy of attention.

Heck! Peace and harmony is what most of us REALLY want.

Stress free experience. To function with frictionless flow. Just to feel fully alive.

Yet from my experience of speaking with thousands of clients, colleagues and seminar attendees, we have created habits that make sure this almost never happens.

Why?

Rather than explain with mere words, let's look at your basic experience, right this moment now.

First, your attention often drifts into the future or the past.

You are almost always, in some way, rejecting how it is now.

You imagine how it could be, or you remember how it was, and you subtly reject how it IS, right now.

Right now is not right, too much, not enough, boring, not as you imagine it could be, not like you remember, or otherwise not as you desire. Even your pleasurable experiences are filled with a subtle sense of grasping and holding on.

In a sense, you are always saying NO! to your present experience. No I don't want it, or no, I don't want it to end.

Look and see, true or false?

Second, put simply, you are always slightly holding your breath.

Look and see right now, true or false: you are always holding your breath?

See if you don't feel much better by taking one full breath by inhaling into your relaxed belly, then filling your lungs so your shoulders rise just slightly and releasing fully. As you release, let EVERYTHING go. All thoughts, all hopes, all desires, all of your endless, 'things to do'.

Everything.

Third, your body is in a continuous state of subtle tension.

Was there tension in your belly when you took a full breath above? Is there some tension in your back, shoulders, legs and arms? Is your body slightly flexed and in a state of slight contaction? Are you as relaxed as you could be?

Look and see: your body is in a continuous state of subtle tension, true or false? Can you relax right this moment now, even for just a moment?

To summarize, you want peace and harmony, but you reject your present experience and live in a state of NO!, while you hold your breath and continuously tense your body.

If you were to atually TRY to make your experience stressful, unsatisfying and unfullfilling, you would only have to do more of what you already are!

I hope that makes you laugh out loud and understand why I suggest in my book, Waking Up to Life!:

Half alive, half awake, habitually resisting 'What IS' by thinking and feeling 'NO', we sleepily stumble toward our death.

In short, we live our lives in a state of unconscious and habitual mental, emotional, and physical resistance, avoidance, and denial in the shape of our 'NO'. OUCH!

Now please understand, as this quote suggests, I am NOT saying that you are intentionally doing these things.

The really interesting thing is that 'YOU' are not doing anything. I am saying your body/mind is HABITUALLY doing these things. Again, you are not doing anything.

The good part of all of this is that we have bad conditions that we can actually remedy.

Step 1. Determine your patterns of self-created suffering, a few of which I've already outlined for you above.

Step 2. Create a set of practices designed to counter your patterns of self-created suffering. This should include Attention Training, Breathing and Relaxing.

Step 3. Implement your chosen practices ruthlessly. This means using a variety of reminders that will help you to remember to cut into your habitual tendencies over and over and over and over and over and ....

Step 4. Return to Step 3. until your patterns of rejecting peace and harmony disappear or you die, whichever comes first.

Check out this live event that will help you to attain the benefits this article outlines

 

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* 2008 All Rights Reserved.

Aaron McNaught, aka "The Wake Up Guy", is the author of five books, a Life Coach and Transformational Speaker who practically owns the term. (Google "Transformational Speaker" in quotes and see for yourself). Aaron is known for his demonstration of awakeness and has committed his life to bringing light into the world.

For more info about books, speaking engagements, retreats or coaching services, call 403.346.4882 or use the contact form in the top right corner of every page.