What is coming, is your Being. So, what are you going to BE?
There is less confusion and fear when you know what’s coming. Anxiety and dread are replaced with excitement and expectation. What’s coming is the winter. A season of death and rebirth; a reset. The process is simply the pattern of breaking down, breaking open, and breaking through.
Break Down, Break Open, and Break Through
The break down is composting. It’s refining, separating, and distilling essence. Discarding what is not valuable or useable during the winter. The fruits and seeds are valuable. It is harvesting the fruit for winter. The harvest of the fruit is the process evaluation, what went well and what is there to use, what did you learn, and saving what is valuable. The seed is the distillation of the potential. What is valuable to carry forward to a future season. The rest of the plant, its leaves, stock, and roots break down to be re-used. Their value is in recycling the building block elements for the next season’s growth. The process is learning to recognize, sort, and release these elements to be re-used next growing season. We do not need them during the winter when the task is to transform.
Breaking open is the opportunity to abide in the unseen space where we transform ourselves. It is the process is diving deep to discover renewal and regeneration. A direct technique is to ask these questions in the following order. First is “what did I learn?” It’s and evaluation to figure out something different to do during the next growing season. Second is “who am I?” Third is “what is my passion, i.e., meaning and purpose?” Fourth is “what the hell I’m to do about it?” Or “what is my role?” Last, is a bit of wondering and wandering to discover (or remember) a seed to germinate. These seeds are our dreams (potentials) that we nourish with imagination and intention. Initially, we protect and nourish these germinated seeds in the dim light of our dreams, imaginations, and intention. It is discovering, protecting, and nourishing the seed that has come alive deep within ourselves.
The breakthrough is the process of a seed germinating, growing and breaking the surface of the soil. Sparked with inspiration of love/passion/joy. The seed sends down roots; becoming rooted and nourished in our dreams, imagination, and dawning intention. In late winter or early spring, the shoot breaks through the surface of the soil. This is the sign for us to attend to the tasks of spring. Which are merely logistical preparations of gathering resources, making plans, and preparing the garden for spring and another season of growth.
The process of breaking down, breaking open and breaking through is the processes represented through late fall to winter and into early spring. This is merely the process of death and rebirth or the transformation. This is nothing new; but is a new cycle of growth.
Vipassana Meditation
Vipassana is merely a technique. A posture of awareness or examination. We often practice meditation directed internally or introspectively to examine the internal processes of who we are, our reality and our ways of being. However, vipassana is also an excellent technique for examining external happenings. When things seem to be disorganized, baffling and confusing; vipassana is a technique in which to position in the refuge of equanimity. A calm and composed state of being. This composed posture allows us to examine what is happening around us. It allows us to observe without attachment (judgement) of fear or recoil nor being fascinated or seduced into the drama and trauma.
Breathing
Breathing. You might as well do it well… your life depends on it. Breathing well is a cornerstone of living well and dying well. If you can control your breath, you control your life and your death. Breathing well is the foundational secret to abide in a composed state so that you can witness an infinite number of opportunities which appear in the gap. The breath also proclaims, supports, and provides the energy to birth forth your reality. You command your reality to Be. This is the statement of “I am.”
By the way, breathing is also a feedback loop. As long as you’re breathing, you’re still alive and you’re still here on the planet. Everything is as it should be. It’s like, “oh I’m still breathing… I am still here.” Just breathe, breathing, be in the breath. Despite all the crazy stuff that may happen; “I’m still breathing. I’m ok and it’s all right. I am breathing.” Breathing is the evidence of life… continuing to exist. Recognize the breath is also a mechanism for grounding or collecting your wits… to Be. The quality of your existence is relevant to many factors. But breathing is the foundation on this planet.
Side Note: Whether a person is in pain, panic, terror, trauma, disassociated, disoriented, psychotic, on a drug induced trip, etc. Helping a person to breathe well, will over-ride their sympathetic nervous system response that feels like fear and anxiety. Breathing well is fast, safe, and effective. Often the issue is to just remember to breathe. The skill is merely to pay attention to your breath. Is it hot, cool, rapid or smooth and even? Is it deep full and into the diaphragm or is it tight, chesty and stuttered? Just breathe in and out; nice and even, in and out. The monkey mind will want to jump in; that’s ok, but don’t fight the monkey. Instead, merely re-focus on your breath… in and out, slow it down, nice and even. Breathwork or pranayama is a foundational skill.
Being able to abide in equanimity or a composed non-reactive, non-attached, non-judgmental posture allows a quiet calm position to in which to witness or just observe without fear (re-coil) or love (seductive and fascination). This prevents getting sucked into the storm that is raging. Just observe the storm. If you’re breathing well, you maintain a calm posture. This is BEING! You are breathing. Just observe, suspending your judgment and abide in the gap. This allows you to observe the parade of desires and opportunities which float before you. Don’t reach out and grab the first shiny opportunity. Nor recoil from the scary things. Just observe, be mindful and you will see the patterns of potential, manifestation, dissolution, and impermanence. You will notice patterns of connections and how it all works. This is a lessor liberation of recognizing the illusionary parade of the maya and samsara (buddhist).
This skill is going to be valuable in navigating through what is coming. This insight allows for the opportunity (discernment) to let go of all the stuff that is no longer useful. To forgive yourself, forgive others and the situation because you recognize it was all a blessing, a learning process, and an opportunity of growth. You learn or recognize “there is a season for everything under heaven.” You can love and let go without losing, being afraid, or being seduced in to the parade of illusions. That the past is long gone, and the future eludes your grasp. However, you recognize that time, space, future, and past are merely a dimension of “now.” And any of these dimensions are just a thought, heartbeat, or breath away. There is no lost or found… there is only being. And being (now) is the infinite moment of creation… the alpha and omega; breathe and be. Understanding that all is before you. It is your choice, a buffet of discovery and enjoyment… or not! It’s your choice.
Earth is a school of living, dying and being. It takes both life and death to distill the essentials for transformation into being. Spring, summer, and fall, prepares and shape us to become and be. Being is the essence. Forgiving is a skill of letting go of the unnecessary. And claiming is the skill of commanding your being… your reality. So that we can just be… integrity, compassion, grace and sovereignty. It is the process growing, and harvesting and sharing the seeds of integrity, compassion, grace, and sovereignty. Winter is the transformation “to Be!”
Know that if you are breathing, you are! You can move into the gap and be a witness to the new things and insights that present themselves. The trick or secret sauce is to reach via the question. These questions are simple yet deep: What is the lesson that is being presented? Who am I? What do I love? What is the meaning and purpose? And how can I align and work this puzzle or challenge?
Composting and Distillation Revisited
Composting is the process of releasing or the peeling off the layers of the onion. Peeling off that which hinders and hides. A process of revealing the “I”. Discovering you are awareness that breathes. The next question is, what is my passion? Or my meaning, purpose, role or reason for being? To what shall I align… to fear, pain, anxiety or to joy, love, and passion? Spend a moment basking in your being-ness of I Am.” This abiding is touching the source, God, universe. And thereby becoming renewed, rejuvenated, re-energized…re-birthed in love and joy. “Oh, joyous one, what shall you be?“ Can you align and surrender (release) into the flow of being… to BE!”
Surely the composting fear and anxiety yields to winter’s flow. Letting go, letting go… release and surrender into the flow. Be still for just a moment. Fear and anxiety transform to excitement, anticipation of the next breath. I am the Merkabah (light body) wandering the paths of the akashic. Blessings are the next step. “Run Forest Run!”
Understanding Opportunity
Whatever happens, however it happens, it is a break down, break open, and break through. Just know that this breakdown creates an opportunity to break open and leads to the breakthrough. Understand this is a natural process of transformation, there is no fear. It becomes a release, a letting go… a surrender. However, if this is not understood, then there is a fear of losing something and thus holding on tighter. The first thing is to get yourself, your house together and prepared for winter. Meaning, prepare your awareness. It is the process of transformation. The second, if possible, share with others. Sometimes all that can happen, is to be compassionate, graceful, have integrity of sharing space. It is by example, you show others what they can also do.
Instead of running around freaked out, you abide in this transformational opportunity. Perhaps it will not take long. Change happens in the blink of an eye. It does not a have to be huge laborious and horrendous process. A flash is all it takes to change. In the blink of an eye (or is it I). A personal example, for sixty years, had this food issue of being gluttonous. Believing it was from being an abandoned orphan stuffing myself silly. In grade school my nickname was “Juicy” because I was fat and happy. Following an intuition there was opportunity with this healer. Basically, a remote hypnosis session. It was a (multi-dimensional) survey of my energy and akashic record of past, current, and future lifetimes. Along with releasing knots, re-directing energy and expanding capacity. Anyway, while noting my early infancy, I flashed on images of being in the orphanage, which were vaguely familiar. “Oh yeah, this is my impulse to over-eat.” This knotted energy was immediately released and resolved. However, it took a bit of time to get my body and eating routine sorted. But the impulse to over-eat vanished. Boom “in a blink of an eye!” In my professional experience of being a crisis counselor/consultant it was basically an opportunity to for the client to reset or change their perspective. A change of mindset that releases and re-orients or re-focuses energy. It often takes a wee bit a time to figure out a new wellness routine or way of being. But essentially the change happens in a blink of an eye. Often it is just making a connection, a re-interpretation of the situation, release of energy to flow and a change of mindset/understanding. Change Happens. It can happen quickly or slowly, it is your choice. Change can be fearful, it can suck. Or you can love it. It’s exciting.
What are your settings? Do you love or fear change? We all have reset buttons on our electronic device. Sometimes our device locks-up and pushing the reset button, powers down the system and reboots the apps/program/operating system. However, pushing the reset button can also upgrade the app/program and operating system. Either way the reset button is a brief gap that allows changes to be made; it’s an opportunity to flip the switch.
It’s arguable that with the seeming crazy, chaos and impending shit-show (storm), we need a reset. But the question is where is the reset button and what does it do? By now you know what I’m going to say. The easiest thing to do, is to reset yourself. Step into and abide in the gap/opportunity to change. Change what Timmy? Change the way you understand and respond to what the environment presents. It’s quite difficult to find and push the reset button on the economic, political, and social operating systems. It’s a lot easier to change yourself. In snowboard lingo it’s called “flip the switch and bust the gnar.” Which means change it up… learn to see (recognize and understand) the snow conditions and terrain differently. Change up how you ride (or roll). Change up how you be! No doubt, it will feel awkward and uncomfortable for a bit until you get familiar with this new feeling and routine. It’s a new way of being. This is not new. It’s called being situationally aware… we are just expanding our bandwidth and capacity. Expanding our awareness. Upgrading our operating system. The past few posts have referred to expanding our intuition, psychic abilities and acknowledging the psychic realms. Sure there will still be trials and tribulations which are merely learning opportunities. But time, space and sequential logic/processes will not be such a limiter. We need to bring on-line the right-brain poetic, symbolic, conceptual, feeling and intuition because they have more bandwidth capacity than sequential or even parallel processes. Most important, is learning to flow a dynamic connection between our logic and symbolic. Another intuitive and symbolic model is the tantric male and female qualities of being and applying them with discernment. Just a teaser, in the tantric model there are levels of development or understanding. There are the undeveloped, developing, developed and integrated… and beyond.
The Gap Revisited
The pattern is the gradual build-up of an exponential curve. The beginning is very gradual and not noticed. The curve at some point, starts to rise. It is a critical mass or acceleration. At some point, the curve eventually shoots up vertically. The vertical acceleration is what we notice and feels like a building excitement. The problem is, not knowing when the vertical curve rolls over and begins to crash (still exciting… but feeling like panic). It’s crisis because it is not anticipated. However, if a person is situationally aware, understands patterns, cycles and opportunities to transition/transform. A crisis is seen as an opportunity. An opportunity to choose an exit, transition, and entry points to emerging opportunities.
It’s the Decision
In mental health, crisis is merely a pattern of building up to the point of a decision (or not). The decision usually feels like desperation. It is the desperation of “what the FUCK!… something has got to change!” This is the break open moment. And the question is “what in hell do you want to do about it?” The breaking open is really recognizing there is the question of “what do you want to do about it?” It is really a DECISION. Often, we avoid or don’t think to ask the question and thus avoid or miss the opportunity to decide. And we continue to get chased all over hell.
However, the better question is “what do you love, what is your passion and joy? Followed by the largely rhetorical question of “what would you rather do? Get chased all over hell by your fears, demons, and anxieties… or would rather chase your passion, love, and joy?” What would you rather pay attention to. Or which dog do you feed?
Zooming up to a higher perspective, recognizing patterns is provides opportunities to prepare, understand, abide, and flow. Having an elevated view allows to one to see trends… both dying and emerging trends. Using situational awareness or analysis such as SWOT (strength, weakness, opportunities and threat) model enables a person to get a better handle on the timing, application and opportunities. In recognizing patterns, one is able to avoid much of the damage while also noting emerging opportunities. Storms happen… yet after the storm, it is refreshing… or at least one is enthused having survived… BREATHE!
A Refuge
Abide in the gap while the storm rages. Offer a safe refuge or harbor for others. An example: I was ordered to go to the hospital ER following a local a mass shooting. Yet there were no requests for MH evaluations or crisis consults. I protested, noting I would be in the way and besides the ER was in lock down; essential personal only. I reluctantly went and tried to be out of the way of the chaos. After about 20 minutes, an ER trauma doc waves me over to an empty room. It was just a few moments of holding space for her to release feelings of frustrations, anxieties, anger, and the existential pain of her “what the fuck” energy. I was a witness to her feelings of horror and provide space for her to release energetic feelings of this storm. Both she and I knew that there was nothing I could say or do. It was just a few minutes of refuge for her to reset so she could continue to be in and work the storm.
You can do the same for yourself and for others. Give refuge and space for sharing. It is essential, we are not an island unto ourself… but if we are to survive, thrive and to be, it is in the refuge of a community of Beings. Be inspired! Be the inspiration! Be integrity, compassion, grace, and sovereignty. It is the old pattern of “see one, do one, teach one, be one.”
Blessings!
Tim