Exploring Awareness

What's your "story"? Are you aware of the stories you tell yourself about what happened in the past or what may be in the future? "Being awareness" means we can know that we have stories, and in the knowing we can know who we are. It brings up the question- who are you - beyond the labels and conditions of life? There may be something more to life than the stories we tell ourselves, or the stories people have about us. If this resonates, try using the mindfulness techniques explained in this podcast and the guided meditation in this episode. Waking up from the story can reveal a deeper place of love, peace, joy and generosity that we all share. We discuss the lyrics from The Beatles' song- Within You And Without You, and a line it says it all- "with our love, we can save the world"

Current times can seem chaotic, and cause us to experience a multitude of feelings and emotions. There are simple tools available to remind us how to connect to a deeper place of peace, love, joy and generosity. Tara Brach's RAIN tool – Recognize, Allow, Investigate and Nurture and Don Miguel Ruiz's 4 agreements- Be impeccable with your word; Don't take anything personally; Don't make assumptions; Always do your best- are 2 tools we discuss in today's episode. On the surface, they seem simple and make sense. We are left though with "how" to implement these tools at a deeper level. Today, we discuss how to combine "exploring awareness" with these tools. By establishing a connection to our core through using mindfulness techniques, these tools take on a whole different perspective. Instead of top down, where these tools can seem like rules, they flow from the sense of authenticity derived from exploring awareness. These tools then become a reminder of who we really are at our core – calling on them anytime as a quick reminder.

Episode 31: What's Behind the Stories We Tell Ourselves?

Exploring awareness of thoughts goes beyond just single thoughts to the sometimes elaborate stories we create in our own mind. In this episode, we explore awareness of what drives our need to create stories and figure things out.

Clearly, we use our brains to solve problems but sometimes we think we have to figure things out with stories that may have no grounding in truth. Sometimes, these stories have a flavor of competition or defensiveness- told to ourselves to gain an advantage, and leads to thinking our version of the story has to be right or to "win". In some ways, It may be an inherited survival technique or perhaps a learned practice. The compelling thing about these stories is that you think they are true- thus creating a false narrative that has implications.

By exploring awareness, we have an opportunity to see all of this happening from the awareness space, investigate it and see where it comes from and evaluate if it's helpful. Are these stories serving our innate qualities of peace, joy love and generosity, or are they creating a small world, closing off opportunities for a freer and more open expansive life.

Consider this Buddhist quote- "The winner sows hatred because the loser suffers. Let go of winning and losing and find joy."

Enjoy the discussion and the guided meditation. Perhaps you will discover a "silent sense of knowing", a realization that in the awareness of these stories, a transformation occurs and the world becomes a much bigger, expansive and more wonderful place.

Healing And Coping With A Major Medical Diagnosis By Exploring Awareness

Living with chronic pain or a disturbing medical condition creates a great challenge but can also be an opening to exploring awareness. As paradoxical as it seems, these types of difficulties can present an opportunity for transformation. Physical pain can be accompanied by resistance, fear, regret, judgment and other thoughts and emotions. It is said that "(pain) X (resistance) = suffering" In this episode, we explore awareness as Lisa reveals a serious medical condition, and how exploring awareness is teaching her how to "live her life". There is an opportunity for peace within it can't be thought up but it can be experienced

You can actually find peace in fear

and you can actually find peace in the pain

and you can find peace in the regret

and you can find peace in the judgement

and when you return home like that

those things start to fall off

they're not serving you...they're causing suffering

Transforming all of the difficult emotions and physical conditions into a sense of joy, love, peace and generosity doesn't seem logically possible, but through awareness, it is possible- and relief may just be found in the most unlikely places.

The Courage To Be Your True Self

Finding Peace and Joy in the most unlikely places seems impossible given the way things are going in the world. In this episode we continue to explore how connecting to a stable inner core can be accomplished, no matter what the situation. Exploring the words "faith" and "courage", and incorporating a guided mediation, we describe our own experiences and journeys working with these concepts. With quotes and poems from David Whyte, Adyshanti and Mark Nepo, we explore how we can become free from "life draining patterns" and have a life that reflects the "mysterious inner core of our being".

Title -What You Resist Persists and The Only Way Out is Through

Our collective challenge these days is a constant flow of difficult information that pulls us out of the present moment. Sometimes we think about things and anticipate different outcomes, none of which may ever happen. For many, this leads to a sense of fear or foreboding that is a constant backdrop to our everyday lives. By exploring the awareness of fear and the underlying components of the fear - perhaps fear can be transformed into love. Fear makes senses from an evolutionary and survival perspective but many things that cause fear and distress aren't going to happen – so dwelling in it decreases the potential for a full and rich human experience. And, if something bad happens, we will deal with it then. This episode is about the courage to face these things as they are, using the old adage- what you resist persists and the only way out is through. Connecting to an inner calm, returning home to an inner presence, a new path, a different way emerges that is lead by peace, joy, love and generosity.

Do you react or respond? What is the difference? Is there a sense of spacious freedom that can be naturally experienced? Exploring awareness 24/7 changes the way the day unfolds and just may result in a lived experience that doesn't include angst and fear – but instead peace and joy. We have talked a lot about being aware using meditation techniques, sometimes called "formal" practice. Today we discuss exploring awareness 24/7- sometimes called informal practice. It may be easy to say you area aware of things, a type of mental awareness, but the awareness we are talking about is much deeper, and extends awareness from the thought of awareness to the awareness of thoughts, and even the awareness of awareness. Our discussion covers the meaning of these concepts, the frustration that comes from trying to figure this out, and ends with a guided meditation that guides the listener to the experience of awareness, watching everything as a does the lighthouse keeper. As Awareness connects us to all, a realization of the unity of all beings and our connection to divine nature can spontaneously arise- no thoughts needed.

Ever think about what brings you a sense of security or what you may be holding on to in life that may not best serve you? Who are, or what are you attached to, and what would happen if you didn't need to attach to anyone or anything including your own ego? Some people have a yearning for something more -it may be a loud voice or a just a whisper, and for some perhaps there is no yearning- but if that yearning is there, we'd invite you to join us on our exploring awareness journey. In this episode, we discuss attachment to thoughts, habits, ways of being that may contribute to the sense of attachment, and how exploring awareness of these patterns may be a new and more authentically feeling way to be in the world. It's hard though, because becoming aware of all of the things that seem to be self-defining will start dropping away which may, as Adyashanti says, "be distressing to your ego". Being aware of attachments is the first step, watching them drop off could be the second step, then resting as awareness may open up a new sense of freedom where attachments aren't the driving force- instead you may just realize that peace, joy love and generosity- the inherent qualities that are already there- become the motivators. Listen to "Within You and Without You" by the Beatles and note the line "With our love, with our love we can save the world, if they only knew" .

Why Is It So Difficult To Love Ourselves?

In this episode, Frank and Lisa discuss one of the innate qualities that emerge from exploring awareness- a sense of unconditional Love. From the awareness perspective, this type of Love is not conditioned on anything, but purely exists as a quality of or inner aspect of a conscious, aware life. It is the love and presence that we can all see in babies who have not had the experiences of life that may bury that love in doubt and judgement and difficult life experiences. Past traumas, difficult childhood, poor work environments or dysfunctional relationships might make it appear that love is only given in certain circumstances, or is somehow a reward for acting in a certain way. Our innate sense of love for ourselves and others may be covered, or even smothered, by the experiences of life. Many people see themselves as loveable or not loveable by how they act, what they believe, or how they were raised.

Practicing awareness of thoughts and emotions has the potential to open up these innate qualities. Everyone has the potential no matter under what conditions you grew up in, and no matter what your brain might be telling you. It's in the awareness of your thoughts and emotions that the inner qualities can emerge. Love and Peace and Joy are inside us, but they are not going to fight their way to the top – but they will emerge when we take the time to rest as awareness.

Skepticism about this is also normal, but give it a try – the only thing you will lose is the very thing that may be holding you down. A guided meditation is included to provide a path for experiencing just this.

How To Feel Steady In Unsteady Times

This episode consolidates many of the concepts of exploring awareness to bring together the ideas and tools we have discussed that would allow you to feel more steady in unsteady times. Inner calm, moving outside your comfort zone, equanimity and connecting to your core so you always feel at home no matter where you "go." Our focus is always on the "how" with an emphasis on experience and an acknowledgement of the inadequacy of words and thoughts to describe the experience. Doing this work does require at least a hope that Peace and Love and Joy are inherent qualities we already possess and that they get "covered up" with thoughts and conditions and emotions. We've been working on finding our inner core that contains all those things, while non-judgmentally and compassionately becoming aware of those thoughts and emotions so we can respond instead of react. We are talking here about the present moment as a state of being-a very personal experience of the present moment and the steadiness that can be accessed in anybody at any time under any circumstance. There are many ways to practice awareness, we use meditation as an opportunity to connect to that experience of being a fully authentic human- and then rest as Awareness. Exploring awareness opens the possibility for a "realization" - the realization of oneness with the universe -the one thing that connects us all -it's actually always been and always will be -We are a way for the universe to be aware of itself.