1-2-3: Evolving the Five Minute Miracle
1-2-3: Evolving the Five Minute Miracle
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The process of awakening is in one sense very simple. But in another, it is insanely complex, with the clues hidden in a hundred different cultures and philosophies.
But this morning I possibly got another "simplicity bump"--a way to describe a Gordian Knot of different notions into a simple process.
So, meditation for me is sort of "tuning" your mental and emotional energy to a particular frequency, one in alignment with your life intentions. And there are three forms I like the very most:
1) Breathing
2) Heartbeat
3) Visualization
And with lovely convenience, there are three centers to address:
1) Belly Brain
2) Heart Center
3) Head center.
Got it so far? These centers connect to a vast swath of different aspects and capacities of the body-mind. VAST. This morning I did something you might find interesting. Here is a brief exploration of this.
1) Start with breathing. Bring it down to the based of the spine, below the navel, deep slow disphragmatic breaths. The "Child" self lives down there, and it is the home of instinct. Lack motivation? Simple reason: you don't connect the activity to survival. All you need do is slow your breathing until your normal, conscious mind recedes and you feel the wonderful, terrible need for oxygen. That purity trumps EVERYTHING. That is your animal self, the core survival, and it is pure undifferentiated FEELING.
2) Move up to the heartbeat. Take as a model that "love and fear struggle for control of your heart". In a sense, love and fear are the initial differentiations of that core, base "feeling" of survival, approached by becoming familiar with the driving urge to breathe. This is a way we can look at our lives as a movement away from pain and death and toward evolution and spirit. Too many people are locked in a pattern of "pain avoidance". They will maintain a discipline until it stops hurting or the fear recedes. Then the motivation dies, and they fall back into their old habits. Then they blame themselves, or the world: they are broken, or the world is unfair. The truth is that they have simply never found their dynamic balance. Perhaps no one ever modeled it for them. But understanding how EVERYTHING you or anyone else has ever done has been an attempt to move away from pain toward pleasure is essential. You need to COMMIT to joy, so that the problem solving part of your mind knows you are not merely avoiding pain, but building a beautiful life. This means that all the behaviors necessary to avoid pain must be at the "chop wood, carry water" level of unconscious competence. Feel your heartbeat, the pulse of life. Associate it with love, and joy. Just becoming quiet enough to feel it is the creation of a haven within you. So you went from the "1" of the core survival drive to the "2" of Fear-Love. What next? EVOLVE FROM AVOIDING PAIN TO EMBRACING JOY.
3) Head center. See the light in the "third eye." And the "3" is the three goals areas you MUST address if you are to use pain and fear as the motivating drive to create joy and love in your life. BODY, EMOTIONS, MIND. Fitness/health, relationships, and career. "Survival, mating, hunting-gathering" would be a standard animal expression of these things, and the majority of human society is just more complex expressions of these basic drives. You need to have goals that at the BASIC levels avoid pain, and at the HIGHER levels bring great joy into your life. Body? Feel good when you awaken in the morning. Have the energy to feel optimistic about life. Heart? Self love, and extending your sense of being to at least one other human being. This is the beginning of an entire aspect of human life, not to be ignored. Mind? Intelligence is problem-solving, or nothing at all. And the primary problem is avoiding pain and gaining pleasure, the universal animal drive. In human terms this will involve education, occupation, philosophy of life, and so on. Adulthood itself is largely a matter of mastering your body, emotions, and mind to be able to take responsibility for your emotions, actions, and results. Here, modeling might well be your greatest ally--simply study those in the top 10% of whatever demographic you represent, and learn their beliefs, values, strategies, and actions. Make friends with them. Work your way into their tribe by offering your heart and energy.
Get it? Connect with survival (breath). Clarify emotions (fear and love) in relation to your three major goals (health/fitness, internal and external relationships, and career). In all three, define what "escaping pain" would be, and move heaven and Earth to get there ethically. Then you also need to define what JOY is, and commit to it, or you will backslide the first time you take your eye off the ball. Escaping PAIN gets you started. But evolving to JOY is what keeps you on the path.
1-2-3
Now, I've not thought this through deeply. I'm probably missing something (no, I've not missed the obvious fact that humans can be damaged by social or family or physical problems. Again, look to the top 10% of your demographic. I promise that SOMEONE has done more than you have with fewer resources. Start by loving yourself, and this will be INSPIRING rather than depressing).
Anyway…that's it for today. That 1-2-3 will be something I investigate over the next days or weeks.
For the record, you could go through a 1-2-3 cycle in sixty seconds. Which means you could do it FIVE TIMES A DAY during your "Five Minute Miracle" practice. What do YOU think would happen if every day you connected with core survival, examined how your behaviors avoid pain and evolve to joy, and connected that drive to thrive with your health/fitness practices, your emotional balance, and your career actions?
That would be a hell of a payoff for a few seconds of work, don't you think?
Just thoughts to start your week…
Namaste
Steve
www.stevenbarneslist.com
