“But………It’s Hard to Pay Attention”

I hear this statement over and over again through my day. From my students. From my family. From many I interact with in numerous arenas. I say, “Yep, there is a certain level of challenge to staying present and connected through paying attention. Yep, it’s true.”

Cultivating one’s access to Awareness requires work, commitment, and tons of compassion. Work….. without effort. Work…… without pity. Work……without indifference. Work…..without acheiving. Work with love, but work none-the-less.

Mature, potent work done over time cultivates a present connection to the unfolding moments of life. To all of the moments of life expressing itself within us, between us and others, and between us and our environment. Work done this way over time creates an enduring presence. That enduring quality is peace.

So much of Western American mainstream culture is based on infantile and adolescent mindsets where qualities of impulsivity, distraction/escapsism, entitlement, narcissism, and selfishness are focused on with pride and reacted from with fear. The transformation and evolution of Consciousness that is underway is asking for humans to grow up.

Michael Mead, in his book “The World Behind the World” says, “Choose one side of a dilemma and the other side resurfaces with a vengeance. For picking one side or being “one-sided” about a true dilemma only delays and even intensifies the issue. Choose one side and the conflict will return at a deeper level at some future time. That’s the nature of the genuine dilemmas of life in this left and right, dark and light, abundant and empty world. Only when the tension of opposing forces can be held long enough does a genuine solution appear that can dissolve the tension and renew the flow of life at another level.”

Growing up actually means growing out—expanding. Living with paradox. Moving past right/wrong, I like this or I don’t like that, correct/incorrect and blaming. Living with diversity and shared cooperation of all in service to the Whole. This requires paying attention through your inner world to the sensations of life expressing itself through you. This means ALL the sensations and experiecnes of life. Even those you don’t like. The moments of life you don’t like are no less alive than the moments we like.

Yes, this is a challenge for minds that have had years and years of practice in separating from their inner experiences, fantasizing, distracting oneself, pushing away or clinging to particular life experiences. Learning presence through cultivating access to Awareness is all there is however. This is no longer a choice for our species. It is a neccessity if our species is to survive on planet Earth. This is the hardest work our species has had to do thus far in our evolution of Consciousness.

Pausing for a moment. With a non-judgmental noticing allows curiosity to arise. Curiosity that lives in the heart’s connection to the unfolding of life. Yes, it requires work AND with that….. an intimate connection to an authentic life. One with connection to the whole paradoxical unity of a life dynamically led through paying attention and staying present.

I want to unfold.

I do not want to stay folded anywhere

Because where I am folded

There I am a lie.

-Rainer Maria Rilke

 

Join Carrie at an upcoming class or workshop to participate in embodied Awareness cultivation practices at Feldenkrais and Qi Gong in Seattle. She can be reached at http://www.movementfromwithin.net, 206-459-1773, or feldychi@comcast.net.