manabunnow4zph – Mindfulness Challenges

Deeper Meaning Behind Desires

What is the deeper meaning behind becoming aware of what you desire moment by moment? Desires are what charge us up. They give us an infusion of energy. It is as if we are getting an adrenaline shot. It helps us feel alive. It helps us feel that we are living a vibrant life.

Take for example the experience of desiring a car. When we desire a car we begin to look around, to search for the car that is perfectly suited for us, our needs and the needs of our family.

We visit lots that have cars for sale.
We talk to friends.
We notice cars on the highway
We evaluate cars parked on downtown streets.
We form judgements about which cars we really like and those we do not like.
We calculate the extent to which we can afford or not afford the car of our desires.

The decision over buying a car consumes our thoughts – at least temporarily. That desire fills our spirit and our mind with an infusion of energy. This is a good thing.

The difficulty is that we become addicted to certain patterns of behavior that are guaranteed to deliver an instant rush of energy. This of course is a well-known habitual pattern for anyone who is an addict and that includes pretty much everyone. We are all addicted to some particular type of behaviors. Some habitual behaviors are far, far more harmful to our bodies than others.

In terms of individuals who currently experience the symptoms of Parkinson’s, there is no doubt that foods can have a dramatic impact on health and wellness. Certain foods help relieve symptoms. Other foods aggravate symptoms. The connection is immediate. This means of course that if you have a persistent nag to eat certain foods that you know are not in your best and highest good, you will suffer the consequences.

The road to recovery requires that we become more aware of the consequences of fulfilling our desires. Is it something that is quite healthy and needs to be pursued vigorously? Or, is it something that is not in our best and highest good?

Perhaps yesterday morning you thought to yourself,

“Oh, I know I really need to go out and get my regular exercise today.”

Then you think,

“But wouldn’t it be nice to cuddle up, have a nice pot of tea and watch that show that I’ve been wanting to watch that I taped?”

It may be that watching that show cuddled up on a couch is precisely what it is that you and your body need in the moment, but it is also possible that desires are undermining your own best and highest good. It may be that the better choice in the moment is to get your body out and start moving it.

Becoming aware of our desires then becomes an exercise of realizing how much our desires control our choices. The real question turns on whether or not we desire something or need something. Desires also of course are piggybacking on past experiences that offer us instant energetic charges. Needs are something that arise from a much deeper place.

We remember what it was like to eat that delicious chocolate cake and we think to ourselves,

“If I have that chocolate now I’m going to get that same incredible surge of pleasure and energy; so I’m going to do it right now.”

It is possible to get those surges of energy in other healthy ways, as we become much more mindful, moment to moment of the choices that we make and the desires that we have. Desires will consume our choices if we let them. Unhealthy desires will maintain our body in a continual state of imbalance and illness.

Become, then, continuously aware over the next several days of what you desire. Know that what you desire may in fact be incredibly healthy for you and your body, family and friends. It is also possible that what you desire in the moment is in fact just the reverse and is obviously not in your best and highest good.

Becoming more aware of what you desire is 90% of what you need to do in order to make informed and healthy choices for yourself and for your future. May you have a delightful week as you monitor the meaning of what it is that you in fact desire.

Robert

Desires

The mindfulness invitation this week is to become – as often as possible throughout the day – aware of what specifically you desire.

Do you desire sweets in the moment, perhaps a piece of chocolate or pie?
Do you desire caffeine
Do you desire sleep?
Do you desire a shopping trip?
Do you desire fast food?
Do you desire companionship?
Do you desire a partner that you perhaps currently do not have?
Do you desire to be around friends?

Desires arise continuously throughout the day. We often think of desires as being only in two categories: sex and food. But desires often consume the choices that we make. The challenge then is to become aware of what you desire in the moment, minute by minute, hour by hour. Have a delightful time as you become more aware of what you desire from moment to moment.

Click on the horn below for an audio presentation of this week’s mindfulness challenge:

Robert

Deeper Meaning Behind Being Kind to Your Body

Many people find it unusually difficult to actually remember to be kind to their bodies twice a day––once in the morning and once before they go to bed. Has this been the case for you?

Since receiving this invitation how many times each day have you had an opportunity to be kind to your body – zero, one, two, five, ten, twenty – how many times? Why is it so easy to forget to be kind to our body? There are many reasons of course but some of those reasons fall under the rubric of images that we see of body types that are supposed to be ideal; movie actors, athletes, models, you name it.

If you’ll step back however, ask yourself the question, “What have these individuals done to their bodies in order for them to take the particular shape that we see?” Many models starve themselves with anorexia and risk death. Many athletes take steroids and they also tend to have early deaths because they have abused their bodies so horribly. Many actors have facelifts which are painful which impose significant trauma to a body. These are the ideal body types I ask you? I don’t think so.

What criticisms do you have of your own body? Face up to it. Of course you’re only talking to yourself; you’re only making a confession that you can hear now. What criticisms do you have?

Are your legs too short?
Is your belly too fat?
Are your breasts too small or large?
Is your hair too wiry or too gray?
Do you have too many wrinkles?
Do you have flab under chin?
Are you muscles like spaghetti?

What are your criticisms? Have I landed on any that resonate with you? You see, all of these are only judgments that we have, judgments of a body that actually is performing miracles for us day in and day out.

The key idea here is that our bodies cannot thrive or heal under such bombardment. Nothing can thrive under unrelenting criticisms that damage the cells and tissues of our precious bodies. Children can’t survive these types of insults and attacks. Pets certainly cannot survive them and by the way, potted plants can’t either!

When we offer workshops we’ll typically bring two potted plants. One of them, we invite people to be kind to and the other we invite people to ignore. At the end of just two days, guess which plant is withering away?

As it turns out the mindfulness task of being kind to your body is worth far more than any medicine, surgery or therapy or any origin. Some people believe being kind to your body is a selfish act. Let me clue you in. If you can’t honestly and genuinely be totally and thoroughly loving to your body, it won’t be possible for you to do the same to others. If you wish is to be of service to others, the best way to learn how to offer meaningful service to others is to be kind to this precious vehicle that you occupy––this vehicle of your body – day in and day out – even when it does not seem to be functioning quite the way you would prefer.

Honor your body,
Treasure your body,
Thank your body day in and day out for all that it does for you.

And be patient. Your body will show its appreciation in return for your kindnesses.

Robert

Be Kind to Your Body

The mindfulness challenge this week shifts from the silly and the funny and the specific to a more somber and quite profound assignment. The invitation is to be kind to your body. Before I explain how I suggest that you accomplish this task, let me explain the idea behind being kind to our body.

When symptoms flare we can very easily get very angry and upset at our body, even to the point of wanting to occupy another body. These low-vibration thoughts are certainly not in our best and highest good and certainly not in our body’s best and highest good. Let me explain the dynamic that is involved. First a story.

When I was ten years old my father, mother and my two brothers took a brief two-week vacation to Daytona Beach, Florida. I have quite vivid memories of this trip because driving down to Florida from Atlanta my father was in a particularly ornery and mean mood. Talking to my mother and ignoring the fact that the three children were in back seat of the car, he ranted and raved about how he wished he had never had children. They were too much trouble. They were a huge expense. They were a pain in the ass. This went on and on throughout our entire trip from Atlanta, Georgia to Daytona, Florida. Of course my brothers and I felt absolutely awful.

Using this experience as a template we will simply make a short transformation. Think about the possibility that instead of my whole self being present in the car, only my body occupies the back seat of the car. The words from my father inn the front seat are actually words I am saying to my body which occupies the back seat of the car. In effect, I am saying cruel things to my own body.

Can you imagine how my body actually feels? Absolutely horrible. That certainly is not conducive to health, wellness and balance.

One more example – it’s important that you get the gist of what I’m talking about. Imagine that your body is your loved pet, whether a dog, a cat, a horse, a parakeet or a hamster – a loved pet that was near and dear to you as a child, as a teenager, as a young adult or even now. Imagine how that pet would feel if you begin to rant negative thoughts at them. Let me reiterate so you just get an idea of how horrible all of this really can be. Just imagine you’ve got your loved pet on a leash and you have the following conversation with them:

“You’re just not working very well. I’m really very disappointed in you. It seems day in and day out you have these awful problems. I’m tired of dealing with this problem and quite frankly, I’d like to have another pet. I’m just sick of it and I want this to be over with. I want you to get well and I want you to do it quickly. I’m sick and tired of having look at you.”

Now, put yourself in the position of the pet. The pet obviously is going to feel pretty horrible. Most pets really do understand what we say. But even if they do not understand the cognitive meaning of these words they will most certainly feel the energetic surge of negativity.

Well, our bodies are our only bodies. We may be able to get another pet but the body we occupy is all we get. There is no body exchange store. We can’t exchange our body for another one. If we insist on treating it with just these types of accusations and this horrible negativity, our body is not going to respond very well at all.

The challenge this week is to shift our orientation. Of course our negative thoughts come from an unconscious place and of course they tend to be habitual. We tend to basically bang up on our bodies because they are not working the way we would prefer them to work.

This week let’s shift that energy to an energy or kindness toward our body. In the morning when you get up and in the evening before you go to bed, I have an invitation to you. Say to your body,

May you be free from discomfort.
May you be at ease.
May you come into a full balance.
May you be healthy.
May you be centered.
May you be balanced.
May you be calm and at ease.
Thank you for always being there for me.
Thank you for all that you do for me.

Of course what you say to your body will come from your heart and will not necessarily reflect the words that I just used. It’s probably sufficient when you see yourself in the mirror in the morning and when you see yourself in the mirror in the evening, to simply look and with an open heart say,

“Thank you for all that you do for me.”

Be kind to your body this week when you get up and when you go to bed and at any other time during the day––send that loving energy to the one that needs it the most right now.

Robert