An Experiment in Gratitude

Empathy in Action

Awareness of gratitude will allow you to savor and, above all, appreciate your life with renewed grace.

Sometimes we forget to take the time to recognize the richness that defines our lives. This may be because many of the messages we encounter as we go about our affairs prompt us to think about what we don’t have rather than all the abundance we do enjoy. Consequently, our gratitude exists in perpetual conflict with our desire for more, whether we crave time, convenience, wealth, or enlightenment. Yet understanding and truly appreciating our blessings can be as simple as walking a mile in another’s shoes for a short period of time. Because many of us lead comparatively insular lives, we may not comprehend the full scope of our prosperity that is relative to our sisters and brothers in humanity.

If you find taking an inventory of your life’s blessings difficult, consider the ease with which you nourish your body and mind, feed your family, move from place to place, and attend to tasks at hand. For a great number of people, activities you may take for granted, such as attaining an education, buying healthy food, commuting to work, or keeping a clean house, represent great challenges. To experience firsthand the complex tests others face as a matter of course in their daily lives, try living without the amenities you most often take for granted. This can be a great experiment to undertake with your entire family or a classroom. 

Understanding working poverty can be as easy as endeavoring to buy nutritious foods with a budget of $100 for the week. If you own a car, relying on public transportation for even just a day can help you see the true value of the comfort and conveniences others do without. As you explore a life without things you may normally take for granted, ask yourself for how long you could endure.

The compassionate gratitude that floods your heart when you come to fully realize your abundance may awaken pangs of guilt in your heart. Be aware, however, that the purpose of such an experiment is to open your heart further in gratitude and compassion. This awareness can help you attain a deeper level of gratitude that will allow you to savor and, above all, appreciate your life with renewed grace.

The Path To Higher Consciousness

Personal evolution is both the great duty and the great joy of all human beings and is a process of divine significance, frequently unfolding in overlapping stages and related developments. Here are 9 key components of the shift commonly experienced by evolving people, not necessarily occurring in a particular order.

1. Contemporary Consciousness – The mass consciousness of production, consumption, submission and nihilism is where the shift begins. This is the consensus trance that we have been programmed to accept as real life, while obediently serving our worst interests without examination or question. Contemporary consciousness is acquiescence to insanity for the sake of convenience. Breaking through contemporary consciousness is to strike the very root of our global dilemma. Numb, drugged, and senseless, this level of consciousness is a psychic plague blotting out our potential.

2. A Disturbance in the Force – Like a canary in a coal mine, a warning appears from somewhere, grabbing our attention, rattling our confidence, pulling us out of our tunnel vision. Some small piece of information gathered from the alternative press or from a documentary film eats at our understanding of how the world is set up, and the shift begins. This sets the stage for a deep and serious personal crises to erupt, and often engages a ferocious drive for knowledge and truth.

3. An Introspective Quest for Knowledge & Truth – Knowledge and information are the fuel for personal transformation. Once awakened, our natural draw towards truth and justice calls us to consider new ideas and outside perspectives as we search for a new bearing in a crumbling understanding of the world. Introspection reveals answers to never-before asked questions and the accompanying interest in ‘alternative’ information and ideas provides answers that profoundly contradict contemporary consciousness. Once this quest is initiated the world never again looks the same.

4. The Dark Night of the Soul – The disturbance begins to conflict with contemporary consciousness so severely that the amount of cognitive dissonance required to adhere to the status quo life manifests materially as serious personal mental and physical health crises. The foundation for this catastrophic and catalyzing series of events has been under construction for most of life up to this point, and as such, the mind, body and spirit can be forced to endure unimaginable lows as the entire sum and meaning of one’s existence is smashed and broken to pieces under the weight of one’s denial about their complicity in their own self-destruction.
This is the ultimate test. To pass it one must endure the pain to the ultimate degree, and simply not give up. For many, the dark night of the soul lasts for years, marking the most serious, frightening and life-changing phase of life. Succumbing to the suffering here means giving in to total annihilation and choosing the path of serious self-deceit, total submission to ego and to false authority, addiction, reckless endangerment of the self, suicide, overdose, etc.

5. Discovery of Real Medicine – Something helps us through this crisis by easing the pain of our suffering, gently re-building positive energy and providing sufficient distraction while the body and spirit begin to reclaim health. Medicine here is not pharmaceutical, but therapeutically, and can come in the form of an artistic endeavor or exercise, or better yet, an intense study of an esoteric healing physical art like Qi Gong, Yoga, Kung Fu, meditation, and so on. Medicine may also be found among healers, therapists, shaman, or even plant medicines like Ayahuasca and Iboga. Finding the activity or experience that nudges you away from the brink of destruction and towards healing is a critical component of the shift.

6. Purification and Detox – Along the quest for knowledge we discover the toxic nature of our processed and sedentary lifestyle and realize the need for detox and purification. Learning about fluoride, heavy metals, GMOs and the poisons in our food reveals the link between our emotional state, stress levels, well-being and conscious awareness. A new relationship with food is developed and taking care of the body and health gradually becomes easier.
Our toxic environment also includes our social atmosphere and here we are compelled to tune out of mainstream media, conversation and logic, purging ourselves of the garbage that so many people consider important. Our consumption of mainline ideas is reduced and our mind regains a footing of independence in a sea of sensationalized conformity.

7. Re-thinking of Authority, Dependence and Liberty – As the detox pushes older versions of the self out of the way, rejuvenating the psyche, a new picture of the self emerges in a world that no longer looks anything like it did before. The designs of control and manipulation governing our social institutions and traditions are rightfully exposed as farcical constructs that deter our evolution, while modern politics and government are understood to be laughable traps of dependence and deceit and therefore no longer beneficial to positive growth. The people that invest their lives and identities in these schemes seem desperate and needy of purpose, fanatical and outrageously too certain and too serious about life.
Non-conformity and non-compliance become moral obligations and liberty is revalued to include freedom from living in the fear-based consciousness offered as the default way of life. Ordinary people seem strange now in how they self-organize into ridiculous pecking orders, squabbling for position at work and submitting to any ‘authority figure’ with a badge and cheap uniform. It becomes clear that freedom has less to do with laws and more to do with voluntary submission, and liberty becomes a constant struggle to decrease dependence on the systems that complicate life.

8  .Letting Go of and Discarding that Which Does Not Serve – In order to move through the process of transformation, it is absolutely necessary to jettison the things, people, relationships, habits, and ideas which no longer serve and support us. Human beings energetically interact with the objects and people in our environment, and eliminating and purging sources of stagnant energy and negativity creates space for new experience and inspiration to enter and flow into life. This is one of the most renewing components in this transformation.

9. Initiation into Mystery – Material science and mainstream thought exclude forms of mystery and paranormal activity from consideration in our culture, therefore making an initiation into the world of the inexpiable a common feature of the shift. For some reason, as a person changes in this fashion, strange and fascinating events occur that chip away at the certainties that support consensus material reality. Synchronizations emerge and moments of clarity give greater meaning to the mundane. Awareness of the subtle life force energy, Qi or Prana, develops, and ancient modalities of thought and concentration elicit strangely powerful revelations. Once the veil of the rigid scientific mindset is pierced, intuition and curiosity flourish and one re-assesses the potential in all things and in all circumstances, abandoning certainty in favor of wonder. Life becomes at sacred, as it should be 

Swami Amar Jyoti

Namaste

The Art of Conscious Breathing

 

The Art of Conscious Breathing

Variations of this breathing technique have been used for millennia to induce altered states of consciousness and connect more deeply with the divine. On the surface, it’s hard to fathom how breathing alone can take us to such great heights. I had doubts myself – until I gave it a try. As it turns out, I hadn’t given my lungs enough credit – the experience was cathartic in ways that defy description.

 

When was the last time you thought about how and when you breathe?

Biologically speaking, breathing is a rhythmic, involuntary process regulated by the body. Most of us do it about 12 to 20 times per minute. It’s kind of a requirement on the standard “staying alive” checklist.

But spiritually speaking, your breath is far more than that.

In Peru, one of the most well known shamans, Roman Hanis, shows us the power of using the breath to access higher realms of awareness. He leads us through some deeply trans-formative breathing exercises that combined both Amazonian and Tibetan mystic traditions.

Before beginning each session, he reminded us that we all begin our lives in a primordial state of peaceful love and kindness and through breath work, it’s possible to return to that place.

In Roman’s words:

“Within many archaic languages, including Andean Quechua, Amazonian Quechua, Tibetan, Aramaic, Latin, Greek, Hawaiian and others, the word for “breath” is the same word that is used to describe life, spirit, and soul.”

This begs the question I’m always asking myself – what did the ancients know that we’ve forgotten?

For thousands of years, up to this very day, people have used conscious breath work for many reasons. Here are just a few:

• To access healing and insight
• To expand consciousness
• To release stress or anxiety
• To re-energize the body
• To gain clarity and vision
• To connect with higher forces / spirit guides

A Simple Yet Powerful Breathing Exercise:

The breath work exercise I will share below is intended as a simple intro, to give you a taste of what your breath can do. However I was on the fence about whether or not to share this exercise, because it can be intense and needs to be used with care.

A friendly warning before proceeding: 

This type of breath work should be avoided by anyone with a history of the following: cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, glaucoma, retinal detachment, aneurysms, significant recent physical injuries or surgery. Pregnant women should avoid this type of breath work as well.

Keep in mind that during the process, it’s common for you to experience a wide spectrum of feelings. Such sensations can include deep relaxation, joy, serenity, sleep or meditative states, and possibly the release of past trauma. Reliving the birth process or even past life experiences have been reported too.

With this in mind, it’s strongly recommended that you have someone with you who is aware of what you are doing and is willing to assist if you need anything along the way.

Remember, if you experience any overwhelming sensations it is OK to stop at any time.

The Practice:

Preparing your space:

Find a firm, flat surface to lie down on – a yoga mat on the floor is ideal. Many people also put a pillow under their head and a rolled blanket under their knees. An additional blanket can also be used for warmth if you become cold during the exercise.

Important: If this is your first time trying an exercise like this, I strongly recommend keeping it to 20 minutes max, before gently bringing your breath back to normal and letting your body relax for 10 minutes in a laying position.

Again, this practice should be done with a partner who can supervise you. Take turns at 20 minute intervals, one experiencing while the other holds space. Using a timer with a gentle sound is also recommended when trying this outside of a workshop or class setting.

Read through all of the steps below before starting and familiarize yourself with them.

Step #1

Lie down on your back, with pillow under the knees and any blankets positioned in a way that makes you comfortable. Close your eyes and relax your body and breathing for a few minutes.

Step #2

Take in a slow, deep breath. Gently breathe all the way to the bottom of your lungs so that your stomach moves outward a bit. At the end of your inhale, immediately begin to exhale at the same speed. At the end of your exhale, immediately begin breathing in again, slow and steady.

Step #3

Be mindful of continuous, “circular” breathing – where there are no gaps between inhale and exhale. And be sure not to hold your breath. When your lungs are almost full, begin to exhale, then before your lungs are empty, inhale again. You want to create a pattern of constant breathing either in or out. Think about the breath as making a circular motion in, through, and out of your system, and repeat.

Step #4

You will need to breathe a little bit faster than you would under normal circumstances. However, and this is very important, you don’t want to breathe so fast that you create tension anywhere in your body. The lungs and entire body should be as relaxed as possible. In this way, the breath cycle can be maintained for a longer period of time.

Step #5

Breathing in and out through the mouth will support emotional release more completely. But if you find that it’s more comfortable to nose breath, that’s OK too. In about 10 minutes or so, your body will find its own rhythm and way of breathing.

(At about the 10 to 15 minute mark, you may begin to feel a tingling sensation in your extremities, a feeling of euphoria, or an “altered” state of awareness.)

Step #6

After 20 minutes, your preset timer will sound (remember to set a peaceful alarm sound) and your partner will gently put a hand on your shoulder to let you know that it’s time to slowly and intentionally bring your breath back to normal. Take some time in this in-between state to notice how what you’ve learned integrates and interacts with the reality that comes back into focus around you. *Some find this to be the most revelatory piece to this exercise.

Step #7

You are complete ?

I hope this practice gives you a glimpse of the innate wisdom that is available when you tap into the power of your breath. Conscious breath work is yet another way to stay connected to the sacred in your life.

Thank you to the ancient masters who gave us this deeply trans-formative wisdom.

Namaste