All fear brings a message of love

The mind cannot explain what its like to be emptiness, infinite joy or pure freedom. Rather than grapple with what it cannot understand, it orients you to focus on the future, to nurture fear of the unknown. It conditions you to interpret and judge as it does.

Notice what happens from the moment you grow aware all fear you feel silently invites you to see through it. A spontaneous shift of attention brings you to the present moment. The message of unconditional love and acceptance is unmistakable.

When you acknowledge that you do not know who or what you are, that is, when you cease to be concerned with the things the ego tells you to get worked up about, something divine takes over. Reasons for worry fall away. There is no thought of controlling anything and no fear of not doing so. Awareness flows freely. It knows any effort you make to obtain or be something implies you believe it is beyond you.  Notice your life reflects and reinforces how much fear is controlling or love is guiding you. 

"The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love and let it come in."
-Morie Schwartz (from The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom)

5 Tips to notice nothing and everything

Many people know what its like to think a lot, to feel restless and even torn between perceived options. You can be sitting somewhere and feeling tension about doing or not doing.  You may ask how to make this stop, even wonder how to liberate the mind.  Consider these five tips to notice nothing and everything that matters;

1. Pay closer attention- rather than give in to ignoring the situation or listening to your desire to escape, notice this invitation to recognize something the body is telling you about yourself.  What is the underlying reason for your self-doubt, fear or contemplative behaviour? Consider imbalance or negativity invite shift of attention.

2. Notice what you say to yourself- your word choices reveal a lot about self-worth and self-acceptance.  Consider the mind does not know you as well as it leads you to believe. It distracts you from core instincts and inner knowing by creating beliefs that make you think you are less than you are.  See the ego agenda for what it is.

3. Feel the nature of the situation- the experience perceived by the mind with its attitudes and sense of history has nothing to do with feeling reality. You experience what you think about.  So, if you wish to change a situation, begin by shifting what you see in it.  Listen to your intuition. What does this feel like? How can it help you?

4. Let go of struggle- the more you struggle, the more limited your awarenes and heavier you feel.  As tenstion mounts, emotional reactions also tend to get out of control. Frustration and self-criticism distort what other parts of you discern with clarity.  As you let go of struggle, you discover nothing to struggle about.

5. Assume nothing is missing- the reference for what is real is in the mind and emotions until your sense of what's real arises from the ground of being. From this point, the reference for how you function shifts. Only the fear-based mind notices anything is missing. The soul only knows perfection, love and acceptance now. Consider what is conditioned and innate and how it feels to let go of what you outgrow.

"Love is when he gives you a piece of your soul, that you never knew was missing."
-Torquato Tasso

Revert to nothing

Whatever you feel the creator is, it is forever speaking through you. What is essential is never forgotten. The force is in you and it is you.  Love created you in its natural image.

You choose to be controlled by ego and the fear it evokes or, listen to soul. This voice of truth replaces everything the ego echoes.  Your role as you dream in this body is not to change others in the pursuit of happiness, but to revert to nothing. That is, be willing to systematically let go of everything you think is you. Get out of the way. Be empty. Do nothing. Allow presence to make itself known.  Embody the unconditional love that is.  Notice what you are willing to relinquish. Notice what is already gone.  What remains?

"We are here to awaken from the illusion of our separateness."  -Thich Nhat Hanh

Why the story loses its appeal

At some stage, the story and details you share to describe who you are no longer resonate. The drama, entertainment value and emotional triggers lose their appeal. You do nothing and watch elements of the identity you construct fall away of their own accord. The urge to offer credentials or opinions fades.  Listening replaces talking.

In essence, you systematically see through layers of your self-created illusions.  You recognize reasons for attachment and detachment, and outgrow certain ways of experiencing the world. You begin to realize it is part of life to feel and let go of all perceptions, not only those that evoke negativity, but also those that trigger positive and uplifing feelings.  Perceptions of lows and highs are all transitions guiding you home. What is natural unfolds through it all.  The mind has selective awareness.  The heart always knows what is meaningful.  As heart and mind are seen as one, be that.

"Renunciation is not getting rid of the things of this world, but accepting that they pass away." -Aitken Roshi

Take what is given

Everything is present now.  To want more or assume something is missing, is to block what is already given. In essence, you imagine barriers that block the truth of who you are.  You selectively forget.  The mind gets focused on its own dualistic ideas, beliefs and perceptions that come to shape what you see. You are conditioned to view yourself as separate from all others. The more you narrow and compare individual views, the more of reality beyond it is cut off. Instead of taking, you resist what is given

All-the-while, something within longs you to heal any sense of difference. Through the lens of divine love, all is one. Spirit is never confined as mind believes. As you let go of the part of the mind that craves, newer, better, different, or extraordinary experiences, the simple and ordinary are illuminated. Peace and contentment unveil themselves as constant companions. Awareness speaks. Nothing seen through filters has meaning.

"Take all that is given whether wealth, love or language, nothing comes by mistake and with good digestion all can be turned to health." -George Herbert