10 Ways to Accept Personal Responsibility

The fundamental building block for creating a new life in alignment with who you are is taking personal responsibility. This is about owning your behaviour (thoughts, feelings, emotions, etc.) and consequences. Until you take responsibility for your actions, (as well as self-judgements, you do not develop self- respect or truly respect of others.

To take personal responsibilty means you don't react to external events.  You simply act. Your actions come from your true being, that which is self-directed, self- motivated, self- disciplined, and knows and resonates with harmony.

• What does personal responsibility look like to you?
• What are the specific steps to putting this into practice?

Consider 9 Ways to Accept Personal Responsibility:

1. Be accountable for thoughts, feelings, words & actions
2. Stop using words: try, can't, don't won't, shouldn't
3. Cease complaining & blaming
4. Take nothing personally
5. Listen to heartfelt intuition
6. Live in the present
7. Use the power of intention
8. Ground yourself in nature 
9. Engage in mindfulness practices
10. Accept where the will exist, a way can be found

Who do you know yourself to be?

It is one thing to describe who we are and quite another to experience it fully.  Ask yourself if your understanding of who you are only exists at the level of the mind rather than as your experiential reality.  We can "know" things or talk about them yet not experience them.  We can seek things and sometimes only briefly experience them.  A spectrum of possibilities exists.

When we describe who we are based on ideas that arise in the mind, we indicate the duality we live within. Engaging in meditation and/or eagerly focusing on the next echeduled meditation experience allows us to reconnect with a larger version of being and may also helps us 'get through' another round of unconscious physical experience.  Notice a deeper reasons for any stress or tension arising. Feel into this.  The truth is not found in the mind but felt directly.

What if breathwork practice can help uncover hidden reasons for stress, make the unconscious conscious and help us release blocked energy? What if we can deepen our Energetic knowing and manifest shifts in our life experience? The moment is right to allow ourselves to feel more alive and present. If this post resonates, explore blog search terms like; breath, breathwork.  Contact us to confirm a spot in our next breathwork workshop in Palmwoods on Tuesday, Oct 13th.

Breathe more mindfully

Today, during a breathwork workshop, we explored a variety of situations. It dawns that we have the choice to function unconsciously, which implies allowing emotion to take control, or, we can be present, grow more aware, choose to respond consciously to whatever unfolds. We explored what it feels like to breathe as we experience different emotions, where the rhythm of the breath changes as well as the signs and signals of the body. Go ahead, reflect on what is happening within you right now. Scan the body. Focus on the breath as energy flow. What stands out? Could it be that something invites closer attention? What are you willing to see?

If you wish to breathe more mindfully, are curious about the nature of the ideal breath and are ready to explore breathing techniques that empower you to live a fuller life, contact us for details about our next breathwork event to be this Tuesday, October 6, 2020 on the Sunshine Coast.

Shatter myths about peace

Once there was a famous wrestler we'll call “Great Waves.” He was muscular and strong and knew the art of wrestling. In private bouts he defeated even his teacher, yet in public was so bashful that even his students threw him down. He was at a loss for words as well as inner peace. 

Troubled, the wrestler decided to visit a Zen temple for help. There, a wise teacher advised him.

“Great Waves is your name,” said the teacher. “So spend tonight in the temple. Imagine that you are water. You are no longer a wrestler who is afraid. You are those powerful waves sweeping over everything in sight. Do this and you will never again be defeated.”

The teacher left. The wrestler sat still, trying to imagine himself as water. His mind wandered but soon he began to feel more and more like moving waves. As night advanced the waves grew taller and taller. They swept away the flowers and rushed over the statues. Before dawn the temple was nothing but the tide of a vast ocean.

In the morning the teacher found the wrestler in meditation with a slight smile on his face. He patted the man’s shoulder. “Now nothing can disturb you,” he said. “You are the waves. You will sweep everything before you.”

That day, the wrestler entered and won a big tournament, and was never again defeated by his thoughts.

Contrary to popular belief, no peaceful mind exists. Mind itself cannot be peaceful. Its very nature is to be tense and confusing. Mind cannot have clarity. Peace and silence exist without mind. Never attempt to silence the mind. Only as you understand the nature of mind does your life shift. 

Watch and you observe thoughts but never encounter the mind. Thoughts are not one with your nature. Thoughts come and go like visitors. They are like waves in the ocean. You persist as the host. All thoughts are borrowed. As this enters your visceral experience, everything transforms. Awareness is noticing what arises in gaps between thoughts and being that.

Recall martial artist Bruce Lee said, "be like water."  The most challenging adversary is the thinking mind. True confidence and inner peace do not reside in temples or remote places. As we turn inward, go inside our own hearts, here we find all we seek.

Moving beyond boredom

There is a Zen teaching story about a student who comes to the Master and tells him, "I'm getting really bored with just feeling my breath coming in and going out all the time. Don't you have a meditation practice that is more exciting?"

The Zen Master replied, "Well, yes. You are now ready for a greater teaching. Follow me." And so, the Master led the student into a courtyard and approached a large barrel of water. "Gaze into the barrel," said the Master. As the student eagerly leaned over and peered in, the Zen Master suddenly pushed the student's head into the water. Being quite strong, the Master was able to hold the student under the water for quite a while, even though the student struggled desperately. 

Finally, the Master let the student come up for air, and as the student gasped the Master asked, "So... is that breath boring?"

We are often taught to crave drama and struggle, yet do we really need them? We are also taught to believe the breath is "nothing special." After all, it happens without us. However, as we pay closer attention to the breath, recall what it is to breathe consciously, we move beyond boredom, into what we deny or overlook. In fact, as we focus on the breath, we engage in what truly matters, and what we seek is 'in plain sight' or 'in plain breath'.

While breathing exercises are growing in popularity, the rhythm of the breath itself is a language that can be decoded. Insight we gain has potential to positively impact our lives.  What is it you desire most? To reclaim power? find new confidence? Be more accepting of who you are? 

It is as if the answer or solution we seek has hidden Itself in the most obvious place. What are we ready to see about the nature of our choices? Which stage of awareness are we willing to reach?