I’ve heard from them personally. I’ve seen them in and on the news. And with pandemic-level illness, and the financial turmoil that results, it only makes sense that there are many people who are struggling. Yet, they’re often too worried about money to be able to act on their concerns.
Fortunately, this blog has always been aimed at being practical. This year’s theme started as a step-by-step description of the principles that form the individual realities we all perceive. Then the pandemic changed it into a blog about comprehending and coping with our new, shared reality.
When we were all tired of talking COVID, rather than return to finish the series I started at the New Year, I chose to write individual blogs. I did that because I felt we may need to shift back to the pandemic for the second wave –which we will be doing.
We all benefit from having some sort of predictable schedule when so much else is unpredictable. And we all benefit by feeling that we’re doing something with others, even if we can’t see them. And most importantly, we can all benefit from anything that helps to raise our awareness in ways that help us enjoy life more.
All that being the case, with the exceptions of special notices or my columns on the CBC (of which there is one tomorrow), for the foreseeable future, this blog will dedicate itself to a New Years Resolution-styled set of practices that are designed to help us all cope better through our winter lock-downs.
Each day we will work on exercising one particular type of awareness. Over time, daily life will re-trigger these lessons, and what our renewed awareness exposes will ultimately pile up on other discoveries. The resulting shift in perspective will continue to the point where we will find ourselves feeling like someone who can more naturally draw great enjoyment from simple existence itself.
In essence, each day will feature a brief description of a practice that will help us prevent ourselves from thinking wanting thoughts, by teaching us to absorb the value of life through an active and open appreciation what it offers us.
It may help us if we feel we’re in this together, so we may want to find a partner, or a trio, or group of friends who will all do the exercises with us. Then, pairs or groups can plan to talk later, to discuss what each person noticed.
Of course, we’re all different, so we’ll all start teaching each other how to see more completely. And the follow-up calls will give everyone a reason to regularly reach out and talk about things other than our problems. And during challenging times, just that can be very valuable.
This will require a busy schedule on my end, so I’d ask that you be patient with any glitches. But I will endeavour to have an exercise waiting for you each morning. And over time, these small drops these lessons create, will fill your bucket with much more awareness. And that, in and of itself, is a good thing.
Find your partner(s). Starting Wednesday, we’ll start ‘Awareness Training.‘ I’ll even make sure that tomorrow’s CBC Column is useful in the same type of way. And don’t forget to enjoy the process. Learning this should feel more like playing, or game, than work. And in the meantime, don’t waste your life energy on worry. We have more useful things to do with our minds.
peace. s
I help people achieve better mental health by teaching them about reality.
