December 10 – Being Conscious: Every moment of your life is filled with stimuli that allow your “ego-self” to encourage you to engage in impulsive, emotional reactions. Your “reptile brain” (home of the defense mechanisms of “friend or foe” & “fight or flight”) is working constantly to keep you “safe”. And because the neocortex (home of your ability to choose) engages those same stimuli a few moments after your reptile brain does, it is necessary to Purpose-fully pause before undertaking any response to life’s stimuli in order to be truly consciously alive.

So today, for as often as you remember to Do so, pause before you make a choice and pause before engaging an action. Focus especially on your Life’s most common “autopilot” activities (e.g. waking = pause before getting out of bed; dressing = pause and really choose what you wear today; eating = pause before putting food or drink into your mouth and choose to really taste it; talking = pause before speaking and really mean whatever you choose to say; commuting = put books and I-pods down and pay attention to your surroundings while traveling; sleeping = pause before closing your eyes to reflect on your day, etc.) … In short, choose to Honor your day by making it a conscious one.

As easy as this task seemed when I first read it (I have been sporadically “pausing” in this manner for years now) , I found it surprisingly difficult to regularly engage for an entire day. My ego seemed confused as to why I was doing it at all, repeatedly whispering the following objections:

“We already did this a few minutes ago.”

“What does pausing have to do with selfless service?”

“Why waste these moments when you could be actively doing something?”

At first these criticisms seemed reasonable. And yet, as I persisted in consciously pausing before each chosen action, a few deeper Truths began to surface …

It became clear that today’s activity (and the others like it) is both important and powerful. True, in order to “awaken” the True Self, kind deeds must be performed (meditating on Oneness and extending emotional empathy towards others are practices that are not powerful enough alone to enliven our True Selves). And yet, in order to perform a truly selfless deed, some manner of self-sacrifice is required. And in order to engage any act that is even partly self-sacrificial, our reptile-brain’s self-centered instincts must be consciously overridden, which requires a concentrated focus of attention; a focus that is not potent unless strengthened through practice.

As such, every time I paused before acting today, I enhanced the clarity of my own consciousness. And even though I accrued this enhanced clarity the very first time I did this exercise, repeating the process served an even more important purpose. The human brain learns by forging “neural paths” that correspond to certain thoughts & behaviors – and the more often a thought or an act is engaged, the “wider” these pathways become (i.e. the easier it becomes to engage those choices). Thus, even though the ego’s complaint that “once was enough” had some merit, it also denied the greater Truth: that a persistent selfless focus serves not only to provide immediate clarity, but also “paves the way” for future selfless deeds to be more smoothly chosen.

OK, fair enough, and yet how do we make this practical? How do we effectively pause (it’s not something most folks are taught to do)? As with the results of many of my other “spiritual experiments”, answers that are practically effective are usually short & simple – in this case the threefold:

“Breathe … Perceive … Engage”

The first step that enabled me to powerfully pause was to consciously breathe – something most of us take for granted most of the time. It helps if this breath is taken slowly and deeply while paying attention to how it feels to breathe in, as well as how it feels to breathe out.

Immediately thereafter (or while enjoying your conscious breath), it is then good to closely focus on your surroundings. I experimented with this step in a number of ways – by focusing “upwards” towards the external Universe (or “God”),

by focusing “around” at the wonders in my immediate environment,

or by focusing “within” upon my True Self (or “soul”).

Of course, the more I did this activity, the more my focus began to meld the three into one – a calm-yet-clear appreciation of being an intimate part of Everything in that moment.

This renewed awareness made every one of my subsequent perceptions deep and Wonder-filled. It also powerfully inspired me to act in a way(s) that would somehow benefit the things or beings I was perceiving (which is, of course, the core-premise for the entire Calendar). In essence, this profound sense of Connection enabled me to take the third and final step of “purposefully pausing” – to actively engage what is perceived.

By the end of the day, this simple exercise had refreshed my understanding that every moment is rife with priceless choice; that every time I am tempted to critically analyze another, I can pause and choose to “beam” a more positive opinion; that every time I am tempted to critically analyze a situation, I can pause and choose to “beam” gratitude for the same; that every time I am tempted to react defensively towards my aggressors, I can pause and choose to extend them gentle forgiveness; that every time I am tempted to drone my way through boring routines, I can pause and see the endlessly opportunities to make life meaning-full by making my own actions Kind.

See You when I see you …

… and until then, Be Now!

Scaughdt

Filed under: 366 Days of Kindness by Scaughdt