Everyday Bliss

Everyday Bliss

I love being aware. When I am aware, life is a gazillion times more fun.

Before Times, I was so stuck in my stinky thoughts, or so obsessed with my physical misery that the best fun ever could barely penetrate my self-absorption.  Poor me.

Before Times, I thought I was having fun. I couldn’t understand the big deal. Fun wasn’t all that fun. Mostly it was a little distraction from my self-absorbed occupations. At best, I was about 55% there. Drinking, for example,  wasn’t all that fun; by the time I got drunk enough to stop worrying, I was too drunk to remember what I was doing. Jeez.

Now that I have learned how to be aware, well, get back, Hannah! I find myself having fun in the most unlikely places. And the likely ones, too.

I have fun At. The. Dentist. I am quite serious. I have changed from being so terrified of the dentist that I just didn’t go for eight years, to looking forward to my visits. After a car accident, I had to have two teeth extracted and, using Creative Questions and awareness, I had almost no bleeding, no swelling or bruising or pain. They were healed in three days.

That was fun.

So if that sort of thing can be fun, can you imagine how much fun I have just in a regular day? Oh, yeah.

Being aware is one of those remarkable things that happens effortlessly when we relax.

Trying to be aware is like trying to be spiritual. The harder we try, the less we have. So I practice the six rules for qigong:

Don’t Worry. Don’t Intellectualize. Enjoy. Relax. Relax. Relax.

Why is it so easy? Why am I relaxed? Why do I enjoy myself? Why do I love to breathe?

When I soften the tension out from my muscles, my emotions, my mind, and my spirit, I can see that I live in a place of wonder beyond imagining. I don’t need magic mushrooms, or  lysergic acid diethylamide to appreciate it. All I need is to relax into awareness.

When I soften into awareness, I can see your good heart. I appreciate how hard we all work, for so many reasons, to make things better, and I am naturally more patient.

When I soften into awareness, I can see my  own childish behavior and stinky thoughts, and I can gently and lovingly correct them, feeling love and compassion for myself.

When I soften into awareness, bliss is in reach. I can find myself feeling bliss at the song of my little house finches eating breakfast and jibber-jabbering like crazy nuts, or the color of my boxelder maple against the sky, or a tiny snail looking at me. My heart is open, my body relaxed. I have infinite room within to love, to understand, to be.

How have I changed from clenching out the world, to opening to the joy and majesty of it all?

(c) Pam Guthrie 2013 all rights reserved 11022013