Are we awake in our own skin?
We may feel alert in our minds, astute in our knowledge, clever in our way of solving problems, but is there more to our full spectrum of being?
Where does the ‘magic’ come from — the type that sends shivers down our arms, or melts us from the inside out, while viewing an extraordinary landscape?
What are these butterflies in our stomach that spread to our heart at the thought of seeing a new beloved?
What is this exhilaration that moves through the body when we jump into a pristine mountain stream?
In these moments, we are powerfully moved to remember a wider, and more mysterious sense of being than our day to day, routine awareness. We often attribute our responses to the exceptional beauty, power or attraction that surrounds us, but the truth is, that this emergence of phenomena is originating deep in our bodies. In these ‘special’ moments, we can no longer ‘block’ our bodies’ relationship with it’s surroundings, and we are surprised by sensations, emotions and feelings that seem to come out of nowhere.
As we widen our awareness, we might notice that there is a deeply interconnected communication between our cells, our conscious mind and our environment in any given moment. In fact, there is no clear separation between any of those categories. We are constantly immersed in temperature, texture, light, color, breath, thought, emotion, sensation, memory, energy, sound, attention, desire, and more — all shifting and changing in concert with each other. Every aspect of our environment affects the most subtle chemical processes in our bodies. We are not just in communication, we are in communion with the continuum of Life.
ARE WE SPIRITUALLY AWAKE?
In a spiritual sense, ‘Being Awake in our Own Skin’, takes us from contemplating the Mystery of Existence, to inhabiting it. We start to listen to, and to move with, something much bigger than anything our minds can contain. As we have become more conceptual as a species, the irony is that the pathway to our home as spiritual beings, may well be in the place we have ignored the most: our bodies.
While we inhabit this life, the light, energy and spirit of our essential self is in a seamless meeting with our cellular being. With our powerful will and attention, however, we have found ways to inhibit, block or contain the embodied expression of our essence. Certainly for millennia, various religions have been telling us that our spiritual life is a reward that comes after this life, and that the body is at the opposite end of the spectrum from the purity of our Spirit. We may have come to believe that our essential self is somehow separated from the part of us that is here, now.
THE GIFTS OF ANCIENT WISDOM
Ancient Wisdom speaks to us of the unity of all being. The planet is one being — nothing is separate from anything else, and everything affects everything else in synergistic motion. Our bodies, minds, emotions & spirit are also one being — each aspect in constant communion with the others.
When we say ‘no’ to our wholeness and hold ourselves in a conceptual paradigm, we are moving in opposition to Natural Order. We are fighting ‘what is’. We are taking an idea of ourselves and trying to impose that on our natural state of being. It takes a great deal of energy to fight Life, and eventually, we might notice some version of disharmony developing — if only the sheer exhaustion of the attempt to battle what is unstoppable.
The life inside of us is powerful, mysterious and beautiful. Trying to deny or fight this force is like attempting to stop the flow of lava from a volcano, or thinking we can somehow keep the rain from falling, or halt an earthquake.
Can you imagine, then, that your sensations, cells, toes, organs, nerves, muscles, bones, atoms, electrons & neurons are awake and alive, informing your existence in every moment and inseparable from all of Life? Can you imagine that you are awake and alive in many more ways that just what you ‘know’ in your conceptual mind?
In gratitude to The Ancients, we can step onto a pathway that begins and ends in wholeness. We are One Being — within and without. The Brightness of our Spirit is here, now, in every breath. The Wisdom of the Mystery is speaking intimately through us, in each moment.
If we can, begin to listen, in a new way, moment by moment, we may discover a sense of Being that is closer than breath. We may begin to touch a potential of existence that cannot be understood or described, but can be felt, experienced and embodied.
Are you able to shift your attention at times to an expanded listening?
What do you notice in your body, awareness, emotions or ?