Inner Awareness: The Anchor In The Storm.

Having inner awareness gives you a place of stability where you feel strength, or a centre.  An inner calm.

When we live by emotions, purely by the our feelings, we find our life has no form, or no intentionality.  It simply goes up and down according to the winds of change.  Someone says something negative to us or a negative thought comes into the mind and we become deflated. Someone says something nice to us and we become inflated.  Without a stable centre, you just go up and down with the events that unfold.  That is really exhausting.  Unfortunately, it is the way that most humans live and we can see how living the "reactionary" life has shaped the incredible dysfunction of our world.  

When we live by thoughts, it doesn't matter what feelings we have, our thoughts remain the ruler.  In fact, we can be having a clear experience, but as we live by thoughts, we often deny what is happening and choose thoughts to describe and store the experience, rather than by the feelings we have about it.   Like reliving an old program, (refer to post "changing the program").  We can be feeling one way and our thoughts will tell us that we are having a different experience all together.  We end up using logic over what we have felt and experienced in the moment.   This causes great confusion in our system and often means living in denial of what has happened, choosing instead our "version" from our thoughts or past patterning system.  This creates such chaos in our systems and then reaching out into our lives and world around us.

When we have inner wisdom, we can see both thought and feeling and differentiate between them.   When we have inner wisdom we can see which one is distorted, (often both) and chose the path of alignment and acceptance.  We chose to use our innate sense to be with what is happening, accepting a broader perspective, rather than processing our experience from a limited and distorted perception.

By meditating and by using self inquiry, we can find an anchor in the storm.  We find the space behind the emotion and the space behind thought and it's here that we find the voice of truth, the voice of wisdom.  This place doesn't "react" but rather guides to an appropriate response to a situation.  This is a place of expansion, openness, a feeling of being more alive and alert.  We find that here, things don't make "sense" to our thinking minds but more we allow events to unfold trusting that they are as they are meant to be.  It is in this space that we are able to be with what is happening, enabling us to behave in a more open, flowing and appropriate way than from past programmed experiences or from fear of letting things unfold and being "out of control".   We as humans operate so effectively when we function from our natural state of being, rather than from man made rules that come from thought, structure and fear.

Finding your anchor in the storm also provides you with a place from which to view life and a place to return to when you find you have strayed from peace.  

Entering NOW leads to a new way of Being.  It is beyond what words can define and way past the limits of the minds understanding but it is you and it is ALWAYS available.

Start by shifting your attention from your mind to your breath.
Try sitting in a quiet space with what is. 
Remove your attention from your mind and place your attention onto your breath.
Observe your surroundings without the use of labelling, words, judgement/thought.
Allow the space to open, it may be subtle but still clearly expanded and away from the realm of thought.
Be here NOW for as long as you can, as often as you can and as always....

Start where you are NOW.