Surrender

Eckhart Tolle has several themes that run constantly through his teachings. To reach our spiritual selves we need to overcome the ego, which includes the story of "me". We need to leave behind ideas of past and future. We need to recognise the emptiness and meaninglessness of deriving pleasure from objects.
I have come to understand that being part of the natural peace and joy within each of us, we must be prepared to surrender all we know, all we believe about ourselves and the world. By being prepared to surrender all this, we can access the inner peace, and stillness that Eckhart Tolle is pointing toward.

Exactly where I should be, doing exactly what I should be doing.

Yesterday I tired my children out by taking them on 4 trains and two ferries, played for hours at the huge play area at Darling Harbour, and splashed a lot in the numerous water features there. My daughter fell asleep on the way home in the car (she had arisen at 5am that morning, after all) and could not be roused. My son and I stayed up playing Wii and watching rubbish television, too tired to achieve much else. He went to bed at 830pm. Although my eyes were ready for bed, I couldn't resist wanting my last cup of tea, and watching one show, just for me.......Then my daughter woke up, and Playschool came on, and that is what I got to watch before bed. I pulled the words out I had been saying for the last few days to myself - I am exactly where I am supposed to be, doing exactly what I am supposed to be doing.
Anyone will tell you I am a very busy person, with always something to do, and be occupied with. In fact, the one clairvoyant I have ever seen told me, that I am not a person who wastes a moment. There is nowhere that I go that I don't take something with me to read, or do while I wait. This, of course, translates to IMPATIENCE. However, as I say, the above words have been soothing me as I hung with the kids over the holidays. Whenever something came in to my mind that I could be doing, or watching or reading, or writing, I just reminded myself that here, with my children, hearing, seeing, being with them, was what I am supposed to be busy doing.
Where did this come from? Eckhart Tolle. I was listening to one of his recordings, where he explained how people waste their time wanting to be in moments that do not exist yet, in the future, instead of being in the present moment. And when that future moment actually happens, they are not present then, either, as they are already looking out toward the next moments. Eckhart Tolle used the example of taking a drink of water, which he supposedly did in front of his unseen audience. He said, that even as many take up the glass to drink, they are looking ahead to having drunk, as they drink, they are looking toward the moment when they replace the glass on the table. This gives a person a constant feeling of disastifaction as they are NEVER experiencing what they want, as it always lies in the future. Tolle suggested that what we are doing THIS MOMENT is what we are supposed to be doing, nothing in the future, nothing other than just this. And it even works for me, who is always thinking of ways to do more. Yesterday I lay in the sun, as my children played, and thought, this is exactly where I am supposed to be, doing exactly this, and enjoyed it.
For more on resistance see this previous post.

Step into the Chaos.

On the way to dancing, when we go the back way, we encounter a set of old sandstone steps. They are of the old style - large, weathered blocks, and worn where so many have tread before. At the bottom there is no path, just a blanket slope of dirt, and messy berries, twigs and leaves fallen from the tree to the left. Its great grey trunk is gnarly and pockmarked, but friendly in the sense that it is so climbable. It always feels mysterious and exciting to come the back way, and to walk through this isolated pocket of space that clearly no one is bothering with, or claiming. For the moment, it has escaped the tidying, leveling, modernising that surrounds it.
An analogy suggests itself, that these steps and the undefined space that lies at their base is a little like life. Mostly there is order, predictability, even continuance in life, yet we will always encounter areas of disorder, uncertainty and,
surprise. How do you feel when you step off the sandstone steps? Are you annoyed irritated, worried about your shoes – do you think something should be done to tidy this area up? Or do you find it stimulating, interesting and exciting when the path becomes less defined?
Step down of the step – let your resistance and need for control go, and open yourself up to what is being offered.
For further on resistance click here. And this.

Just Do It.

I get that if you really want to make special/exciting/quality things happen in your life, you can't allow your time to be monopolised by petty chores like cleaning the house. But, as I sat to write a new blog entry, all that came to me was a need to do the dusting.

It seems to me that if there are situations in your life that are constantly giving you stings of annoyance, zaps of irritation, and pangs of guilt, it is just as well to get them done, fixed or cleaned and get back to a happy, productive life. Those irritating grabs of your attention, like dust an inch thick, serve to break good humor and exciting trains of thought (makes me snap at the kids, too).

We sometimes have to accept and accommodate our personalities. Personally I'm unable to think clearly in a messy environment. There is little point philosophising that tidying is not a high priority, because for me it is necessary to my being able to function effectively. So, I make it a priority, try to do it as quickly as possible, and make habits that keep mess to a minimum so that it takes up the least amount of brain space.

Thus, as I dusted, I considered these issues, and found I had a blog entry after all.

Cleaning as a back up job in these times of financial uncertainty? Check blog entry "Don't Panic - It's An Economic Downturn!"

Change Your Life!

When it comes to Lifestyle Design, Timothy Ferriss must be the master. He lives very consciously, ridding his life of what is not necessary, productive or fun, and reducing to a minimum everything but the exciting.


I found Timothy Ferriss in a bookshop, in the pages of his best seller The Four Hour Work Week, and you can gain a huge shift in your approach to life by reading it. However, the book lead me to his website, and a world of amazing lifestyle changing information, and how to's. At www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog you can learn the art of letting bad things happen. The formulas for more output and less overwhelm. How to loose 20 pounds in 30days. How to change bad habits. How to learn a language in 3 months. The best swimming style. How to be more productive at work, and get more time at home.
Ferriss is constantly experimenting and logging his findings in lifestyle design, and it all makes for very entertaining and inspirational reading.

Find something to inspire you today, perhaps something from The Spiritual Journey Guide for Single Mothers.

Resistance is Futile

Resist: to withstand or fight against. I am starting to believe that resistance to our lives is a very large part of the dissatisfaction we can often feel. We don't want to go to work, we don't want to be at work, or working. We don't want to clean, cook, or wash the clothes. We don't want to deal with the kids nagging, do the shopping, or spend time with those people.

When you think about it, our thoughts and our speech is full of resistance to what is, what needs to be done, our lives.



While we are dissatisfied with what we are doing, resentful and annoyed, irritated and angry, it is not possible to be happy too. While consumed with our general resistance we close ourselves off to contentment, satisfaction, love.

My son was sick a little while ago – just a bug. He vomited a couple of times, and had a temperature. But it was his resistance to being sick that made it the most unpleasant for him. “Why am I sick, what is the matter with me? Look, I am shaking, my teeth are chattering!” I was soothing him by letting him know it was just a bug, and I was there to take care of him. I wasn't worried, he wouldn't be sick for long. Yet, he resisted, making himself sicker, more anxious, more uncomfortable. The next day, we spoke about how much worse his resistance to being sick had made it, and that he should try to imagine being a jelly when unpleasant things were happening. To just be a blob, going with the flow, with muscles and thoughts relaxed. We joked about being a jelly, and showed my daughter jellies on the floor. I am sure the next time he is sick he will resist again, but I hope the imagery will come back to him some time when he needs it, my words and pictures in his mind.

And so, I think we need to spend a little more time being jellies. We may find that what we have been resisting in life is not as bad as we thought – that our resistance was the worst part of it. Or use those times to practice Mindfulness, a Buddhist practice of being fully present in the moment, and being completely involved in NOW. Or, by loosing our resistance we may find the quiet of the space left behind holds the answers we need when change is necessary.


Excerpt from The Spititual Journey Guide for Single Mothers on Mindfulness:(Pdf file, to open when clicked)