The answer to the dilemma of balance must be found within. To remain part of the world and yet maintain a spiritual practice is the crux of the dilemma that all must contend with at some point in life if one is on an evolutionary journey. This dilemma of balance is both critical and necessary, as well as a practical process. How much in the world is it necessary to be, and how much in the spiritual world is desirable? What is the perfect balance? For each individual, the weighing of this dilemma will be different and very personal. It is dependent on where one is in life, the deeper work already done, the work still to do, and the ever-present needs of the physical self in the physical world.
The best advice lies always within the self. Keep in mind that while you live upon that earth plane you must be part of life. If you did not need physical reality you would not be there. So, as you exist so must you challenge yourself to experience life as a physical being and all that that means. Do not restrict out of fear or reluctance, or overindulge either. Yet do accept yourself as a physical, emotional being with needs and desires. Entice and nourish this emotional being as much as you encourage your physical body to eat, exercise, sleep, and attend to the necessities of life.
Balance of the serious, the playful, and the spiritual is necessary for life to flow most naturally. Engage in life, for it may be your last chance, as you just might be evolving out of the physical realm into another realm. Give it all you’ve got!
When faced with a decision, weigh all options. Ask the self to back down from judgments, of self and other, so that only the facts are laid before you. Ask the mind to stop its usual chatter, its usual condemnations, the usual things it tells you, so that you may sit in the silence of your knowing self. Present the options, the pros and cons, of your decision to your knowing self and then sit in the silence and wait. Important decisions deserve patience, so take the time to allow the silence of the knowing self to work through them, to embrace all that is, to sit and mull through all that is presented so that unadulterated clarity may be achieved.
Sit in the silence of the knowing self for as long as it takes for the right decision to rise to the surface and make itself known. It may not be the decision you’d automatically make. However, if the silence of the knowing self is allowed to do its work properly, it will clearly be the right one. The challenge then will be to act on it. For the betterment of all involved, proceed with kindness, knowing that a decision can impact many lives simultaneously. As you carry out the decision of your knowing self, stay connected to your knowing self and you will be provided with the compassion to act gracefully.
We all have inherent wisdom within the body temple… – Photo by Jan Ketchel
Deep work on the self is inevitably accompanied by equally deep encounters with anxiety. Heightened anxiety states not only shut down our ability to explore and process our self-discoveries, but often become a major preoccupation, taking most of our energy and attention to manage.
Inherent in our body are physical movements that regulate our anxious states. When we dream our eyes move rapidly back and forth as we put to rest disturbing experiences from our days. This is an unconscious, built-in body movement that regulates our anxiety every day. Without this body processing function, our lives would be overrun by the anxiety of one long run-on sentence without the punctuation of completion and rejuvenation that our daily dreams provide us with.
The Shamans of Ancient Mexico discovered, in their dreaming, the Magical Pass of Recapitulation. This pass also involves a back and forth movement, similar to the rapid eye movement of dreaming, though not just of the eyes, but of the entire head. This movement is accompanied by an inhalation and an exhalation as the head sweeps from side to side. Those shamans discovered that those movements could be consciously performed to put troubled life experiences to rest, whereby reducing anxiety through release of energetic attachment to the past.
Francine Shapiro inadvertently discovered the same bilateral mechanism inherent in the body in what has come to be known as EMDR. In EMDR, like in shamanic recapitulation, anxiety is reduced through bilateral movement that enables processing and putting traumatic experiences to rest.
The ancient Hindus discovered many body poses and breathing techniques to master the central nervous system, which manifests anxiety. They came to call these body practices yoga. One such breathing technique is called Nadhi Sadhana or alternate nostril breathing.
In this pranayama exercise, using our right hand, we close off the right nostril with our thumb while breathing in through the left nostril. When the inhalation is complete, we close off the left nostril with the ring finger, in effect gently pinching the nose closed for a brief pause, before lifting the thumb and exhaling through the right nostril. At the completion of the exhalation we inhale through the right nostril, close it off with the thumb, pause for a moment with pinched nose before lifting the ring finger and exhaling through the left nostril. This back and forth breathing practice counts as one complete breath. The sequence is repeated, going back and forth through alternate nostrils.
Jan and I practice this breathing at least twice each day for a total of at least twelve complete breaths. Our personal finding is a significant reduction in anxiety, resulting in a calming of the central nervous system that lasts throughout the day. This yoga breathing activates the inborn automatic bilateral movement of dreaming in a conscious way, offering a high level regulation of anxiety.
We do not recommend this breathing to accompany the processing of memories or trauma, as the recapitulation breath takes care of that. However, it is highly effective, if practiced regularly, to reduce the overall tension and levels of stress in the body. And for that we recommend it.
The body is our temple. Though itself mortal, it houses all that we are and all that we will become beyond our mortal lives. The body as temple houses physical movements that we can consciously access and exercise that greatly support our spiritual journeys, and that prepare us for our ultimate life without a body.
Enter the temple of the body self with reverence for its movement wisdom. This is not a mental process, but a physical doing. Do it, and see what happens!
If one is to be satisfied with life, effort must be applied. Intent must be set. Awareness must be maintained. Reminders that one is on a path of change must be constant, made an important part of each day. If one it to live a satisfied life, a life that at the end will have both advanced one and been full of life, love, and experience, then one must live each day with that in mind. A satisfied life will naturally unfold as one opens up to and lives a rich inner life to complement and understand the meaning of life upon that earth. To live a satisfied life is to seek always a path of heart, a path of kindness, and a path of inner exploration. All of these things, as one begins to know the self on ever-deepening levels, will bring a satisfied life.
A warrior seeks knowledge. The warrior knows that knowledge comes from being open and having experiences. The warrior knows that knowledge is to be gained by taking the inner path and the path of heart. The warrior knows that these two paths are really the same path, for they reveal the same things, that the only way a path of heart will unfold in the outer world is by the inner world becoming fully known and experienced. The two worlds are parallel and full of knowledge. This is what the warrior knows and thus the warrior’s search for knowledge is as much internal as external. A path of knowledge is a path of heart; a path of heart is a path of knowledge.
