Posted by John Crutchfield on January 25, 2010

Hi Everyone!

OK

So it’s been….how many days/weeks/etc. since I posted? Hmmm….well

The best thing I can say to that is…Here is now and now is here.

And so, on with the answer to the last posting’s question:

Q: What is one thing common to every spiritual practice, religion, and miracle on planet earth?

And….the answer is………

A: Awareness!

For example, I’m aware right now that I’m feeling a collection (or pattern) of sensory data (or ‘feelings’) in certain areas of my body and my name for this pattern of feelings I would call, a combo of anxious and irritable.

Now I recall first being distracted by these feelings earlier after thinking about a bad story about myself where I was a total loser because it’s been ‘so long’ since I posted last and having had a lot of experience in self-criticism it began to degrade into a downwards spiral beginning with:

“Speaking of awareness, are you aware that it’s been nearly x weeks since the last post?”blah, blah, blah, bad, worse, impossibly worse, etc.…

You know how it goes….I call it,

The Bummer Mantra…otherwise known as “Everything’s Wrong”

Which is kind of the opposite of that buddhist chant which goes:

Gate Gate

Paramgate

Parasamgate

Bodhisvaha!

(rough English translation:

Gone, gone. Gone, gone, gone to the Other Shore,

All praises to the attaining of the Other Shore whilst having never left! )

I also like, “Gone, Gone, Beyond the beyond, further than beyond, Hail the goer!”

Anyway, the Bummer Mantra is not a feeling anyway, but thought or a concept… So, let me get back on track to observing those body feelings…

Writing about them tends to attract my attention to them and, as usual, after I observe some feeling for a short or medium while, it usually dissolves (such is the fleeting nature of physical sensation.) And so those feelings have pretty much dispersed and now I can move on with what I’m interested in telling you….which is about a few things regarding awareness.

So what about Awareness?

A fundamental key to learning anything, Awareness (as in Self-Awareness or Self-Observation) is the doorway to the direction of what you want to be/do/have.

Many of us don’t think often or consciously about questions like, “How do we learn?”  “Can we learn faster (as in instantaneously?)” “Is there an easier way to do this?”, etc.

However, this is one of the oldest & simplest approaches to personal growth/self-improvement.

Often our success lies in asking the right questions.

For example simply paying attention to the present moment and all it includes can actually afford one with an excellent appraoch to absolutely anything!

Try it..right now…it’s reALLy simple & EASY!

Here’s how (aka The Awareness Game) :

Breathe in and out 2 rimes and then on number 3 relax/release all your muscles (as much as you can) as you’re exhaling….

Do this again two more times. In & Out/relax/release. In & Out/relax/release.

Now “take a tour of your body”, so to speak, scanning/observing your body from the top or the head to the soles of the feet…or any section or area you like in the time you make available to play the Awareness Game.

Do this often for short periods of time (1 minute or less) throughout the day. Just as a way to be in the moment as it were. To be present with your body and any unconscious thing you might be doing unintentionally such as hunching your shoulders when you’re typing on a computer, or crunching your shoulder to hold the telephone to your ear while you do something else with your hand (write/shuffle parpers/etc.)

Fact:

Any time, somenwhere on this planet, someone is practicing/experiencing self-awareness.

When we do the same (practice self-observation) we are joining with our family of humans in this endeavor and contributing energy and  momentum to the overall growth fractal and evolution of the human species. This is good.

Today’s new motto::

“Things go better with growth!”

I’ll be continuing this subject in the next post.

In the meantime, please post any thoughts you might have on this and we can all benefit.

Update on the DVD project:

Currently I have what’s come to be called a “World School” edit of the DVD which is all of the instructional content on the Foot Freedom Self-Reliant Foot Massage DVD plus a number of references to the World School of Massage and Holistic Healing Arts in northern California interspersed throughout the video. This works fine for the World School bookstore, but for the rest of the earth, I need to edit it so that the final version is essentially neutral (no references to specific businesses) and can therefore be in anyone’s bookstore/website/dr’s office/spa/etc.

To that end I’ve been in the process of acquiring the software to edit the project (I’m really committed to the self-reliance aspect of this particular project.) The good news is that it’s almost here and should be ready within the month. This is super exciting to me! I can see it on the horizon and it’s getting closer each day!!!

I’ll keep you posted on the progress as it develops.

O.K. Let’s all pause for a moment, take a few breaths and scan our shoulders and spine areas. Can we relax anything any more than it already is when we exhale each time right now??

That’s it for now….on with the show…and more later.

Peace & Love

JC =0)