Greetings!
I created the
Human Doing or Human Being? Create the Life you Desire
workshop and presented it mostly for recovery groups 2000-2010.
We as humans are very good at doing. We even overdo and lose ourselves in busyness. We can easily make small adjustments to experience more inner peace and reduce the hustle and bustle of American life. Let’s go beyond the ordinary to take another step toward an extraordinary yet peaceful you.
Consider how our culture focuses more on doing than being and how that doesn’t match our idea of a spiritual life. We can create more peace and more mindfulness. We can live an intentional spiritual life that is supported by “
Being while Doing
”!
You can embrace the magic of being and doing and recognize when you are doing and how to switch to “Doing while Being”.
Today we hear about living mindfully, therapists encourage it, as do yoga and tai chi instructors.
Mindfulness is staying present in what you do throughout the day.
Doing is easy and even necessary. It is what we do all day every day – eating, walking, working, playing, watching TV, having conversations, driving and much more.
The state of Being, like mindfulness is more challenging because it means staying in awareness, one of the states we experience when we meditate or are deep in contemplation.
The state of Being or higher states of consciousness or in awareness comes with meditation or practices such as tai chi, chi gung, and yoga. Artists experience in their creative periods. Abraham Maslow talked about it in his writings as a state where we lose track of time and are caught up in the joy of the present.
The practices listed above are unique areas of doing which are conducive to the state of “being”. In addition, some people do it easily and regularly while gardening, while dancing, or while hiking.
Being mindful while doing daily work, tasks, chores and errands is the most challenging. Mindfulness means not unpleasantly reactive while driving. Or staying in the state of Being while listening to the news or while working.
It is possible however to make progress. For example, when I move into the state of Being – open to source or guidance and write, then there is an ease and flow to the writing process. If I don’t move into Being while writing it feels forced and is surprisingly difficult considering I have written three books.
My new area of practice is to remain in the state of Being while I vacuum. It’s a task where I used to complain to myself as I did it and found unpleasant consequences like back pain. Now I practice getting into higher states of consciousness while I vacuum and return to inner peace each time I lose it. I find it requires great focus.
By the time you complete the activity, you will have your own self-designed plan to live more mindfully.
Love and light, Lynne
